resistance training

Whenever I am speaking to gym members, or I am on a consultation with a new client and I begin talking to them about resistance or weight training (and this mostly relates to female clients)I all of a sudden get a look of sheer panic.  ”I don’t want to get big ugly muscles” they say. The second I use the words weight and training in the same sentence, they automatically get a vision in their heads of me turning them into the next Miss.Olympia. It’s understandable because of the the misconceptions that have been allowed to creep in to our society regarding weight training and body building.

To the un-initiated, anyone that has never walked into a gym before and even those who work out in gyms regularly, it is the common understanding that the weights area is only for those who are dead serious on developing large, lean, defined, strong muscles. if you have no interest in looking like Schwarzenegger, then why would you go up there? Surely you can get all the results you are looking for from the treadmill or other cardio machines right?

Wrong. It’s a myth and actually counter-productive to your training (99.9% of the time).

Believe it or not, almost every single client I work, from all ages, shapes, sizes and abilities, I train using some form of resistance, whether it’s their own body weight, free or fixed weights, medicine balls and so on. Oh, and just to add, I don’t train body builders.

Now I understand why people tend to feel hesitant about resistance training. Apart from the misconceptions of  free weights are only for the bodybuilder types, the free weights area can be very intimidating. If it’s not the big fella bench pressing 250kg, the equipment itself can be very daunting if you’ve never used it before. Most people feel that way at first, but once you know what you are doing, resistance training can be very enjoyable, and very beneficial.

Resistance training and women

Let’s go back to my original point with ladies and resistance training. There are not that many women out there who want to be body builders, which is perfectly understandable. Most of the women I have trained, generally, have only really been interested in shedding body fat to fit in a new dress, and to tone up there legs, bums and tums. Fairly common goals I think you would agree. So where does resistance training come in? To develop lean muscle tissue and develop mass, involves a very specific training routine, usually involving up to 10+ training sessions per week, with each session focusing on isolating individual muscle groups. It also involves very careful and precise repetition and set ranges and being able to push very large am mounts of weight (although not in every session or exercise). Body building is very difficult, so picking up a dumbell won’t suddenly cause your shoulders to explode.

Female clients are physically different to male clients (and I’m not just talking about the obvious differences). Women have a different chemical and hormonal make-up to men. Specifically, they have far lower levels of testosterone in their systems, which already hinders their ability to build muscle tissue, as testosterone is essential for developing mass. It’s essentially the body’s natural steroid, so with lower levels of testosterone, the lower the body’s ability to build muscle mass.

So ladies, I hope that eases your mind on that front. So now, if resistance training isn’t for building mass, what does it do? There are many benefits of resistance training for women, if you apply it correctly. Now although it won’t necessarily build mass, it will build strength. There’s a difference between size and strength of muscles. Another common misconception is the bigger your muscles are, the stronger they are. Again, this isn’t necessarily the case. We’ll go into this a bit later. For now, it’s important to understand that muscle tissue is metabolic (basically it burns fat) and the stronger that muscle is, the more fat it can metabolize. In a nut-shell, stronger muscles burn more fat. Already a good reason to train don’t you think? You can burn more fat on a 30 min resistance session than you will in an hour of running. So ladies, what do you think of resistance training now?

There are a couple of things you should be aware of though. Muscle tissue weighs more than fat, so you may find when you are on your resistance training programme, you may loose the inches, just not necessarily the weight on the scales. Don’t let this dishearten you though, after all, your clothes fit, and you will feel fitter and stronger.

Also, it is important that your routine is structured and planned, with sufficient recovery. Excessive high-intensity resistance training can have a massive impact on your hormonal system and can create an imbalance. If you are not careful, and can effect the menstrual cycle to the point where it ceases altogether. You shouldn’t worry too much though, as it only really tends to occur in elite level athletes and isn’t that common. Generally everything will return to normal with sufficient recovery. If you do experience this, then you should stop training and consult your GP. Don’t let it put you off, the chances of you experiencing this are unlikely if you plan your training appropriately.

Creating Balance

We now know that resistance training can be a great way to burn fat when performed correctly, but what other benefits are there? Resistance training is not about how much you can lift, it’s about how well your body can move and perform, especially under a load or resistance. An essential element to resistance training, which is far too commonly over looked, is actually training your body to be able to take it’s own weight safely. This isn’t me saying that you’re overweight, so you can remove that idea from your head. It’s not about how much you weigh, it’s about your body’s ability to support yourself. Specifically I’m talking about joint stability here. I’m not going to go in to huge amounts of detail here today, but the basic point I want to get across to you is about muscle balance around joints. Specifically, the facet joints of the spine, the knees and the shoulders.

Depending on a number of factors, for instance your lifestyle, your job, the kinds of training you do, the sports you play, how much time you spend seated, any injuries or conditions you have or had, all of these factors can affect the balance of strength in your muscles around a joint. If you have an imbalance, this creates instability, which usually results in pain or injury. Think of you spine and your posture. If you spend your days at a desk, you will spend a lot of time hunched forward. Over time, this will cause the muscles in your hip flexors, chest, shoulders and upper abdominals to shorten and tighten, causing your rear delts, rhomboids and erector muscles to lengthen and weaken. This creates shear forces through the facet joints of your spine and greatly increases the load and pressure through the disks. Eventually this can lead to herniation, ruptures, degeneration and all kinds of nasties. All in all, imbalance isn’t so good.

Think of the muscles around your joints as having a constant tug-of-war. If there is balance, then there is a stalemate. If one side is stronger than the other, then that balance is lost and eventually one team will collapse and land in the mud. OK so it’s not the muscles collapsing, but it illustrates the point. 

Resistance training, when integrated with mobility exercises and flexibility, can help to re-balance the body by strengthening the weaker muscles, and re-creating stability.

Movement

We all move, it’s what we do. But because of the reasons I just highlighted (and other factors) we may not move as efficiently as we are designed to. What I mean by this is that when we perform particular movements, our body’s are designed to recruit and activate muscles in an optimal sequence to perform the movement both safely and with minimal energy output. If you have muscle imbalances, then your body will not be able to effectively recruit muscles in their optimum recruitment sequence. This means that some of your larger muscles are inhibited and cannot activate. The problem here is that it’s the larger muscles that are designed to take the load, so all of the muscles that are supposed to ‘support’ end up doing all the work, which creates further imbalances.

Resistance training can be used to re-programme your muscles and your nervous system to start recruiting the right muscles for the job. At this point you would generally use body weight, or very light loads depending on your desired result, but by correcting, or re-facilitating a ‘motor’ pattern, you will notice you get stronger through that movement, and you will be less prone to injury, because your muscles will be able to coordinate themselves properly. The ability of your muscles to do this is called ‘inter-muscular coordination’.

Strength and performance

You may not be a woman interested in weight loss, you could well be training for a sport, or a physical job and need to not only develop good motor patterns and joint stability, but enough strength to function and perform whatever task it is you need. Obviously resistance training is key to building strength, whether it’s absolute strength (the maximum amount of strength you can train), relative strength (the maximum strength you can achieve in relation to your body weight) or optimal strength (the amount of strength required to perform any given task). Obviously the type of training will need to be relevant to what your intended outcome will be. For example, a martial artist needs to be able to develop strength and speed, but if they are fighting competitively, they will need to keep their weight down. This is relative strength. They have to maximize the forces they can generate without building lean mass. If you look at a power lifter, they are not limited by their weight, they just have to get as strong as possible. Basically, the means must meet the end.

If we go back to our female weight loss client, she may be a mother and housewife and picking up her 3 year old, moving furniture and so on and so forth. She must be strong enough to lift a load off the floor, while maintaining optimal joint stability (especially in the lumbar region of the spine) and still be losing weight. Can you successfully meet all of those criteria just by training on the treadmill?

Some other benefits of resistance training

Before I close this article, there are a few other important, relevant benefits that I think I should mention, just so that I know I’ve done my best to inform you of all of the benefits of resistance training. Resistance training actually helps to increase bone density, which is important for fighting off conditions such as Osteoporosis, especially in women. Resistance training can also help you develop your fitness and endurance levels, by increasing your heart rate and improving the blood supply to your muscles. Resistance training develops core strength in both static and dynamic movements, which is absolutely essential for stability. On top of all of this though, resistance training can actually be fun. I’m yet to have a client who has said they would prefer and hour on a cardio machine, than a good quality resistance session. Once they get into it, they love it!

Resistance training isn’t just about the free-weights either. There are so many methods of training that all get fantastic results for all kinds of people. You can use Swiss balls, Kettlebells, Medicine balls, resistance bands, tubing, cables and of course, your own body-weight.

The difficult thing now is finding the right kind of resistance training for you in order to achieve your goals. In “Resistance training Part 2“, I will go into detail about the benefits of each method of training and the equipment you can use, exercises for each piece of equipment and even how to structure an effective resistance programme, helping you work out which method of training is best for your needs.

Important disclaimer: The information contained within this article is for information purposes only. By participating in any form of exercise, you do so of you’re own free will and you accept that there is a potential risk of injury. You should always consult your GP before engaging in any form of exercise, and seek the advice of a qualified professional before you start your training.

Kyle Hargreaves
Personal Trainer and Martial Arts Coach

Author: Kyle Hargreaves
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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