Overweight people may generally get less benefit from strength training than others who enjoy a normal weight, which means such exercises must be tailored to meet their unique needs, a new study suggests.

But fitness experts urged those of us carting around too many pounds not to give up on weightlifting, because we can still reap many benefits from the exercises.

However, based on their study, fitness experts from universities and healthcare facilities from Connecticut to Florida said overweight people may need a long-term, less rigorous, whole-body resistance-training program to get the most benefits from such exercises. Strength training is also known as “resistance training.”

'Maximize the benefits'

“Clearly, additional investigation is warranted to determine what adjustments, if any, may need to be made in the exercise prescriptions of people who are overweight and obese to maximize the benefits that they experience from resistance training,” the researchers write in the latest Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

Since not much is known about the benefits – or lack of them – of resistance training in overweight people, the researchers began the 12-week program involving nearly 700 adults 18 to 39, nearly half of whom were overweight or obese. The participants underwent several strength-training exercises involving their arms.

According to the findings, gains in peak muscle strength in overweight people were about four percent to 17 percent less than in people with normal weights. The difference results from skeletal, muscular and metabolic problems caused by excess body fat that thwart an overweight person’s ability to perform the strength-training activities adequately to get the most benefit, researchers said.

But what about those exercise 'drinks?' 

Meanwhile, a related study in the same Journal suggests that drinking a carbohydrate and protein supplement prior to and during resistance training won’t help you lift heavier weights, but  may significantly reduce muscle damage. Such drinks could possibly allow people – from rookies to gym rats – to ratchet up the intensity of their resistance training, fitness experts at the University of Texas in Austin said.

According to the findings, 90 percent of the people in the study who took the carb-protein supplements reported that they were less sore after working out, compared to 56 percent of the people in a group of people who drank placebo supplements for comparison’s sake.

However, the researchers warn to watch out for those carbs in the supplements, and figure them into your overall dietary consumption of carbohydrates so you don’t gain weight.

The phrase “resistance training” refers to trying to boost the strength of your muscles by pitting them against a weight or force. We engage in resistance training through free weights, such as dumbbells or barbells; weight machines; resistance bands that allow us to perform certain exercises; and sit-ups, abdominal curls, push-ups and chin-ups.

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