subject: What Is Strength Training? [print this page] Just what is strength training? Lifting a huge barbell? Doing chair lower back stretches to work your "lats"? Pulling on a green rubber tube? Lifting your legs repeatedly? Squeezing your knees together so hard your face turns red? All of these.
Movement which requires your muscles to work against outside resistance will definitely build up some muscle, bone, tendon, or ligament. A normal, extended period of such resisting motion is a strength training workout--needed 3 times weekly along with stretching and aerobic activities to be a complete health and fitness program.
Any type of good health program incorporates strength training as an essential part. It keeps your lean muscle mass as it begins to turn to fat around age 30. Muscle requires 7 to 10 times as many calories daily than fat, and as strength training replaces fat with muscle, it helps avoid even more fat increase. It increases metabolic process--aiding your brain and keeping many chronic diseases at bay. Strength training helps you to keep your balance and builds up your bones--both of which safeguard you from falls. Strength training keeps your body functioning--use it or lose it.
Strength training has various forms; all except a red-faced senior doing isometric workouts are good. Isometrics keep the angles of joints and hence muscle lengths set throughout the workout. Isometrics only build up muscles in the particular position of the isometric force. By boosting blood pressure, isometrics can be harmful for those at risk of heart attack or stroke.
The resistance required by strength training is most often supplied by gravity with the use of increasingly heavy free weights to work all body parts. Barbells are large and can be dangerous--it's easy to lose control--yet are good for the heavier range. The bench and storage racks take up much space. A fitness center with a spotter is optimal place to utilize these.
More common are dumbbells. These can be made use of at your home or in the office. They use a great deal less space, and are much safer. Nevertheless, as your strength increases, you will definitely need ever heavier dumbbells, which may start to take up much space and be a nuisance to keep track of.
You are able to, nevertheless, have the selection of weights you have to have in only about the same amount of room as a single dumbbell by using the Bowflex SelectTech 552 and Bowflex SelectTech 1090 dumbbells. Both permit you to dial the weight you need: place the handle in the rack, twist knobs at the ends of the handle, and a clip will move to pick up the weight you specified. The SelectTech 1090 includes weights from 10 to 90 pounds--hence the number--and the SelectTech 552 provides you weights from 5 to 52 pounds. One or the other will be sufficient for all your years of weight training--unless you are a professional athlete or body builder. "Weight training" is strength training utilizing gravity to provide the resistance.
Resistance bands or tubes are also handy, and a less expensive way to begin. As each of the colors has different resistance, you will certainly want the rainbow eventually. Resistance training can be very moderate--good for post-injury training. Nevertheless, it can be a significant and necessary alternative for even the most advanced strength trainers. You will need to vary your program at least every three weeks to prevent "accommodation"--where your body ceases using as much energy or developing muscles for the same activity.
You can easily learn for yourself what strength training is and what its benefits are by stretching resistance bands or lifting your own body's weight or dumbbells at home or utilizing the barbells and workout equipment in a fitness center.
