What You Should Know About Strength Training

Strength training is exercise using some type of resistance to build strong muscles. The resistance can come from dumbbells, barbells, machines, rubber bands, and body weight.

Many people believe only men need to improve their strength. The truth is everyone, young or old, can benefit from a stronger body.

There are strength training programs for all kinds of people. Although firm and shapely muscles are pleasant side-effects of strong muscles, there are many surprising health benefits from lifting weights, the most common form of strength training.

Aesthetic benefits
Strength training gives you a tighter leaner body because firm muscle is more compact and dense compared to flabby muscle.

Strength training is essential in weight control because the more muscle mass you have, the faster your metabolism. Muscle tissue is more metabolically active than fat tissue. In other words, it burns more calories.

One reason middle-aged people gain weight faster as they get older is muscle atrophy. Muscles unchallenged by strength training shrink with age. Smaller muscles mean less calories burned every day.

Strength training can make your body look more symmetrical. Although a woman cannot hope to increase muscle size as dramatically as a man's because she has very little testosterone (the male sex hormone), appropriate strength training techniques can put a little bulk where needed for a more symmetrical figure.

For example, a woman with narrow shoulders and big hips can make the shoulders a little wider so the hips don't look so big. A woman with thin legs can make them a little fuller so the lower body matches the bigger upper body.

The secret is in the amount of weight you lift and how many times you lift it. To make a muscle bigger, choose a weight that you can lift six to eight times before your muscles get tired. For firmer muscles without an increase in size, choose a weight you can lift 15-20 times before you get fatigued. Twelve repetitions is recommended for people wanting stronger muscles with just a slight increase in bulk.

Strength training coupled with flexibility training (stretching exercises) can improve posture by making sure muscles are balanced. For example, stooped rounded shoulders can be improved by strengthening the muscles at the back of the shoulders and between the shoulder blades while stretching the muscles in the chest and the front of the shoulders. Bad posture does not only increase the risk of injury in the lower back, but also makes people look shorter and fatter.

Physiological benefits
These are health benefits you will not see right away and are not obvious to others.

Strength training can help prevent osteoporosis because strong muscles equal strong bones. Scientists believe that when a muscle contracts against resistance, the pulling force exerted makes the bones denser and stronger. Strength training also helps improve balance so unnecessary falls are prevented and athletic performance is enhanced.

Strength training can help people with osteoarthritis because strong muscles are better able to absorb the stress around the affected joints.

Although the aerobic type (walking, cycling, dancing, jogging) is the most common exercise recommended for people with high blood pressure, properly and safely done strength training has been found to help normalize blood pressure. Strength training can reduce total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol (the bad kind) as well as improve the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL (the good kind).

Post-menopausal women tend to accumulate more fat in their abdomens than in their hips, buttocks and thighs because of changes in hormone levels. They end up having the same fat distribution pattern as a man--especially the storage of visceral fat. This kind of fat is not found under the skin (subcutaneous fat) but around the abdominal organs. It has been associated with a higher risk of heart disease.

Research has found that strength training can significantly reduce visceral or intra-abdominal fat in older women.

It has also been discovered that strength training can help keep insulin levels normal, reducing the risk of type 2 (adult onset) diabetes and heart disease.

Psychological benefits
Studies show that a strong body improves self-confidence and self-esteem. Aside from knowing you look good, knowing you can take care of yourself physically is a great morale booster.

You cannot separate the body from the mind or vice-versa.

Depression shows in the way you walk and the way you hold yourself. When you are feeling physically weak, you also feel emotionally and mentally down. Strengthening your body helps to strengthen your mind and emotions.

These days, men and women are showing an increased interest in lifting weights because they realize that strength training is a good way to improve the body's shape and get stronger.

Whatever the type of strength training program you are following, whether you just want firmer and shapelier muscles or you want to get stronger to improve your athletic performance, there are underlying fitness principles that need to be followed to make your program more effective and time-efficient as well as prevent injury.

Exercise Selection
For muscle balance, it is important to select at least one exercise (done for at least one set) for each major muscle group. These muscles are the quadriceps and hamstrings (front and back of thighs), gastrocnemius and tibialis anterior (calf and shin), hip abductors and adductors (hip and inner thigh), low back, abdominals, pectoralis major (chest), latissimus dorsi (sides of back), deltoids (shoulders), biceps and triceps (front and back of arms).

You can do more exercises and sets for areas of the body that you consider to be "problem" areas but do at least one set for all the major parts.

Concentrating on only a few areas can lead to muscle imbalance, injuries, and undesirable body symmetry. Consider the man who works only his chest and not his back muscles. He ends up with the "gorilla" look - a big chest and rounded shoulders with the palms facing backwards. What about the guy who works only his upper body and forgets his legs? He develops the "lollipop" or "drumstick" look.

Exercise Sequence
The smaller muscle groups like the biceps and triceps act as assistants or stabilizers for the larger muscles like the lats (sides of the back) or the pecs (chest). Therefore, it is advisable to start with exercises for the larger muscles of the legs, chest, and back, then proceed to the smaller muscles of the torso, shoulders and arms. This sequence will prevent early fatigue in the smaller muscles and allow you to concentrate all your energy on the larger groups.

Exercise Speed
There is an inverse relationship between the speed of a movement and the force generated by the muscle. The faster the speed, the less muscle force is needed. The slower the speed, the harder the muscle has to work.

Lifting with too much momentum places a lot of stress on the muscles and connective tissues (tendons and ligaments). A slower pace of lifting places a more even application of muscle force throughout the movement.

Sets
A set is a number of successive repetitions done without resting. Traditionally, three sets is the standard. Research indicates the number of sets you need is dependent on your goal and personal preference. For the average person wants a hard, firm, and strong body that looks "normal" with the minimum amount of time put in to achieve and maintain the results, one set does just as well as three sets as long as changes are made to the program every six to eight weeks. What those changes are will be the topic of next week's column. If you have the time and inclination, multi-sets will give you the advantage of additional calorie burning from the longer exercise session.

One set doesn't necessarily mean only one exercise per muscle group. A multiple exercise-one set program can be both time-efficient and challenging.

The one-set or one-exercise approach does not apply to you if you are trying to become a male or female Hulk because studies show that anabolic androgenic hormones (male hormones that influence muscle growth) are not significantly increased by single sets, therefore, for maximum size, you need multiple sets with shorter rest periods in between.

The one-set program is also not appropriate if you are a competitive weight lifter or power lifter.

Repetitions
The heavier the resistance, the less repetitions you can do. The lighter the resistance, the more repetitions are possible before the muscle experiences fatigue.

Traditional advice has always been to carry a weight light enough to finish 12 to 15 repetitions if you want to tone, define, and harden a muscle without causing it to bulk up. Carry a weight heavy enough to only be able to do 8 to 12 repetitions if you want bigger muscle mass. Research indicates that this is still true.

Progression
The key to developing strength safely and effectively is through progressive resistance, with emphasis on the word "progressive". If you want to get stronger without getting injured, the weight you are carrying has to be gradually increased.

An increase in resistance should be accompanied by a decrease in the number of repetitions. This is called a double progressive program. Let's say you can lift 50 pounds for 12 repetitions. After increasing the weight by five pounds, you now lift 55 pounds for eight repetitions, building up strength until you can lift it for 12 repetitions. Then, it will be safe to add more weight. Though each person is different, it is not advisable to increase the resistance by more than 10 percent between training sessions.

Frequency
You need ample rest time between training sessions especially if you are engaging in high-intensity strength training. It is during this recovery period of at least 48 hours that a muscle rebuilds itself to get stronger.

If you are doing a complete body workout, this means exercising every other day. If you are doing a split routine, workouts can be scheduled 4, 5, or 6 times a week. An example of a split routine is doing the upper body muscles on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and the lower body on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. This way, the respective muscle groups have the recommended 48 hours rest.

The more intense the workout (higher resistance, more sets, and many exercises per muscle group) the longer the rest period required, sometimes as long as 72 hours between workouts.

Warm-up and stretching
Like any other fitness activity, warm ups and cool downs are vital to avoid injuries. Many people skip these pre- and post-exercise activities because they want to save time and because they don't think they are not that important. The advice of fitness experts all over the world? Don't!

If you are always running out of time, try stretching after working each muscle group. For example, after strengthening your hamstrings, stretch them before moving on to the next exercise.

Variety is truly the spice of life when it comes to getting the best results you can from your strength training program. This is true for your body as well as your mind. Life can be boring when you do the same thing over and over again. Your body gets "used" to the exercises and doesn't make any progress. Your mind gets bored as well and you feel like there is no more challenge. Many new exercisers reach a plateau in about three to six months. The results they initially experienced have dwindled to nothing. Because of this, the dropout rate is high at this stage.

Last week, I said that you have to make changes to your program every four to six weeks to maximize results. The body responds best to variety or 'changes' but it needs to be done in a systematic manner, not a haphazard "strike anywhere" approach. Here are the different ways you can fight boredom and get better results.

Use a variety of equipment.
Doing a chest exercise with a barbell, dumbbells, machine, cable or body weight (example is a push-up) all feel slightly different and brings a fresh challenge to your chest muscles. You could do one barbell and one machine exercise for four weeks. Then, change your program to a dumbbell exercise and a body weight exercise for the next four weeks and so on.

Do different exercises for the same muscle.
Even on the same type of equipment, there are a variety of exercises that you can choose from. For example, changing the width and angle of your grip on a 'lat pull down' exercise is a way of doing different exercises for the same muscle group on the same type of equipment.

Alternate between unilateral and bilateral exercises.
A 'seated row' and 'one arm row' both work the lats or the sides of the upper back. Not only are they done on different pieces of equipment (a cable and dumbbells respectively) but they also affect the lats differently because you pull with both arms simultaneously when doing the 'seated row' (bilateral) while the 'one arm row' is a unilateral exercise. The trunk muscles (abdominals and lower back) are more challenged when you do unilateral exercises because they have to work harder at stabilizing your body.

Vary your rest periods.
Not many people time the amount of rest they take in between sets but this is another way to add variety. For most people, 30 seconds to one and a half minutes is all the body needs to rest. When I say "most people", I mean the average exerciser who is lifting 8 to 12 repetitions (moderately heavy) or 12 to 15 repetitions (slightly lighter). People who lift much heavier doing 6 to 8 repetitions need to rest for two minutes or more. Here is an example of how you could vary your rest period. For four weeks, rest one minute. The next four weeks, rest for 45 seconds. Then, try a four-week period of resting for only 30 seconds. Repeat the cycle again beginning with the one-minute rest.

Play around with the sets, reps and weight.
Without having to change the kind of exercises you are doing, you could infuse variety into your resistance program by playing around with the sets, repetitions and weight. For my own program, I am not too fond of adding sets because I like to make my program as time-efficient as I can. However, if you have the time, feel free to add or decrease your sets. Personally, I would rather vary the repetitions and weight. The rule is the heavier the poundage, the less the repetitions. The lighter the poundage, the more the repetitions. This is a common sense rule because the heavier an object is, the fewer reps you can lift it. So you could lift heavy for two weeks, then lift lighter for another two weeks. Or you could alternate "heavy" weeks with "light" weeks. If you lift three times a week, alternate heavy and light days.

Mix up the sequence.
Mixing up the sequence of your exercises is a way of 'confusing' the muscles to get the results you want without having to change the kind of exercise you are currently doing. If you are very used to doing your bicep exercises before your tricep exercises, switch the order. Try doing your lats, biceps, chest, and triceps in that order. Another way is to do what is called a "superset" or "tri-set". This means combining two or three exercises and doing them one after the other without any rest in between. Needless to say, you will have to lower the amount of weight you are normally used to. You can superset two opposing muscles (for example, biceps and triceps) or superset the same muscle group with two different exercises.

Recycle your routines.
As you can see there are so many ways to "shake up" a boring routine. In the beginning, the possibilities will seem endless but after a while, you may run out of ideas. That's when you should recycle your routines.

Keep records.
It is very important to keep written records of your programs so that you can keep track of the changes you are making. This will also help you recycle your programs systematically in the future.

Build a stable foundation of strength.
If you have just started to lift weights, it is not a smart idea to be varying your exercises right away. You need to build your foundation of strength first. This can take anywhere from four to twelve weeks. Learn the basic exercises well before jumping into all sorts of variations. Gradually increase the amount of weight you can lift so that at the end of your introduction period you are much stronger than when you began. Don't worry about not seeing results. Beginners make quick progress because their bodies are starting at 'ground zero'.

Safety first.
Do not do an exercise just because it is 'different" if it will compromise your joints. Do not choose an advanced exercise until your body is ready for it. Whatever you do, do not sacrifice safety for variety.


The most common way to do strength training is by lifting weights. But pumping iron is not the only way to become stronger. Any exercise that you do against resistance can be effective depending on your goals.

Resistance comes in the form of free weights, machines, rubber bands, your own body weight, manual resistance, and from the water around you when you do aqua exercises. None of these forms of resistance are perfect. By knowing the advantages and disadvantages of each type, you can choose the strength-training program that is the most appropriate for you.

Free weights
This usually means dumbbells and barbells but free weights can also take the form of weighted vests or medicine balls, ankle weights or any external weight that you carry with your hands or is strapped to your body or limbs.

Free weights are the most popular form of resistance because they are easy to use and are relatively cheap. You can work all the muscles of the body with simple exercises that don't require you to get into complicated positions. You can do many exercise variations with just a few pieces of free weights.

Since you need to "balance" the weights, your weaker side is forced to work as hard as your stronger side (this is more true for dumbbells than it is for barbells). This prevents muscular imbalances from occurring.

However, free weights can be unsafe without proper supervision or exercise know-how. The most common mistake is to lift the weights with fast jerky movements. If you lift heavy weights, you need a spotter for certain exercises. Otherwise, if you experience momentary muscle failure, the weights could come crashing down on you. Some strength training exercises are just not possible with free weights and are best done with machines or rubber bands. Examples are lat pull-downs and seated rows.

Machines
The resistance on machines can come from weight stacks, pressurized air, or springs (like Pilates machines). Machines have an automatic safety feature in that the weights won't fall on you if you get tired. That's why hotel and resort gyms that don't have instructors for their guests prefer to use machines. They have peace of mind that they won't find a guest pinned under a barbell.

Machines also offer the convenience of easy adjustment of resistance unlike free weights wherein you have to get out of your position to change dumbbells or to increase/decrease weight plates on the barbell.

Machines with fixed movement patterns are supposed to ensure correct movement but this is not always true because the machine may not match the natural movement of the body or it may not have the necessary adjustments for your particular height and limb length.

Fixed movement machines do not require the user to balance the weights. This can be an advantage for people with weak trunk muscles as well as a safety feature for people who need to lift heavy weights.

Cable machines are more versatile because they allow more freedom of movement and thus, more exercise variations. However, to use them properly you need a knowledgeable fitness trainer.

Rubber bands
Since they don't weigh much, rubber bands are convenient to bring along when you travel. When looped around a doorknob, the leg of a heavy piece of furniture or a hook on the wall, you can do the same exercises like on a cable machine.

Rubber bands are appropriate for people who only need to develop average strength levels. For those who want a significant increase in strength and mass, free weights or machines are more suitable.

Doing rubber band exercises incorrectly with a bent wrist can cause carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful condition that occurs when strained forearm muscles swell and press on nerves.

Body weight
A push-up is an example of a body weight exercise. So is an abdominal crunch. Yoga and Mat Pilates are other examples.

The advantage of body weight exercises is that you don't need equipment so you can do them anywhere. However, you may need to get into some complicated positions to isolate the muscles you want to work. It can be difficult to vary the resistance of a particular exercise since you can only change the exercise position in so many ways. In fact, the position of the lowest resistance may be too much for beginners.

Finally, there is a limit to how much resistance you can work with since you are relying on your own body weight.

Manual resistance
Manual resistance strength training requires very little or no equipment (sometimes a rope, towel, or pole is used) but involves two people - a lifter and a spotter. The lifter performs the exercise while the spotter provides the resistance by applying pressure with his or her arms.

Here's an example when performing a shoulder lateral raise. The spotter stands behind the lifter and places his hands on the lifter's forearms. As the lifter raises his arms sideways, the spotter applies a downward pressure while still allowing the lifter the freedom to lift the arms. In the final position, the spotter applies additional pressure.

Some advantages of this system are that the spotter can control the speed, form, and technique of the lifter and more pressure can be applied in positions where the muscle is the strongest and vice-versa. The disadvantage is that you need two people. Both need to be trained in their alternating roles as lifter and spotter. Also, they should have similar strength levels.

Aqua
The advantage of water exercises is that the resistance is all around you, the water makes you feel weightless even if you are very overweight, and you always feel cool. As you get stronger, you can increase the resistance by using special aqua exercise equipment that creates a dragging effect as you move against the water.

The biggest disadvantage of aqua strength training is that you need a swimming pool to perform the exercises. It is also difficult for the instructor to see what you are doing underwater to properly correct your technique.

Continue reading here: Eating Habits That Can Make You Gain Weight - Part One

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