TomO
0
Had to share this paragraph from the latest article in T-Nation:
Calorie Burning During Weightlifting: Re-written! Here we see work from Rob Robergs and his research group in New Mexico really shaking things up (as they are wont to do). It appears as though quantifying the energy cost of resistance training has been seriously "under-supported by empirical evidence."
One tough factor to consider, of course, is getting a weightlifter into "steady state" in order to assess calorie expenditure accurately. That is, imagine me standing next to you in a lab coat and calmly asking you to steadily squat or bench, near your max, at a 20-reps per-minute pace for several minutes straight. It just ain't gonna happen.
So, these clever guys are having experienced lifters (another bonus for extrapolating the data to all of us) use 3- 25% of their maxes so they can keep going long enough to get good metabolic data.
By plotting a regression line at multiple points in this low range, the researchers can extend it out beyond 25% to say, 70% or 85% or more. Now, the predictability of caloric cost out to high loads isn't perfect, but here's the conclusion: Your heavy weight training bouts may be burning two to three times more calories than you have been told! Wow... just wow!