Strength Training

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Proper strength training will tone your muscles and improve your appearance. With a regular strength- training program, you can reduce body fat, increase lean muscle mass and burn calories more efficiently. Two to three strength training sessions a week lasting about 30 minutes are sufficient.

Lifting weight increases your muscle strength and reverses the loss of muscle tissue as we age. It is especially important for women to strength train since it increases bone-mineral density. By age 40, many women will have lost about 12 percent of their muscle tissue, and they continue to lose about 1 percent a year. Men usually are about 20 percent heavier than women, due purely to muscle, so they start with an advantage.