 | from Paige Waehner
During Week 1 of this course, you learned about the most common myths and benefits of strength training. This week, we're getting into the heart of strength training and discussing the principles and guidelines that govern the wonderful world of lifting weights. Now, you might already be yawning at the thought of learning anything about the 'principles' or 'guidelines' of anything but, I promise, I'll make it short and interesting. As with last week, there's a quiz at the end to test your knowledge and make sure you didn't sleep through the course.
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| Strength Training Principles |
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| | Strength Training Principles |
| One thing we know about strength training is that it can actually change your muscles. It can make them stronger, denser or even bigger, depending on the program you follow. Will it make you look like your favorite celebrity? Probably not. But you already knew that from week 1, right? The point is that it can change your body but, in order to make those changes, you have to follow certain principles. These principles ensure you get results from what you're doing by helping you figure out how to train, how much weight to lift and when you need to rest. - Overload: To build strength and endurance, you need to use more resistance than your muscles are used to, which means you have to lift more weight than your body can handle. In plain language, this means you'll want lift enough weight that you can ONLY complete the desired number of reps. This is important since many of us don't lift enough weight in our workouts.
- Progression. Another thing we have to watch out for is plateaus. When your body adapts to what you're doing, you need to change what you're doing so that you increase your workout intensity. You can this by changing your weight, reps, sets and/or exercises. We'll cover this in more detail later.
- Specificity. This principle is pretty straightforward and simply means you should train for your goal. This principle is pretty obvious if you're, say, training for a marathon or a bodybuilding competition. In those cases, you would want to follow a running program or a specific bodybuilding routine. If your goals are a bit broader, such as losing weight or getting healthy, it may be a little harder to know exactly how to train. But, a general routine for weight loss or health would include cardio and 2 or 3 days of strength training. You'll find out more about setting up a specific routine below.
- Rest and Recovery. This last principle is also important because your muscles only grow and improve during your rest periods. For that reason, experts often recommend that you don't work the same muscles two days in a row. In general, this is a good rule to follow, although there are always exceptions. When we cover setting up a program, you'll learn more about scheduling rest and recovery days.
What it comes down to is lifting enough weight to challenge your muscles, changing your program regularly and getting enough rest to see results. Piece of cake, right?
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| Strength Training Guidelines |
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| | Strength Training Guidelines |
| If you've lifted weights before, you know that most routines are set up with certain exercises, reps, sets and type of resistance. We get this format of strength training from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Using the results of hundreds of scientific studies, the ACSM was able to determine what we need to do to get maximum strength and endurance results from strength training. Below are the guidelines they came up with: - Choose a type of resistance (weights, machines, etc.) that is comfortable throughout a full range of motion.
- Perform 8-10 exercises targeting the major muscles of the hips, thighs, legs, back, chest, shoulders, arms and abs.
- The primary goal is to develop total body strength and endurance efficiently so programs lasting more than an hour are usually too long.
- Do one set of each exercise to volitional fatigue (the point where you can't do one more rep without cheating or losing your form).
- In general, 8-12 reps is a good place to start but you can choose between a variety of rep ranges: 3-5 (for strength gains), 8-10 (for strength and muscle mass) or 12-15 (for endurance).
- Work each muscle group 2-3 nonconsecutive days a week and do a different exercise for your muscles every 2-3 sessions.
- When lifting weights, use good form - don't swing the weights, use momentum or slump.
- Rest between sets so you can keep good form.
- Don't hold your breath to avoid raising your blood pressure too high.
As you can see, these guidelines provide a nice framework for a beginning strength training routine, but there are plenty of blanks that need to be filled in such as which exercises to do, what kind of resistance to use and how many reps to perform. In the next few sections, we'll go through each of these guidelines in detail to help you understand exactly how to use them. More about Cardio and Strength Training Guidelines.
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| Resistance |
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| | Choosing Your Resistance |
| Your first step in setting up a strength program is choosing what kind of weights to lift. What you choose will be based on what you have available, your goals and what you enjoy. Below is a list of common types of equipment along with the pros and cons of each one. - Machines. Machines are often a great choice for beginners because they offer lots of support and a fixed path of motion, so you don't have to guess which way to push or pull the weight. With machines, you get a chance to learn how to do the exercises with good form, you can lift heavier weights and you save time.
The downsides. - You don't use as many muscle groups as you do with free weights, which means you burn less calories.
- Because machines offer so much support, you often miss out on elements like balance, stability and functionality.
- Machines don't mimic real life movements very well and are often limited to one muscle group or exercise. With free weights, you have more choices for exercises and positioning.
- Machines don't usually allow you to work one arm or leg at a time. That means your stronger side will often do more of the work.
- Free weights. Free weights typically include dumbbells and barbells and are a great choice for all exercisers, especially if you'll be exercising at home. Free weights are cheaper than machines, don't take up much space and can be used for a variety of exercises. Free weights also allow you to work through a natural motion and work on real life functionality with exercises like squatting, lifting things over your head and rotating the body. And, unlike machines, you use your own body for support, which involves more muscle groups.
The downsides. - They require more skill and coordination. If you're a beginner, you may find machines are more comfortable as you learn the different moves.
- They may be confusing. With machines, it's usually obvious which muscles you're working. With dumbbells, there are so many exercises it can be tough for beginners (or even experienced exercisers) to know which moves to do and what muscles they work.
- Risk of injury. Because there isn't a fixed path when using free weights, it's easier to put your body in the wrong position, which could lead to injury.
- Resistance bands. Resistance bands tend to be the redheaded stepchild of the strength training world. Many people just don't know what to do with them. But, resistance bands do have some advantages over both free weights and machines. First, they're cheap. You can usually buy a set of bands for $20 or $30 dollars and use them for all your muscle groups. They travel well and they offer constant tension throughout each exercise, unlike most machines and free weights.
The downsides. - They're confusing. One big problem with bands is that it's hard to know which exercises to do with them. Many moves require attaching the band to different things or being in different positions that may not work with your exercise space or equipment.
- The resistance feels harder. Because there's constant tension throughout the movement, the moves may feel harder than they would with free weights or machines.
- They may not be challenging enough. For people who can handle a lot of weight, even heavy resistance bands may not be challenging enough.
The bottom line is that any type of resistance will work and you can always mix and match and change the type of weight you use as often as you like. As long as you're challenging your muscles, they don't care what kind of resistance you use. Learn more in Free Weights vs. Machines.
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| Exercises |
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| | Choosing Your Exercises |
| Once you figure out what kind of resistance to use, the next step is choosing your exercises. This is where things can get a little confusing because there are so many exercises to choose from - how do you pick? The ACSM guidelines suggest doing about 8-10 exercises that target the major muscles of the body, so we'll start with a list of these muscle groups along with an example of an exercise for each one: By clicking on the above links to each muscle group, you'll get more details about what each muscle does and how to train it. This will be very helpful information for you when it comes time to take the quiz (hint hint). We'll get into much more detail about strength exercises later in the course.
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| Reps Sets |
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| | Choosing Your Reps and Sets |
| Your next step is deciding how many sets of each exercise you're going to do. A set is how many times you'll do a certain number of repetitions of an exercise, as in 1 set of 8 bicep curls or 2 sets of 12 pushups, etc. How many sets you do will depend on a number of factors such as: There is some controversy over whether one-set training is as effective as two- or three-set training. The science is still out on this question, but the general thinking is that beginners can reap the benefits of strength training with one set while more experienced exercisers may need more sets to fatigue the muscle enough to see results. When it comes to choosing how many repetitions you'll do of each exercise, you have a wide range of options. You'll get the most out of your workouts if you work within 3 to 20 reps. Obviously, that's a big range so, how do you choose how many reps to perform? There are different rep ranges depending on what you want to accomplish. Below, you'll find a simplified breakdown of different ranges and how to choose what's right for you: - 3-8 reps. This lower rep range is usually recommended for serious bodybuilders or for people who want to focus on building strength. That doesn't mean the average exerciser shouldn't work in the lower rep range - lifting heavy weights for fewer reps can be a great way to challenge the body in new ways, but you do want to have some weight training experience before you lift too heavy.
- 8-12 reps. This medium range is often recommended for the majority of exercisers because that range helps you build strength, muscle and endurance. Staying in this range will also produce a little more bone density for older populations than the higher rep ranges.
- 12-20 reps. The higher rep range focuses more on muscular endurance and less on strength and building muscle. This range can be a good choice if you tend to get very bulky (and don't want to), if you're an athlete or if you're a beginner and need to practice with weights before you go too heavy.
The truth is, there is no best rep range to choose from and you'll find that, as you get stronger and more experienced, you'll want to try a variety of rep ranges to challenge different energy systems and muscle fibers in your body. In fact, changing the reps and sets you do is a common way to change your routine so that you avoid plateaus...so, no rep range is off limits for anyone. But, for purposes of getting started, most beginners will start with about 1 set of 10-12 reps of each exercise.
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| Weight |
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| | Choosing Your Weight |
| Choosing the weight for each exercise is the last part of the process because that is often determined by how many reps and sets you're doing. If you've been reading previous sections, you know that you need to lift enough weight that you can ONLY complete the desired number of reps. In other words, you want to work to fatigue. But, there is an exception to this rule...if you're a beginner or if you have kind of medical or health conditions, you may need to avoid complete fatigue and just find a weight that challenges you at a level you can handle. So, how do you know how much weight you need to challenge your body? Below are a few tips to help you decide: - The larger muscles of the glutes, thighs, chest and back can usually handle heavier weight than the smaller muscles of the shoulders, arms, abs and calves.
- You'll usually lift more weight on a machine than with dumbbells. With machines, you're usually using both arms or both legs for the exercises while, with dumbbells, each limb works independently of the other. So, if you can handle 30 or 40 pounds on a chest press machine, you may only be able to handle 10-15 pounds with dumbbells.
- If you're a beginner, it's more important to focus on good form than it is to lift heavy weights.
- It may take several workouts to figure out how much weight you need
Now, onto the details for choosing your weight. There are scientific ways to figure out how much weight you need based on your one-rep max. But, most of us use an easier method called guessing: - Pick up a light weight and do a warm up set of your exercise, about 12-16 reps.
- If you could've done more than 16 reps, increase your weight by about 5 or so pounds for your next set.
- If that still feels light, either do a 3rd set with more weight or, if you're only doing 1-2 sets, make a note in your fitness log to do the exercise with more weight the next time.
- For each workout, continue adjusting your weight until you can only complete the desired number of reps.
- If you're doing more than one set, you may need to adjust the weight as your muscles get tired in order to complete your reps.
- If you have to swing the weight or use momentum, you're lifting too much weight.
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| Take the Quiz! |
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| | Take the Quiz! |
| Well? Did you make it? You can find out how much you learned by taking the quiz and seeing how you do. Don't worry...it's pretty easy but, don't forget, it does include a few questions from some of the links and not just from the information here in the newsletter. Good luck!
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| Paige Waehner About.com Guide to Exercise http://exercise.about.com www.About.com About.com is part of The New York Times Company |
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