Want to look good — and feel even better? Try strength training.You'll build strength, improve your muscle tone and boost yourself-esteem.
What Is Strength Training:
What is Strength Training? It is when you perform exercises with resistance to build muscle mass and strength. Strength trainingis not running on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike, or using an elliptical machine, that is called cardio. Although those types of aerobic machines use "resistance" to increaseyour workout intensity, it's not the same as strength training. Strength training simply put is working out to get stronger as well as bigger. The most common form of strength training is lifting weights. Weight lifting can include freeweights, machines, elastic bands, body weight or any other form of resistance.
What Are The Benefits Of Strength Training:
What are the benefits of strength training? Strength training is the real key to burning off body fat? The reason is because muscle tissue is the most metabolically active tissue in the body andburns up to 50 calories per pound! That means if you can add 5 extra pounds ofsolid muscle to your body, you will burn an extra 250 calories every day justsitting around! In a recent study, researchers found that regular weighttraining boosts basal metabolic rate by about 15%. Use strength training to turnyour body into a fat burning, muscle building machine!
10 Quick Tips To Help You Get Srarted with Strength Training Workouts:
These tips can be used for at home strength training or in the gym
1. Rememberto warm up. Warming up gives the body a chance to deliver plenty of nutrientrich blood to areas about to be exercised, to actually warm the muscles andlubricate the joints.
2. Stretch - Increases or maintains muscleflexibility.
3. During the first week of starting a strength training workout keep it light. Work on technique-good body mechanics and slowly work up toheavier weights.
4. Quick tips to maintain good body mechanics: go through the complete range of motion, move slowly and with control, breathe, andmaintain a neutral spine. Never sacrifice form just to add more weight orrepetitions.
5. The intensity of your strength training workout depends on a number of factors, including the number of sets and repetitions, the overall weightlifted, and the rest between sets. You can vary the intensity of your workout to fit your activity level and goals.
6. Listen to your body. Heart rate isnot a good way to determine your intensity when doing strength training workouts, it is importantto listen to your body based on an overall sense of feeling ofexertion.
7. The MINIMUM amount of strength training recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine is eight to twelve repetitions of eight to ten exercises, at a moderate intensity, two days a week. You will getmore overall gains with more days per week, sets and resistance, but theprogression is one in which you must listen to your body.
8. Strength training workout sessions are recommended to last one hour or less.
9. As a general rule, each muscle that you train during your strength training workouts should be rested one to two days before being exercised further in order for the fatigued muscles torebuild.
10."No pain, no gain." This statement is not only false, but can be dangerous. Your body will adapt to strength training workouts, and will reduce in body soreness each time you workout.
Strength Training Workouts:
If you don't know much about strength training, consider hiring a personal trainer to help you set up your program. You should work all of your muscle groups each week so that you avoid muscle imbalances, which could lead to injury.
Below is a list of muscle groups along with sample exercises for Strength Training workouts, and all are good for at home strength training. If you're a beginner, you only need to choose 1-2 exercises for each muscle group in the upper body and 3-4 exercises for the lower body.
-Chest: bench press, chest pressmachine, pushups, pec deck machine
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Back: seated row machine, back extensions, latpulldowns
-Shoulders: overhead press, lateral raise, front raise
-Biceps: bicep curls, hammer curls, concentration curls
-Triceps: tricep extensions, dips, kickbacks
-Lower Body: Squats, lunges, leg press machines,deadlifts, calf raises
-Abdominals: crunches, reverse crunches, oblique twists,pelvic tilts
Strength Training Workout Principles:
Overload: To see gains in strength while performing strength training workouts you must always stimulate the muscle more than it is accustomed to.
Progression: The active muscle must continue to work against a gradually increasing resistance in order to meet overload to see the benefits of strength training.
Specificity: Gains you receive are dependent on the muscle group used, and strength training workouts performed.
-Strength(maximal force): If you are interested in strength gains you want to train withhigher weights and closer to your 1 RM.
-Endurance (submaximal force thatis repeated): If you are interested in gains in endurance, you shouldconcentrate on lifting lower weights and higherrepetitions.
Arrangement of Strength training Workouts:
-Warm-up - thewarm-up should be "sport specific". In other words, if you are performing thebench press, begin your warm-up with a light intensity and perform 8-10reps.
-Stretch - it is important to stretch to promote increasedblood flow to the muscles, and to increase flexibility, range of motion anddecrease the risk of injury.
-Workout - work larger muscle groupsfirst, then smaller muscle groups.
-Cool-down - keeps the bodyactive and prevents pooling of blood in the extremities. The cool-down is doneat a lower intensity.
Breathing: When performing strength training workouts or working muscles against resistance as you would do for strength training, exhale through the mouth as you are performing the work. Caution: Failure to breathe correctly during heavy weightlifting may cause drastic increases in blood pressure that may be harmful.
Most people who work out with weights typically use two different kinds: free weights (including barbells, dumbbells,and hand weights) and weight machines. Both of these are good for at home strength training. Free weights usually work a group of muscles at the same time; weight machines typically are designed to help you isolate and work on a specific muscle.
Whenever starting a new exercise or strength training workout program please see your physician or family doctor....
