When we sign up for a gym membership we usually have the idea that we are going to build some intense and amazing looking muscle, and sculpted arms. Many of us fail to think about the actual type of muscle that we will be building. Unfortunately weightlifting only affects veneer muscles or the “glamour muscles”, these are the muscles that you are going to see, but are not actually as useful in everyday situations. So if you want to build some effective muscles you are going to have to train your body down to the core.
Traditionally this is done by body weight exercises and other routines like yoga, but there is a new way to build core muscle. This new routine is known as balance lifting. This is something that you will incorporate with your dumbbells. Instead of standing or sitting when you do your curls, try doing standing on one leg. This is immediately going to give you tension all the way through your leg and into your torso. When you balance you force the deepest muscles in your body to be worked to max potential. These muscles do not build muscle mass, but rather shrink your body and make it tight. This is a great way for women to tighten their stomach, and get those flat abs that they have always wanted.
Depending on the amount of weight you are lifting with, the intensity of the workout will vary. If you have fifty pounds in each hand, unlikely, than you are going to be putting a lot of tension on your core, but if you only have five pound weights you probably won’t be impacting too much.
Find a happy medium for yourself, if you are a very small women, who does not want to build any muscle mass, then five pounds may be the perfect amount for you. If you are male, then you should not touch the 5 pound weights, you need to be exercising with at least 15 pounds, and that is still very light; I just didn’t want to offend anyone who can’t lift a decent amount of weight.
When you start to bring balance into play you strengthen your core muscles and tighten your body. This isn’t just going to make you smaller and stronger, but it is going to make it easier to lift more faster. For a perfectly well rounded exercise you should start incorporating balance into your weight lifting. You will be surprised at how fast you start to see and feel results.