Resistance training, skin tightening and cellulite

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• How exercise affects skin firmness / cellulite

• How weight lifting training affects skin firmness and cellulite: does building muscle reduce cellulite?

• Spot cellulite reduction and spot skin tightening with resistance exercise do not exist

• Resistance training vs cardiovascular training for skin tightening and cellulite reduction

• Lifting weights for cellulite prevention and to maintain skin firmness

• Very intensive weight training for faster results, perhaps?

• Weight lifting tones up muscles, not skin

• In summary

• Check our professional consultancy in radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening

How exercise affects skin firmness / cellulite

There are two ways in which exercise impacts skin tightness and smoothness:

• Exercise with some impact provides mechanical stimulation to the skin. Examples of such exercise are running, walking and most sports that involve walking/running/jumping. Swimming does not involve any impact but its micro-massage to the skin still provides valuable mechanical stimulation. Mechanical stimulation leads to collagen and elastin synthesis at the fibroblast level, which leads to skin tightness and elasticity, respectively.

• Exercise also helps burn calories and therefore fat, including cellulite fat. This happens both during the exercise session and throughout the day, due to increased metabolism. This can include any type of high intensity exercise, such as high intensity cardio and high intensity resistance training. Low intensity exercise is overall less effective, but still valuable.

How weight lifting affects skin firmness and cellulite

Resistance training, specifically, if practised at high intensity (heavy weights and/or long sessions) can help burn calories and boost metabolism. And this will have a positive effect on cellulite.

But due to it being largely static, resistance training does not provide much mechanical stimulation for collagen / elastin synthesis. So don’t expect much skin tightening to occur with resistance training. Not soon at least. You will tone up your muscles with weight training, but not your skin.

In the long run (we are talking about months and years, not days and weeks) your skin firmness will benefit from the overall anabolic effect of weight training and that is important in the long term. Just don’t expect results next month.

Spot cellulite reduction and spot skin tightening with resistance exercise do not exist

As we have analysed in previous articles, you cannot direct the effect of resistance exercise, or ANY type of exercise, on a specific area. This applies to both cellulite reduction and skin tightening.

Spot cellulite reduction / skin tightening with ANY type of resistance exercise is biologically impossible. You can indeed improve overall body cellulite/skin looseness, but not topically.

For topical cellulite/skin firmness improvement you need:

• Deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency and high-power ultrasound cavitation. Nothing else works (if anything else really worked we would already offer it at the clinic).

• A real cellulite cream, i.e. a cream with multiple, high-purity, high-concentration actives, well researched for the their action against multiple aspects of cellulite and skin looseness (again, low concentration, low purity or 1-2 diluted ingredients don’t work)

Resistance training vs cardiovascular training for skin tightening and cellulite reduction

So, can you firm up your skin and lose cellulite just with resistance/weight training? Sure, to some extent and over a long period time.

However, cardiovascular exercise will typically provide much more mechanical stimulation and more more calorie burning, for faster/better results.

Both types of exercises are needed for a balanced fitness result in the long run, but cardio will help more for both cellulite and skin tightening than weight training.

Lifting weights for cellulite prevention and to maintain skin firmness

As we mentioned above, prevention/maintenance is a different matter altogether.

So can you stay firm and cellulite free for life with resistance training?

Absolutely, always in combination with healthy nutrition.

However, ideally you should still add some cardiovascular training, because resistance training is never enough for your body and overall health. Your heart and vascular system need a workout too.

Is exercise - resistance or cardio - essential while you receive a cellulite treatment, in order to achieve maximum results? Absolutely, healthy nutrition is not enough, you need both exercise and healthy eating for best results.

Very intensive weight training for faster results, perhaps?

Can resistance training offer you fast results in relation to skin tightening and cellulite?

• For skin tightening: no, it won’t, unless you train twice a day, five days a week

• For cellulite: yes, it will, due to increased calorie burning and metabolism stimulation

And still, adding healthy nutrition and replacing some training sessions work CV training will offer, faster, better, healthier results.

(Just don’t “burn out”, due to excessive training.)

Weight lifting tones up muscles, not skin

As we mentioned above, resistance training tightens muscles, not skin.

For fast skin tightening there is nothing better than deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency. If I had to compare the two, deep, strong RF is probably 20+ times better and faster for skin tightening than weight training (obviously RF does’t work for muscles).

In summary

So, all in all, a combination of resistance and CV training, together with a healthy diet is excellent for maintenance and slow improvement, when it comes to cellulite / skin tightness.

For faster results, combine the above with some deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency, high-power ultrasound cavitation and a real cellulite cream.

Check our professional consultancy in radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening

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