Feeling stronger, more flexibility, body harmony and a better balance are just some of the benefits to strength training exercises. With them you will be able to carry out physical activities much easier. Strength training exercises gets your muscles working more than normal to help them become stronger.
There are many strength training exercises but they can be broken down in to 3 basics: abdominal, upper body and lower body exercises. Abdominal exercises strengthen your center, which is supposed to give you optimum control over the rest of your body and keep all your power in check. Exercises for the upper body involve the back, torso and arms, while legs, thighs and hips are developed by lower body exercises.
Most of these exercises involve lifting weights, which will serve as your weight resistance. This said, you must be aware of risk factors involved when starting out on your strength training program. For example, if you have any diseases or problems with your heart, or even if there is any history of coronary disease in your family, you must get your doctor's permission before you can start a strength training program that involves weight lifting. Other factors that would require you to have a chat with your doctor include high cholesterol and obesity, smoking, chronic hypertension, chronic muscular and joint pains, arthritis, diabetes, and asthma.
You should also talk to your doctor about being ready for strength training when you are recovering from surgery, have had no physical exercise whatsoever prior to your upcoming strength training plans, are pregnant or had given birth less than three months ago. Obviously, after events such as these, you would probably want your body to be much stronger, but jumping into strength training exercises after such a weakened condition would do much more harm than good. Let's get going, but slowly.
It is important to have a strength training program that involves the majority of the muscles in your body. Don't just focus on one part of your body e.g. if you wanted to get a nice six pack. Do this and the rest of your body will suffer. A primary program you can start with would involve the bench press, lateral pulldowns, overhead press, bicep curl and tricep pulldown for upper body; squats, leg extensions and leg curls; and abdominal crunches for your midsection. You can add exercises later on.
There are even programs with combination exercises for people on the go. Such exercises include squats with bicep curls, or with overhead press, lunges with lateral raises, and so on. But these are for later, when you've already achieved some strength and experience in strength training.
Your strength training exercise program should be very basic when you start out. Eight to twelve reps per muscle group is the recommended minimum to help you get your desired results. This recommendation comes from The American College of Sports Medicine. As you progress with your exercises, the amount of resistance that is applied to your exercises must increase as well, but again, don't rush into it. The only way to go is up. Increased strength will be yours in no time.
The basic essence of exercise assumes a purpose of achieving physical improvement. If the activity does not promote that physical improvement - primarily correlated to increased muscular strength - then it is not considered proper exercise.
The most important ingredient in any effective exercise program is demanding muscular work. The muscular system is the front line of the body as only muscles have a direct physical function and effect fitness. Any program, method or protocol devoid of high intensity work involving loading of the muscles, regardless of how well designed and implemented will fail to produce meaningful benefits.
We could define being "fit" as being strong as muscles provide the only truly productive factor in human movement. Every single movement of our body depends on muscle strength, from very simple to very complex. We need it to be able to eat, talk, walk, move and breathe.
Muscles are very unique. They have the ability to relax, contract, produce force and are metabolically active. This means that the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism (amount of calories your body needs) at rest and during exercise. We can survive without endurance, speed, stamina and flexibility, but we cannot survive without strength. Very often we forget about its necessary importance.
To be effective an exercise program need only focus on strengthening the muscles in a concentrated manner. This will support the body's systems then the heart, lungs, bones etc will join in to maintain the effort.
Strength training exercise is the only activity that properly satisfies the Definition of Exercise and thereby is the only true exercise. All other activities (i.e. walking, running, cycling, swimming, etc.), often construed as exercise by the media, general public and health/medical professionals do not satisfy the definition of exercise. These activities qualify as recreational physical activities and are not considered a necessary component of a proper exercise program.
Perhaps the most damaging as well as the most understood concept in fitness today among, health centers, gyms, researchers and the general public is the confusion of proper exercise and recreational activities. Although a most basic and important concept it is rarely acknowledged or applied in any area of fitness or medicine. People are being led to believe all they need to do is find an activity they enjoy and have "fun" doing it.
Well listen up, an activity that is fun to perform but does not meet the necessary requirements of meaningfully loading of muscular structures does not qualify as proper exercise. Yes, fun and enjoyable pastime activities and recreation do carry some healthful physical benefits, and do overlap to some degree however; these cannot stimulate the multitude of physical changes that only proper exercise can stimulate. Only when you acknowledge and accept these facts will you truly benefit from proper exercise.
Both Mary Meade & Gen Wright are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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