Exercise helps with weight gain? Well, yes actually.
While exercise is usually seen as a tool for weight loss, it does play an important role in weight gain. More than that, it’s highly recommended to gain healthy weight while building lean muscle through exercise.
Building lean muscle is not just a goal for athletes, body builders or those wanting bigger biceps or abs. Or at least it shouldn’t it be.
When looking to gain weight, gaining just fat isn’t ideal. You may be hurting your health which can lead to chronic conditions like high blood pressure, stroke or Type 2 diabetes. And yes, that can happen even if you’re slim.
What kind of exercise helps with weight gain?
So, does any ol’ exercise help with weight gain? Actually, the best ones for healthy weight gain are body weight exercises and weight training.
I remember I kind of recoiled when I was first encouraged to lift weights many years ago. I thought “Great. I’m going to end up looking like I can enter a Schwarzenegger look-a-like competition.”
A lot of people, especially women think that starting with weights means you’ll get really ripped and masculine looking, but that’s not the case.
Women generally lack the testosterone levels to get really muscular. So don’t worry too much about that.
Of course if you want, you can get really ripped and muscled if that’s your goal, but that requires discipline, many sessions of committed heavy weight training, and a heck of a whole of muscle fueling food.
We’ll cover weight training and body weight exercises in a little bit, but first, let’s talk about cardio exercises.
Now you’ve probably heard of cardio. Cardio exercises are those that get your heart rate up. They are very effective when the end goal is weight loss.
With cardio, you burn quite a number of calories depending on the exercise. Some examples of cardio include running, cycling, soccer, skipping, rowing and group classes like zumba, body attack or step classes among many others.
Cardio is important for everyone and has benefits such as strengthening the heart, reducing the risk of heart disease and lowering blood pressure.
However if you’re trying to gain weight, cardio exercises are best kept to a minimum because the idea is not to torch calories, which is what it does.
Why do we need strong muscles?
So why is muscle important in the body anyway?
Well very simply, the body is made up of over 600 muscles. They allow us to breathe, move, walk, talk, blink, and pick up Leo the cat, in addition to lots of other daily functions.
And don’t forget, the heart which is the organ that keeps us alive is also a muscle, pumping blood all over the body.
Strengthening our muscles empowers our body in many ways which leads to better health. Read more on healthy muscles here. Body weight exercises and weight training both add and strengthen muscle.
Body weight exercises:
These use your body’s own weight as resistance to build strength through movements such as pushing, lunging or pulling. Think of push ups, planks, yoga or sit ups.
These exercises are great for people just starting out with building more muscle as you often don’t need any equipment to do them. You can do them alone in your bedroom or living area.
That’s right. No excuses not to, when you’re not at home.
They are limited in terms of how much muscle you can gain because you are only using the resistance from your own body weight, no more and no less. But they are great for improving strength, endurance and balance.
Weight training exercises:
This type of training uses weights for resistance. Weights here include free weights such as dumbbells and barbells or weight machines. Lifting weights creates a stress to the muscles which gets them bigger and stronger.
You could go for either light weights, heavy weights or a mixture of both. Heavier weights will obviously build more muscle and faster than using light weights.
Weight or resistance training also increases stamina and builds endurance. As your body gets stronger, you’re able to challenge yourself to do even more, and these positive effects spill over to your mental health as well.
Word to the wise here. Incorrect use of weights can result in injuries, so if you are new to weight training, start with an experienced trainer, or join a weights class like body pump to see how it’s done properly and get direction from an instructor.
Other benefits of resistance exercises
Other than overall weight increase, toning up and building muscle, these types of exercises have a number of benefits. Let’s have a look at some of them.
1.Working up a good appetite.
Have you ever felt ravenous after doing some exercise? That’s because it can increase appetite as your body realises you’re burning energy and therefore need more fuel (food) as a result.
Bring on the hunger cues. See here for more tips on how to easily increase your daily calorie intake.
When building muscle, your muscle tissue is tearing and repairing itself. This also helps stimulate your appetite for muscle strength and recovery. You may have seen articles on what to eat straight after a workout for recovery, that’s what they are talking about.
Read more here on why it’s important to fuel your body for exercise.
It goes without saying that an increase in appetite works in favour of your weight gain goals
2. Keeps bones strong and healthy.
The stress applied to muscles during resistance training can build strong bones and increase bone density. Bone is living tissue and like muscle, it can get denser and stronger with resistance training.
As we age, we lose bone density which can lead to conditions such as osteoporosis. This Harvard article explains why weight training is also good for bones.
3. Helps with coordination, balance and posture.
Resistance exercises work your muscles, making you stronger and fitter in carrying out daily activities. Some of these daily activities include walking, lifting, running, climbing stairs etc.
Think about it, quite a large part of coordination and balance depends on the strength of the muscles in your legs, arms, core and back. Good balance and coordination will help with reducing falls, injuries and even ease pain.
Building muscle strength can also help with maintaining good posture, keeping your spine and body properly aligned.
4. Can help with better sleep and better mood.
Exercise is great for the body and the mind.
It helps reduce worry by releasing endorphins during your work out, making you feel more relaxed and less stressed. Also, using up energy while exercising makes you feel tired. The combined lowered stress and tiredness can help you sleep better.
5. A more toned appearance and improved body confidence
Resistance training can help you achieve a more toned and sculpted look which can be transformative for the body and mind. After all this is one reason why people would try to gain weight.
This is important for a lot of people who are trying to gain weight, and will improve self-esteem and confidence. Alongside that your body just becomes physically stronger and healthier.
What exercises do I do?
Everyone’s goals are slightly different and they will have (or discover) their own favourite techniques or what works for them.
Personally what works for me has been a mixture of body weight exercises, light weights and a little cardio.
I do lunges and toning workouts, yoga, push ups and use resistance bands. I also like body pump classes.
Body pump uses light weights with many repetitions (between 800-1000 reps in a class). This is different to heavier weights which need few repetitions, but which will build you much more bulk.
Other than that, I walk lots, and also like some group cardio classes. These classes do burn lots of calories however I don’t do them often, and increase my liquid calorie intake when I do go. See How to gain weight by drinking calories for more on this.
Happily I can also report to not looking like a gladiator, which was never my goal.
So go ahead and use exercise as a tool for healthy weight gain. You won’t be sorry and you might just get addicted.