5 Surprising Ways Lifting Weights Will Change Your Life

The truth we don’t often hear about weight lifting.

Most people don’t do weight lighting because it makes you look like a bodybuilder.

But from my many years of fitness training, I have realized that weight lifting is a more effective exercise for slimming down because muscle burns more calories than fat even when you’re not working out.

Contrary to what most think, women don’t bulk up like some men do when they lift weights, but rather they become sculpted, toned, lean bodies with curves in all the right places.

Weight lifting doesn’t necessarily mean lifting 50kg dumbbells every day. I prefer doing resistance training and light dumbbells in my weight lifting routine.

But muscle building is not only why I advocate weight lifting, it’s what it does to your mind that makes me love it.

You become more confident in your actions.

I wasn’t always a confident person. I kind of equated what the media thought was beautiful about women to how I should evaluate my own beauty.

Seeing myself progress is incredibly satisfying. When I go to the gym, I can lift either a little bit heavier or do a few more reps, and being able to visibly see myself progress gives me a sense of achievement every time I workout.

That sense of achievement reflects in all other areas of my life, including my career. I feel confident in setting a goal and executing it without negativity getting in my way.

You learn to operate outside your comfort zone.

Challenging your own body is the greatest method for discovering the strength of your mind. This philosophy is more true in strength training.

There were days when I didn’t feel like going to the gym. There were times I didn’t finish my sets. And there were times when everyone in the gym saw me fail.

But I made a commitment to keep showing up every day. As I did, I developed the mental fortitude to get past failure — to work when I don’t feel like it, and discover what makes me mentally and physically strong.

You become consistent with anything you do.

My self-discipline improved when I started challenging myself, lifting more, and tearing down my comfort zone.

With time, that discipline started to spread its roots into other areas of my life. Those close to me say I’m a disciplinarian because I don’t get pushed around. When I say something, I mean it, and I stick to it.

When you learn to stick to a gym regime, you achieve some level of discipline and balance in your life. You will start to notice that consistency in other areas of your life.

You learn to value your self-worth.

When I started doing weightlifting at the gym, I wasn’t overweight, but my body wasn’t in perfect shape as I was very conscious of my looks and what I wore.

I was insecure, and my paranoia kicked in when I walked into the gym. I thought people were laughing and staring at me. This affected my performance initially until I got consistent showing up every day to do one more lift.

Soon I realized people weren’t laughing at me at all. In fact, they were minding their business and hardly noticed anything wrong with my body.

We get in our own heads and beat ourselves up with negative self-talk, introducing negative energy and preventing ourselves from moving forward. Weight lifting changed that mindset for me.

You learn how to establish and maintain boundaries.

From my weight lifting experience, I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter how much weight I can or can’t pull. I can grow and build up strength in whatever way necessary.

There’s a confidence that comes with such wisdom — know when it’s too much weight, confidence enough to know what I can do.

Knowing your body and what it can do will give you the confidence that you can move through physical space with control and competence.

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