Quite often my clients ask me how long does it take to get strong? You want to be strong, in great health condition and fit. You want to have heaps of energy, lose weight and become a fast fat burning machine. Now the issue here is that if you want to lose weight, burn fat faster and get strong, then you need to lift heavy weight.

Why is that so? Because you build strong muscles by doing heavy weight training such as dead lifts, lunges, push-ups, HIIT (High Intensity Interval training) exercises etc.

Now the big question - how do I train my muscles effectively? Where do I exercise to do that? Do I have to go to the gym, a personal trainer's studio or workout at home? Do I have to go to the gym three times a week and lift three sets of ten? How much weight do I lift and how many times do I lift it? That would be a million-dollar question. If you ask ten different fitness professionals, you will probably get ten completely different answers. So how do you know yourself? Common sense logic.

Do you wonder only by overloading your muscles you can get stronger?

Let's have an overview of what is actually real and what could be. So here's what we know for real. To get strong, you have to have strong muscles and for muscles to get strong, they have to be overloaded by heavy weight training. Now, here's the exciting thing about muscles. They are blind, and they can't count. They don't know whether you are lifting logs, rocks, children, rubbish bins, weights, dumbbells, kettlebells or barbells “ it doesn't matter which way a muscle is overloaded, it will get stronger. So if a muscle is capable of lifting 10 kilos and you make it lift 11, it will be forced to get stronger.

So it does, but it doesn't get stronger while you are training. It actually gets weaker while you are training because muscle fibres break down when you overload them, put stress on the muscles. Sounds exciting! It's exactly the same as all human beings get stronger when we get stressed.

What happens is after you have lifted heavy things, regardless of what it is, your muscles will then recover and get stronger. This process takes time. So there comes the magic question. How often should I train?

It's not only your muscles, but also your CNS (central nervous system) has been overloaded. It's not only muscles which have to recover but even your central nervous system. You have got a busy lifestyle. You may not want to go to the gym three times a week, two times a week, once a week. So the recommendation is that you aim to get three really good lifting heavy things sessions. So you aim to overload all the muscles in your body, and that too once a week. Or even ideally three times a month, because that gives you kind of feeling that ˜if I miss a week, that's OK without having to feel guilty or without having someone giving you a hard time. Lifting heavy weight doesn't mean very heavy but at least it should be challenging for your muscles.

Do you know Heavy weight training makes builds muscles?

I'll repeat it if you could lift ten now aim to lift 11 kilos, 12, 15 kilos and lift it as many times as you can because muscles can't count. You just keep going until you can't lift anymore. And if you can do more than, say, 15 to 20, and that doesn't really matter either. However, you just keep going until you can't do any more. And when you come back next time in a week's time - or three times a month - you just aim to do more than you did last time, which is called overload. So if last time you lifted 11 kilos, 11 times this time you aim to lift twelve kilos and lift it more times, or you may choose again to pick 11 kilos and aim to do it 15 to 20 times.

Lift heavy weight and Lose Weight

And once you can do it about 20 times, you need to overload more now because now you can do it too many times. So if you want to get really strong and turn your body into a fat-burning machine, you pick three exercises, one for the front of your body, one for the back of your body and one for your legs. You lift that thing, whatever it is, as many times as you possibly can until you can't do any more.

So it could be a log, a rocket, a child or it could be a fridge. And when you can't do any more, you just record how many did. Next time you come in seven days, ten days, three times a month, you just record what you did this time and aim to do more than you did last time.

So it's really simple, uncomplicated, logical and common sense. Muscles respond to overload. Muscles can't count, muscles are blind. It doesn't matter what you lift, you just have to make sure that you use all the muscles in your body in a functional way. Functional meaning, the stuff that you do every day as a normal part of your life. That would, of course, depend on what kind of life you have.

What if you could be strong and at the constant weight for life?

And then comes the great important question - Fit for what and strong for what? So get every muscle in your body strong, so you are strong for life and turn your body into a fat-burning machine. We call it a tone up. Go and tone up your muscles, get them stronger about minimum three times a month. And how much time do you need to invest? Hardly 20 minutes, maybe less or a bit more. How exciting is it?