Specialized equipment is used in weight training to work groups of muscles in a number of ways. Weight training differs from bodybuilding, weightlifting, power lifting and strongman, all of which are sports rather than kinds of exercises. Weight training, on the other hand, is often part of the athlete's training regimen.
Weight training revolves around the same principles as other forms of strength training. It relies primarily on making different combinations of reps, sets, exercise types and weights moved to increase the body's strength, endurance, size and shape.
Weight training has many benefits, commonly among which are;
1. Increase in the body's rate of metabolism
2. It strengthens the body's bone mass
3. Increase in the muscle strength
4. Help in avoiding injuries
5. Increase in the person's confidence level and self-esteem
6. Improvement in the body's coordination and balance
The Basic Principles of Weight Training:
1. Overload: to build muscle and strength, your body needs to lift more weight, resistance, then it's used to. The more you call on your body to do, the greater it will perform and increase its stamina and strength. You shouldn't lift weights that are so light that you can do more than the required reps. Nor should you lift weights that are too heavy to even go half way. You should be able to finish your last rep with difficulty but also with good form. Never sacrifice form for lifting a heavier weight.
2. Progression: To avoid 'getting used to it' or adaptation, you need to increase the intensity of your workout regularly. This is possible in a number of ways including increasing the number of reps, changing the sets, changing the exercise, lifting heavier weights, etc. these changes should be gradually incremental, not sudden or abrupt. But they should be continuous and I n progressive.
3. Be Specific: This principle is all about focusing attention towards a goal and achieving it. Don't just weight train at random. Be specific in what position or state you want to achieve with each muscle type and then strive with all your attention to achieve that goal.
4. Rest and Sleep: Resting is just as important as working out. While you rest your muscles heal and grow. The growth is both in size and in strength. Make sure you rest for at least one day between workouts and also arrange to get a minimum of 8 to 10 hours of sleep regularly.
Some precautions that you should take during weight training:
1. Trainer: when weight training it's best to have a trainer supervise your routine. The best weight training exercises involve free weights and these can be dangerous if your training on your own.
2. Warm ups are essential: always warm up properly before weight training or exercise of any kind. Your body can't go from room temperature to sudden activity as it will react to the change in a destructive manner.
3. Slow lift and pick up: lift your weights slowly and also lower them slowly as well while you weight train. Hurrying may cause muscle sprains.
There a few keys to building big, strong, powerful muscles that will turn heads, and increase your performance in your sports or activities.
You must eat more than you burn off, you must lift more weight, and you need to rest more.
Here we will cover the training methods to build major muscles quickly, to blow away the competition and surpass people who are currently bigger or stronger than you.
The reason for this is that I will show you techniques that most people don't do, because they don't understand how muscles operate or they get their information from steroid driven bodybuilders who do a ton of sets and reps that are not needed for the average no-steroid man.
First before we go into some techniques, you must understand how muscle works. Muscles love to sleep. if they could they would sleep 24/7. The only way they get used is because YOU choose to use them! So if you don't work out you muscles won't grow.
Also if you can't beat your last workout you won't get bigger, so if you can't push the extra rep or lift that extra 5lbs you will just stay the same.
Ok so now here are a couple excellent weight training techniques to build muscle, strength and power:
1. The King Set!
WARNING: Not for the faint of heart!
This is basically the exercise above the super-set. So for this technique you want to pick 3 compound exercises for each major/minor muscle group.
Then you aim for using a weight for 10 reps per exercise back to back to back with 10 - 30 seconds rest max. in between exercises, this is usually the time it takes to get to the next workout station.
You will only need to do the king set ONCE per muscle group. Then move onto the next muscle group. Do a king set for every muscle group you want to work on for the session at the gym but don't overtrain, 20 mins - 1 hour of weights is ideal for recovery and rest and growth. This way you will be more refreshed and leaving the gym with higher energy than when you went in.
Record the exercises, reps, weight used, rest times too. You goal is to fully rest for 2-3 days and try to beat your current workout numbers, if you are to sore still don't workout on that muscle group. If you can beat your numbers you will grow every time you come into the gym, for hard gainers, 2-4 times a week is enough and no back to back lift days.
For example, let's say you wanted to workout on your chest, the 3 exercises you could choice are flat bench press,incline bench press, and standing cable flies. Don't be afraid to be creative, and switch around the exercises, you don't have to do the same ones each time either, maybe you could add dumbbells presses, or push ups, or decline bench presses.
NOTE: Your body will remember how to do everything you have done in the last 6 months, but even better the last 3 months.
2. The Giant Set!
WARNING: May cause muscles to grow larger..haha ;)
This method of weight training is excellent for building raw power and strength, as well as build your muscles thicker.
You will be using much more weight and resting much more in between sets.
Like the King set, you only need to do one giant set per muscle group.
Pick ONE exercise per muscle group.
So again lets use the chest again, let's say your choice is the flat bench dumbbell press, after warming up, pick a weight you can lift about 5 times, after repping the weight for an all out effort of about 5 reps, rest for about 30 seconds to a minute and then rep out the same weight for as many more reps as you can, you may be able to do another 4-5 or so then, you can stop or you can rest another 30 to a minute and rep it out again for as many reps as you can which may only be 2-4 Try not to go past 12-13 reps for the total reps of the giant set.
(Note: the dumbbell press is a safer choice when lifting heavy weight, and the bench press takes great technique to do really heavy and you better have a spotter, also flat bench can cause other injuries as well, like in your elbows and shoulders, or back)
With these two muscle building weight training techniques you will be able to literally control how big and strong you get as long as you are recording everything and eating properly and resting allot to recover fully between workouts.
Both Chris Jensen & Kyle12345 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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