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One of the most important forms of exercise is weight strength training. Otherwise known as toning exercise or resistance training, it can be one of the most confusing too. This type of training requires exercises to be performed against a resistance like a weight, exercise band toyour own body weight.
It is so important because muscles are the calorie burning centre of the body. Even at rest your muscles will burn calories and weight strength training can radically improve this rate to burn more calories.
The benefits of weight strength training are as follows:
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Reshapes your Body
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Increases Metabolism
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Increases Bone Density
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Improves Posture
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Increases Strength
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Increases Energy Levels
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Smooths Cellulite
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Reduces Dress Size
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Decreases Stress Levels
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As you can see there are many benefits to weight strength training. There are also many ways to do it, with or without equipment. A question often asked of Personal Trainers is
"Will it make me Bulky?" The short answer is no! Gaining muscle size is very hard to achieve and needs to be done in a certain way with very specific hormones and nutrients available to the body. This means that it is hard for women to gain muscle size. It will seem that way after training when the muscles are still swollen but they settle down after a while. Men will need to lift heavy weights lots of times to do this!
Understanding weight strength training.
You may have heard of
reps and
sets with regard to strength training. This refers to how many times an exercise is performed. Reps the amount in each set. For example, I may do 10 reps of press up for 2 sets, therefore do 20 press ups. Working out this way means the body is overloaded in order to stimulate a response from the working muscles to grow or strengthen and tone.
For different results from weight strength training in terms of whether you want to tone up or gain size you need to work out differently. Generally more weight with fewer reps will help gain size where as more reps with smaller weights will help with tone. For example:
6 reps x 3 sets at 80% of your maximum load = Gain Muscle Size
20 reps x 2 sets at 40% of your maximum load = Gain Muscle Tone
Principles of Weight Strength Training
The principles of strength training can fall into the following areas:
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Overload
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Progression
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Specificity
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Maintenance
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Reversal
Overload
This refers to the initial resistance that is applied to the muscles in order to stimulate a training affect. This causes the body to adapt to the overload and will improve the efficiency of the muscle to overcome the extra load over time.
Progression
This principle is where the body has adapted to the overload that has been applied over time and has reached a new level. Progression means the weight is then increased in order to stimulate a further training affect and adapt to this new load.
Specificity
This is important as training is very specific to the exercise that is being performed. Biceps Curls will improve arm strength in the biceps in the from of the arm but will not train the triceps at the back of the arm very well. This also applies to whether you want to gain speed, endurance or power as the training will need to be specific for these things.
Maintenance and Reversal
Once you have achieved the required results a maintenance programme is necessary to keep the trained muscles in shape. Athletes pre season do most f the improvement and then maintain over the season. For this reason if it is not kept up the opposite will happen and the training affect will start to reverse. Eventually, it is possible to lose much of the original improvements.
Note:
Before starting weight strength training, it is important to get a check up by a medical professional. This is always a good idea before you start any new exercise programme. |
