If building strength and burning calories is your goal, weightlifting might be your new best friend. While it’s often seen as just a muscle-building method, weightlifting can torch serious calories—especially when done right. Whether you’re lifting heavy or mixing in high-rep circuits, this powerhouse workout does more than sculpt lean muscle.

Curious how many calories you’re actually burning when you hit the weights? Let’s break it down and find out just how effective your strength sessions really are.

What Are The Benefits Of Weightlifting?

Weightlifting goes beyond just building muscle; it offers a variety of physical, mental, and long-term health advantages. It helps you gain lean muscle, speeds up your metabolism, aids in fat loss, and strengthens your bones and joints, which can help prevent injuries and conditions like osteoporosis.

Moreover, regular strength training can enhance your posture, balance, and daily functional movements. On the mental side, it can reduce stress, improve your sleep, and elevate your confidence and mood. Over the years, weightlifting contributes to healthy aging, keeps you mobile, and lowers the risk of chronic diseases, benefiting people of all ages and fitness levels.

Which Weightlifting Classes Burn The Most Calories?

Village Health & Wellness Clubs offer a great range of weightlifting and strength-focused classes to suit all levels. From full-body barbell workouts like Les Mills BodyPump to high-intensity strength intervals like Les Mills Grit Strength, these classes are designed to help you improve muscle definition, boost metabolism, and feel stronger with every session. 

Interested in knowing which Les Mills class burns the most calories overall? See our Les Mills classes calorie guide.

If you’re looking to burn the most calories, both BodyPump and Body Attack are great options offering a high-energy cardio workout alongside strength-based exercises. If you’re short on time and want intensity, Grit Strength offers a powerful 30-minute workout that burns up to 400 calories, with an afterburn effect that torches calories long after your workout. 

Your own specific fitness goal, however, is really what matters to get the right results for you. Below, we breakdown each strength class we offer in our gyms.

→ Find out if we have a gym near you, or book a tour at your local Village Health and Wellness Club to check our cutting edge gym equipment, pool, wellness facilities and more!

Strength Classes In A Nutshell

BodyPump | 560 Calories Burned

Looking for a high-energy, full-body workout that delivers serious results? BodyPump could be your perfect fit. In just 55 minutes, you can burn up to 560 calories while building lean muscle that helps fire up your metabolism—even after the workout ends.

This class uses a proven technique known as The Rep Effect: lifting moderate weights for high repetitions to shape and tone your body without adding bulk. You’ll move through targeted tracks that focus on major muscle groups—legs, chest, back, arms, and core—keeping your heart rate up and your body challenged from start to finish.

Set to motivating music, BodyPump helps you tone up, burn fat, and improve strength, all in one efficient session. It’s no wonder it’s one of the most popular classes at Village Gym—especially for those aiming to lose weight, boost endurance, and transform their overall fitness.

→ Take a look at the best fitness classes to lose weight.

Les Mills Grit | 400 Calories Burned

Les Mills Grit is a powerful 30-minute HIIT workout designed to burn up to 400 calories per session. Thanks to the EPOC effect (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), your body continues burning calories for up to nine hours after you finish, making it an incredibly effective fat-burning workout.

At Village Gym, we offer three variations: GRIT Strength, GRIT Cardio, and GRIT Athletic. GRIT Strength uses barbells, weight plates, and bodyweight moves to build power and lean muscle. GRIT Cardio focuses on fast-paced bodyweight exercises to boost endurance and calorie burn, while GRIT Athletic combines bench work and plyometric training to develop speed, strength, and agility.

Each GRIT class is designed to push your limits and deliver maximum results in minimal time. Whether your goal is fat loss, muscle definition, or improved performance, GRIT offers a challenging, high-energy session that keeps your body working long after you leave the studio.

This Les Mills study gives you more information on the benefits of Les Mills GRIT HIIT workouts.

Les Mills Strength Development | 400-500 Calories Burned

Strength Development is a 45-minute workout designed to help you build muscle, increase strength, and boost your confidence with weightlifting. Ideal for beginners and experienced lifters alike, the class focuses on proper technique and progressive overload, burning up to 500 calories per session.

Beyond muscle gain, strength training offers a range of benefits including a faster metabolism, improved fat loss, and stronger bone density, helping to prevent osteoporosis and reduce injury risk.

Tone | 450 Calories Burned

Tone by Les Mills is a dynamic 45-minute workout that blends strength training, cardio, and core-focused exercises to help you burn up to 450 calories per session. Designed to challenge your entire body, this class boosts fat loss, builds functional strength, and improves balance, agility, and flexibility.

With a variety of movements and intensity options, it's suitable for all fitness levels and keeps your body guessing every time. Whether you're looking to tone up, improve your core, or simply enjoy a well-rounded workout, Tone delivers results in a fun, fast-paced format.

BodyAttack | 675 Calories Burned

A high-energy cardio workout, a BodyAttack class can burn up to 675 calories in a 55-minute session. Designed to boost fitness and endurance, it also helps improve your body’s ability to burn calories long after class ends. 

The workout combines athletic movements like running, lunging, and jumping with strength-based exercises such as push-ups and squats for a full-body challenge. With options for all fitness levels, it’s perfect for both beginners and seasoned gym-goers. Set to motivating music and led by inspiring instructors, BodyAttack delivers results—and keeps you coming back for more.

→ Find out about Boxercise for weight loss.

Circuits | 450 Calories Burned

Increase your strength and aerobic fitness whilst blitzing plenty of calories with circuit training classes.

This type of fitness class offers plenty of variety so expect lots of varied exercises including squat jumps, push ups, burpees and side shuffles targeting all muscle groups, as well as the use of compound lifts. 

Burn HIIT | 300-450 Calories Burned

Looking to keep your workouts fresh and exciting? Burn HIIT includes seven different focuses including strength, stamina, speed, power, agility, core and tabata elements in our fitness classes.

In just 30 minutes, you can burn up to 450 calories with a potential for burning even more thanks to the extended afterburn effect. During a session you’ll learn free weight lifting techniques with an expert instructor and enjoy all the benefits of a full-body workout, even with a shorter session.

→ What To Wear For Your Fitness Class

Power Up Your Workouts with Village Gym

Ready to build strength and boost your fitness? Explore our strength training classes at Village Health & Wellness Clubs and find the perfect fit for your goals. 

Whether you're lifting for the first time or looking to push your limits, our classes are designed to help you get stronger, leaner, and more confident with every session.

Take a look at our fitness class timetable and book your session online or via the Village Gym app!