resistance training

Resistance training may come in the form of machine or free weights, bands, your own body weight or really anything that provides resistance to your working muscles. The idea behind this sort of training is to use a counter force against your own body movements, with the aim of producing muscle tension and fatigue. With resistance training, you can build strength, build muscle tissue, and increase muscular endurance. This can improve your body’s ability to cope with everyday stresses, enhance athletic performance, give a boost to your metabolism assisting in fat loss, and help to slow down the aging process. A good level of muscular development and strength are essential for well-being, and general health in both men and women.

There are many ways is which your muscles will adapt to your resistance training program, and depending on what you prefer and your goals, your training program will reflect this. Just to clarify, muscular endurance can be defined as a muscle’s ability to resist fatigue during continuous and prolonged effort, whereas muscular strength is the muscle’s ability to exert force at a given speed of movement. You can measure it by the maximum weight that can be lifted just once or by the number of times a weight can be lifted. Your goals may be determined by a specific sport you may train for, but if its for general health, fitness and looks, then you’ll want to mix it up and include a whole variety of different weight training protocols into your exercise plan to keep things fresh and interesting.

A resistance training program offers numerous advantages such as fat loss, muscle tone and size which will improve appearance in both men and women, increased protection against muscle and joint injuries, increased bone mineral content, improved posture, decreased risk of osteoporosis,, reduction in resting blood pressure, decreased risk of adult onset diabetes, and improved self-esteem.

These exercises can vary in intensity and you should try to build on your strength, endurance and general fitness progressively. With an appropriate program designed by a qualified personal trainer, overweight as well as healthy people can benefit tremendously from resistance training. Most of the best exercises primarily focus on compound movements which work multiple muscles and involve multiple joints to produce movement. Movements like the squat, deadlift, lunges, push ups.bench press, rowing movements, chin ups etc will train multiple muscles at once and will involve using the biggest muscles of your body such as glutes, hamstring, quadriceps, chest, shoulders and back. When you train these large muscles with resistance, they need more fuel to burn as they grow bigger and stronger and as a result of this increased muscle mass you will boost your metabolism or your resting metabolic rate in the long term. This increase in metabolism can lead to accelerated fat loss for you as long as you are eating in accordance with your goals.

Even if you have no access to equipment, a resistance training program can be achieved using your body weight alone. A simple push- up is an example of a really effective body weight exercise because in this exercise, your quite large chest and shoulder muscles are being challenged by your own body weight and you are using many muscles in your core and throughout your body to stabilize yourself. Other at home bodyweight exercises for a beginner to intermediate trainer may include jumping chin ups, lunges, front and side planks/bridges, and squats. Most of these exercises can be done at any place as long as you have enough space for the free movement. These exercises can easily be included into a home training program and are as beneficial as a gym based program for many people, once bodyweight become too easy then its time to add an external load to progress things. If you are unsure of how to perform these exercises safely, be sure to see a qualified personal trainer to show you the right technique and design you a exercise program for your goals.

A resistance training program also works well for athletes or weekend warriors such as riders or runners, it will help improve strength in the prime movers (main working muscles) and the postural muscles, lower body, and upper body. It is important to realize that jogging,and bike riding for example aren’t going to give you complete fitness, as they only work your lower body leaving the upper body neglected and even though they do somewhat train your lower body it won’t be long before adaptation takes place in these particular muscles and increased resistance from what you usually get with your sport will be necessary for further improvement. A resistance training program, supervised by a qualified personal trainer will help improve your stamina, strength, speed, overall performance as well as general health and lifestyle.

Ben Longley provides Personal Training in Prahran and runs Fitness center in St Kilda where he specializes in resistance training, fat loss, weight control, and overall muscular strength for the local residents.

Author: Ben Longley
Article Source: EzineArticles.com