Did you know that . . .
1. If you don’t strength train, you will lose an average of 5 pounds of muscle tissue (called disuse atrophy) per decade?
2. You can increase muscle mass by 2-4 pounds and increase muscular strength by 40-60% after only 8-12 weeks of strength training?
3. Loss of muscle tissue results in a decrease in your resting metabolic rate (the number of calories expended at rest)?
4. The slowing of metabolic rate is associated with an increase in body fat?
5. Strength training raises your resting metabolic rate by 7-8% after only a few weeks?
So even if you did strength training just twice a week, you would burn an average of 120 more calories AT REST (this is on top of whatever you earned from the workout) than a non-strength training person. Even if you did nothing else, that would result in an average weight loss of 1 pound in a month.
Now get to it!
aim4wisdom 
I need to get moving. I think I am 98% sloth right now.
The re-entry can be rough, but I promise it gets easier in a relatively short amount of time!
How long does a strength training workout need to be to get the kind of results you mentioned?
Good question! It doesn’t need to be very long at all! For general health and fitness purposes, you could strength train twice a week, doing 6 or 8 exercises, with 2-4 sets and 12-16 reps for best effects. But even one set will produce change. Keep the rest period between sets shorter (about a minute). And use a weight that feels like a 60-70% intensity. When you can comfortably complete the 16 reps at a certain weight, you can go up in weight by about 5%. This kind of workout would be really useful for dragon boaters too. . . . just sayin’. 🙂
There is something oddly joyous about waking up sore the day or two after a great workout.
I couldn’t agree more. . . . it’s the feeling of accomplishment! 🙂
It’s the same with trying to walk down the stairs after a hard 100 mile bike ride. Oddly joyous
Thanks, I totally needed to hear that. You convinced me to dust off those weights!
Yay! 🙂