Me man. Man lift heavy thing. Put heavy thing down. Lift heavy thing again. Man grow big. Impress woman. Mmmm... man like woman.

This type of thinking is more common than you might expect, with some adopting a "Captain Hardcore" mentality that free weights rule all and weightlifting machines are filled with suck and fail. These are the same types of guys that don't mind dropping several dollars on a single serving of Mega-Plex-Whey-Protein-Isolate-Muscle-Blaster-Sludge-Shake.

I don't pay much attention to them, and neither should you.

Yes, free weights are the best type of weightlifting to engage in because their use reflects a more natural human movement, but that doesn't mean that weightlifting machines don't have uses. Whether it's for exercising your chest, back, arms or legs, there are a lot of good weightlifting machines out there and you shouldn't let some over-muscled "bro" intimidate you out of using them.

Seven Reasons to Use Weight Machines after the jump

To answer the question posed in the title, no, it doesn't; the opposite is true.

Please don't shoot the messenger.

I'm a big fan of exercise for a number of reasons, one of which is that it increases the rate at which you burn calories, but this is just temporary; it ONLY increases the caloric-burning furnace while you're actually engaged in exercise.

Exercise enough so that you "get in shape" and lose a bunch of fat, and your metabolic rate drops. This means you will burn fewer calories while you sleep, while you exercise, while you watch reality TV, or while you do... other stuff.

Bummer.

Think of this: You're in lousy shape and you run a mile. You sweat like crazy, your heart races, your lungs burn etc. Your metabolism is operating at a high level because it's not used to this kind of crap, and your heart and breathing rates stay elevated for a while even after you stop running.

Next scenario: Six months later you weigh less and are in much better shape and you run that same mile. You hardly sweat, your heart rate isn't that high and you aren't breathing very heavy. Also, your metabolic rate returns to normal not long after you stop. Ergo, your metabolism isn't working that hard because it has become accustomed to the exercise.

Guess which mile burned more calories?

Find out more after the jump.

Some run for the pure enjoyment of it, some like to engage in competition, and others see it as a proven method of not looking like the Michelin Man. For many people, including me, it is a combination of these reasons. I'll confess that I'm forever pursuing more abdominal definition, which isn't easy for a beer-loving guy in his forties. While watching what I eat is important, it's the many kilometres of running each week that gives me a visible "four pack."

If you want to succeed at running long-term it's critical to love what you're doing and not just think of it as a means to an end. Realistically, however, many of us want to look good and running is one of the best calorie-burning exercises around. I can do a better job of loving it when I know it's helping eliminate some of the beer and pizza I inhaled the night before. So, what is the best way to run if you want to shed pounds? There are a few caveats such as your level of ability and preventing injury, but once you take those things into consideration the advice is simple: run as fast as you can for as long as you can.

There you go. Class dismissed.

On second though, let's bust one of the most popular myths about using aerobic exercise to burn fat.

After more than 16 years of being a regular gym-goer, I have some tales of pain and woe. Any men who are reading this may wish to cross their legs at this point.

One of the worst was early in my lifting career when I was doing some lateral raises with 15 lb dumbbells. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying close attention to my technique, and rather than stop the weights at my sides I let them clank together right in front of me. During one repetition, they knocked together rather close to my body and severely pinched a highly sensitive part of my male anatomy.

I instantly dropped both dumbbells, one of which landed on my foot. Then I fell to the floor, curled up into a ball, and waited to die.

What followed was a number of embarrassing questions from my fellow gym patrons that I'd rather not get into.

That wasn't the only significant injury I suffered in the gym. Back when personal music devices were the size of lapdogs I often had a walkman cassette player in a fanny pack blasting an all-Rush mix tape. This required regular repositioning of the pack from front to back and vice versa depending on the exercise being engaged in. One time I was sitting back into an incline bench press and had neglected to move the pack to the front of my body. I felt the tape player dig into my low back and my automatic response was to lurch forward. Being that I was holding some rather heavy dumbbells at the time lurching forward caused my low back to go out. I was out of action for a few days from that one.

In case you haven't clued in yet, I'm a pretty clumsy guy.

Learn how to stay safe in the gym after the jump.

If you are looking out the window into blowing snow while wearing your running gear and you say, "This is going to suck," then guess what?

You're right. It is going to suck.

You might think it's going to suck so bad that you'll talk yourself out of going in the first place. Or you might only do half the distance you intend because this run is achieving all new levels of suck. If you tell yourself something is going to suck, then it's going to suck.

I just like writing suck. Suck, suck, suck, suck, suck.

OK, enough of that.

That Little Engine That Could fellow had the right idea. He was the one who said "I think I can," and it turns out that he could, because he engaged in what is called "positive self-talk."

Now, I'm not a follower of The Secret and I don't believe in the Law of Attraction. I don't think that just because you have a positive attitude about something that the universe is going to miraculously reward you for it. However, the widely respected psychological model the Theory of Planned Behaviour dictates that having a good attitude about something and believing you can do it will have a positive impact on sustaining behaviour change, such as adopting a fitness regime.

I'm thinking about writing a book one day called Childersize, because I'm sure that some of the games I play with my kids burn a lot of calories.

Having kids can cause a middle-aged spread in both genders. I've got two young ones and they do their best to drain the life out of me on a daily basis with: kicking them out of bed in the morning, making breakfast and lunches, hustling them off to school, homework, taking them to karate classes, ferrying them to other events like birthday parties, more stupid homework, acting as a referee in the ongoing sibling rivalry death matches, making dinner, hassling them to clean their rooms, and even more [expletive deleted] homework.

Gak! Homework! I hate it more now than when I was a kid. Hmmm... I just realized that I forgot to mention the horrific nightmare that is the bedtime routine. I must be blocking it out.

Kids give love and hugs, and that makes all of the above worth it, but they can actually give you a hand in your exercise routine as well.

Before I continue, I need to insert a disclaimer. I'm not actually suggesting that you do any of the things I do with my kids, because you might drop someone on their head. If you do, then it's your fault, not mine. Don't sue.

If you're not lifting weights, then you should be. And no matter your gender, it needs to be done at a certain level of intensity. You can't just half-ass it the way so many people do. If you decide to do it, get yourself a certified trainer and learn how to do it well.

Earlier this week, I wrote a post that busted the myth about how muscle mass burns extra calories, but it was not meant to discourage you from lifting. While gaining muscle is no magic bullet for fat loss, it has so many other benefits that I believe it should be one of the first exercises of choice for anyone who plans to get in shape, or for those looking to take their fitness to a new level.

Here are just some of the benefits of weightlifting:

Look Better!
Male or female, weightlifting makes you prettier from the neck down. Of course, this can be taken to extreme, but those bulging freakazoids you see on the cover of magazines with the word "muscle" in the title are almost always taking anabolic steroids. As long as you stay clean, you have little to worry about getting too big.

I've trained hard with weights for the last 16 years, yet at six feet tall and 175 pounds, I'm still well within the "normal" range for BMI. I certainly don't look like one of those oily, fake-tanned, body-waxed, Speedo-wearing, over-inflated aliens who participate in bodybuilding competitions. Even with all the effort at building muscle my wife asserts that I'm not too muscular, and she's not known for keeping her opinions to herself.

I consider myself to be pretty from the neck down.

The genetic lottery didn't give me anything close to one of those Brad Pitt type faces, so I work hard to try and look like I've got something of a Fight Club physique to help keep my wife happy.

There are many reasons why you should engage in weightlifting, and my next post is going to elaborate on that in detail, but for this one I wanted to address the issue of how building muscle affects metabolism.

Speaking of Brad, he was pretty ripped in Fight Club, and many believe that having extra muscle mass burns a lot of extra calories, getting you closer to that coveted six pack. The most commonly quoted numbers are that one pound of muscle burns 50 calories a day while at rest. Using that math, if you happen to build ten pounds of muscle through weight training then you would burn an extra 500 calories every single day just by having that muscle hanging around on your body.

I wish it was true, but it isn't.

Hey! Smell my fartlek!

Sorry, but I couldn't resist.

If you're a somewhat competitive runner, then you may have heard about fartlek training before. However, before I explain precisely what a fartlek is, I need to describe some other types of aerobic programs first, because a fartlek is essentially a conglomeration of multiple training methods.

If you are interested in improving your running time (or even cycling or swimming time), then you need to mix up your regimen. What follows are five different types of aerobic training programs to help improve your speed.

Five effective training regimens, after the jump...