Strength Training Tips
For a complete healthy lifestyle, you must include strength training into your weekly schedule.
There are many benefits to strength training, including increased muscle mass, bone strength, and fat burning ability.
However, these are only side benefits. The main objective to strength training is to keep your body strong and able as long as possible throughout your lifespan.
Below are some strength training tips that you should follow.
Strength training tip 1 - strength train often
Maintaining your strength requires that you perform strength training sessions often, and to be consistent. You don't have to strength train everyday, but don't go weeks between sessions. Performing each session 1 or 2 days apart is sufficient.
Strength training tip 2 - warm up before your each session
Before you put your body into action, you need to prep your muscles and joints properly. Perform a light warm up session to deliver nutrients and oxygen to your muscles and loosen your joints. This helps increase performance and prevent injuries. To warm up, do some light cardio exercise for five to ten minutes. Alternatively, using very light weights, you can perform 3 sets of 10 reps with primary muscles that are going to be used.
Strength training tip 3 - stretch
To further enhance performance and prevent injury, you should stretch your muscles before, during, and after your strength training sessions. Lifting is only one part of strength training. The other part of strength training is flexibility. Many people ignore the flexibility aspect of strength training because it is not as apparent as hoisting up weights. However, if you only concentrate on the lifting aspect, you only strengthen the muscles in one direction. By not strengthening your muscles in the other direction by stretching, you can pull or tear them, causing a lot of damage. After your warm up, stretch your primary muscles until you feel loose enough to begin your session. Stretch in between sets to stay lose, a! nd stret ch after your session for proper recovery.
Strength training tip 4 - perform multi-muscle, multi-joint exercises first
The best way to start your workout is to start with the core lifts. These lifts, such as the bench press, pull up, and squat, involve the movement of many muscles and joints in the same routine. Because of this, and the fact that you can actually lift more weight with these routines, they provide the most muscle building potential. Doing these lifts first also prevents injury because it ensures that all muscles involved are fresh and are able to balance the weight properly. Doing tricep extensions before bench presses for example, is extremely dangerous. Your shoulders and chest may be able to bear the weight, but your triceps may be too weak, causing you to drop the bar on your chest (This is exactly what happened to me when I first started out). So remember, do core lifts first and isolation lifts after.
Strength training tip 5 - take a total body approach and shun spot training
Balance is key. This is probably the golden rule of strength training. Many people make the mistake of over emphasizing one part of the body. They say things like, all I want to do is work on my abs. This not only can lead to having a body that looks out of proportion, but can also lead to serious injury. For example, if you strength train your abs but ignore your back, you can eventually pull or tear your back muscles on one of your ab sessions, or when picking something up. Another common mistake people make is do leg extensions to strengthen the quadriceps (front of the leg), but not do leg curls to strengthen the hamstrings (back of the leg). This often leads to a pulled or torn hamstring when they run, or simply overstrides when walking. If you're going to strength train, you must take the total body approach. The muscle groups that you have to be concerned with are the neck, chest, back, abs, and legs. You can do a total body workout every other day, or concentrate on one or two muscle! groups each day.
Strength training tip 6 - perform 3 sets of 10 reps
This means that you'll lift a weight 10 times, which will equal 1 set, rest for a minute or two, then repeat the process until you complete 3 sets. This is a general rule of course, as it provides your muscles with a balance between strength training, endurance training, toning, and sizing. Some people like to concentrate on building strength and size by adding more weight and performing less reps, 5 for example. Some people like to concentrate on toning and endurance training by lifting less weight and performing many reps, 15-20 for example. If you're just starting out, use the 3 x 10 rule. There's no need to get fancy at this time.
Strength training tip 7 - use proper breathing techniques
When strength training, your body has an increased need for oxygen. This is especially true during a set, when the muscles are being fatigued with each rep. To provide your body with a fresh supply oxygen, breathe in on the way down (the lengthening part), and out on the way up (the shortening part). Don't ever hold your breath, as it may cause you to faint, or it may cause a hernia from the pressure.
Strength training tip 8 - quality is better than quantity
To train your muscles properly, you need to perform high quality reps. Many people think that the more reps they do the better. However, this may not be necessarily true. Take the people who do hundreds of sit ups, say 250 for example, to get that six pack. Many times, they just want to get the set over with, so they do fast, incomplete, out of form, poor quality reps. After a couple weeks of this approach they see little or no results. They could have saved themselves lots of time and energy by doing 25 high quality reps instead. When strength training, perform your reps slowly. Go all the way up on a 3 second count, squeeze at the top, and all the way down on another 3 second count. Don't swing, and concentrate on using only the muscles that the lift was intended for. Fi! nally, r emember to use proper breathing techniques.
Strength training tip 9 - get enough rest and replenish
Some experts say that strength training is not so much a matter of lifting a ton of weight as it is a matter of the body's ability to recover. In a way, this may be true. Here's what I mean: when you strength train, you create micro-tears in your muscles. Also, lactic acid builds up in the muscles, which causes the normal soreness and tightness after a workout. When the body is allowed to repair itself after each workout, it in essence becomes stronger by repairing and building over micro-tears with more muscle, and increasing its ability to remove lactic acid from the body. To allow your body to recover, you must give yourself enough time to rest and replenish. Take a day off in between sessions. Get some sleep, drink plenty of water, and eat plenty of complex carbs and protein.
Ark Agpalza has dedicated more than 10 years to the cause of healthy living, and is the author of the online publication Free Health and Fitness Tips.
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