Want to look good — and feel even better? Try strength training. You'll build strength, improve your muscle tone and boost your self-esteem.
Strength Training is when you perform exercises with resistance to build muscle mass and strength. Strength training is not running on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike, or using an elliptical machine. Although those types of aerobic machines use "resistance" to increase your workout intensity, it's not the same as strength training. The most common form of strength training is lifting weights. Weight lifting can include free weights, machines, elastic bands, body weight or any other form of resistance.
Why is strength training the real key to burning off body fat? The reason is because muscle tissue is the most metabolically active tissue in the body and burns up to 50 calories per pound! That means if you can add 5 extra pounds of solid muscle to your body, you will burn an extra 250 calories every day just sitting around! In a recent study, researchers found that regular weight training boosts basal metabolic rate by about 15%. Use strength training to turn your body into a fat burning, muscle building machine!
10 Quick Tips To Help You Get Started:
1. Remember to warm up. Warming up gives the body a chance to deliver plenty of nutrient rich blood to areas about to be exercised, to actually warm the muscles and lubricate the joints.
2. Stretch - Increases or maintains muscle flexibility.
3. During the first week of starting an exercise program keep it light. Work on technique-good body mechanics and slowly work up to heavier weights.
4. Quick tips to maintain good body mechanics: go through the complete range of motion, move slowly and with control, breathe, and maintain a neutral spine. Never sacrifice form just to add more weight or repetitions.
5. The intensity of your workout depends on a number of factors, including the number of sets and repetitions, the overall weight lifted, 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 is not a good way to determine your intensity when lifting weights, it is important to listen to your body based on an overall sense of feeling of exertion.
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 get more overall gains with more days per week, sets and resistance, but the progression is one in which you must listen to your body.
8. Strength training session are recommended to last one hour or less.
9. As a general rule, each muscle that you train should be rested one to two days before being exercised further in order for the fatigued muscles to rebuild.
10."No pain, no gain." This statement is not only false, but can be dangerous. Your body will adapt to strength training, and will reduce in body soreness each time you workout.
What Exercises Should You Do?
If you don't know much about weight 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. If you're a beginner, you only need to choose 1-2 exercises for each muscle group in the upper body and 3-4 moves for the lower body.
-Chest: bench press, chest press machine, pushups, pec deck machine
(Bench Press) (Chest Press Machine) (Push Ups)
(Peck Deck)
-Back: seated row machine, back extensions, lat pulldowns
(Seated row) (Back Etensions) (Lat Pull Downs)
-Shoulders: overhead press, lateral raise, front raise
(Overhead Press) (Lateral Raise) (Front Raise)
-Biceps: bicep curls, hammer curls, concentration curls
(Bicep Curls) (Hammer Curls) (Concentration Curls)
-Triceps: tricep extensions, dips, kickbacks
(Tricep Extension) (Dips) (Kick Backs)
-Lower Body: Squats, lunges, leg press machines, deadlifts, calf raises
(Squats) (Lunges) (Leg Press)
(Dead Lifts) (Calf Raises)
-Abdominals: crunches, reverse crunches, oblique twists, pelvic tilts
(Crunches) (Reverse Crunches) (Oblique Twist)
(Pelvic Tilt)
Strength Training Principles:
Overload: To see gains in strength 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.
Specificity: Gains you receive are dependent on the muscle group used, and movement pattern performed.
-Strength (maximal force): If you are interested in strength gains you want to train with higher weights and closer to your 1 RM.
-Endurance (submaximal force that is repeated): If you are interested in gains in endurance, you should concentrate on lifting lower weights and higher repetitions.
Arrangement:
-Warm-up - the warm-up should be "sport specific". In other words, if you are performing the bench press, begin your warm-up with a light intensity and perform 8-10 reps.
-Stretch - it is important to stretch to promote increased blood flow to the muscles, and to increase flexibility, range of motion and decrease the risk of injury.
-Workout - work larger muscle groups first, then smaller muscle groups.
-Cool-down - keeps the body active and prevents pooling of blood in the extremities. The cool-down is done at a lower intensity.
Breathing: When lifting weight or working muscles against resistance, exhale through the mouth as you are performing the work. Caution: Failure to breathe correctly during heavy weight lifting 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. 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 program please see your physician or family doctor....
