| Strength is one of the fundamental components of fitness and helps to form the foundation of what most people would call basic all round fitness. It has traditionally been linked to body building, power lifters and strength athletes but never seriously by the average person who wants to keep fit, until fairly recently.
Traditionally basic fitness has been linked to cardiovascular activities and strength training has been left to the more dedicated people within our society. However, in this current age of modern technology and labour saving devices never has strength training been so important for the average person. Current society is promoting the development of lifestyle related diseases such as obesity, type II diabetes and heart disease to name a few.
These are some of the benefits that strength training exercise can bring to a persons overall health and well being;
- Stronger bones
- Increased lean body mass
- Increased strength of tendons and ligaments to aid joint stability
- Improved posture
- More strength and endurance for day to day activities
- Decreased risk of type 2 diabetes
Strength is only one component of muscular fitness. Muscular endurance is the other. They both serve different purposes. These are the definitions; Strength: The ability of our muscles to exert a force required to move a large resistance for a short period. Endurance: The ability of a muscle to perform repeated movements of a lower resistance for longer periods. In order for you to train to reach your strength training goals you must be prepared to perform the correct strength exercises and workout routines. Weight lifting exercises depend on moving a resistance to train the specific muscle groups. Strength weights are the most common form of equipment used in strength training. However you can easily use other pieces of equipment instead of weights, such as resistance bands, medicine balls, kettle bells and even your own body weight. When training for strength, it is best to incorporated exercises into your workout that use multiple joint movements, such as a squat, a chest press or a rowing action. These types of exercises are called compound exercises and target several muscles within the complete movement. For example, the chest press would target the pectorals muscles (chest) and the triceps muscles (arms). Using these types of exercises develops and strengthens the muscles in the body that are used in normal every day movements. Are You Applying The Correct Resistence To Build Strength? If gaining strength is your main goal then it’s necessary to apply the strength exercises in the correct way. A clue to this is in the definition of strength. Strength is basically defined as ‘the ability of our muscles to exert a force required to move a large resistance for a short period.’ In which case, we need to tailor our training around this definition. This means performing exercises with heavy weights but for short periods. The general guide lines when it comes to strength training are;
- High intensity – which means a high resistance normally > 85% of your 1 rep max (100%, the heaviest weight you can lift for a particular exercise. For example if your 1 rep max for Chest Press is 100kg, then your should be training with weights > 85 kg)
- Low rep range – 1 to 5 repetitions of each exercise per set
- High recovery – This is anaerobic exercise so you will need between 3 and 5 minutes for your muscles to replenish their energy between sets.
- High Volume – between 2 and 6 sets. Beginners should start low and aim for a maximum of 6 sets
- Frequency – One to two workouts per week per muscle group
Because of the high intensity associated with strength training exercises, allowing your body enough time to recover is extremely important. That means the correct amount of recovery time between exercise sets and workout routines. Failure to do this could cancel out any gains you are making during your workouts.
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