Strength Training: A Quick Guide and its benefits
Strength training (also called resistance training) builds strength by making your muscles work against your body weight and force. Various forms of strength training include the use of free weights, resistance machines, resistance bands, and body weight. Strength training helps maintain and increase muscle mass at any age.
Benefits of strength training
The benefits of strength training include:
Develop strong bones
By stressing bones, strength training increases bone density and reduces the risk of osteoporosis.
Control Weight
Strength training can help you control or lose weight and increase your metabolism to burn more calories
Enhance life quality
Strength training can improve your quality of life and improve your ability to perform daily activities. Strength training can also protect joints from injury. Building muscle also helps improve balance and reduce the risk of falls, which helps you stay independent as you age.
Improve chronic conditions
Strength training can reduce the signs and symptoms of many chronic diseases such as arthritis, back pain, obesity, heart disease, depression, and diabetes.
Sharpens mind
Some research suggests that regular strength training and aerobic exercise can help improve thinking and learning abilities in older adults.
Side-effects of strength training
As with any exercise or fitness program, start slow. Over time, you will become more predictable about what you can do without endangering your body.
Lifting too heavy a weight can damage your muscles and joints. It can also cause spinal cord injuries such as disc herniation. In extreme cases, heavy lifting can rupture an artery in the heart and even cause death.
Exercises to start strength training with
The exercises mentioned here are great for beginners as they build strength and help you practice the basic movements that hundreds of other exercises are based on. They are all considered functional. This means that performing the movements you do in your everyday life, not just in the gym, will help you become stronger. Mastering these movements first and building a solid foundation of strength and proper form will lead to better skills and increased strength later on.
Squats
One of the purest tests of strength, the squat works nearly every muscle in your legs and core, Yellen says. Bodyweight squats are a great way to strengthen your form. Once you’ve solidified your form, you can hold dumbbells or a bar in front of your shoulders (front squats), barbells behind your back (back squats), or weights in front of your chest (goblet squat).
Dead Lift
Deadlifts are arguably considered one of the best exercises for working the back of your body: your glutes and hamstrings. And since you’re working on a stable base, you can actually put your weight on it. There are many different types of deadlifts. These include Romanian (lowering weights on the hips, as pictured above), traditional barbells (pulling weights off the floor), and sumo (using dumbbells). Wider stance and point your toes) at an angle of about 45 degrees.)
Proper form is important to protect your lower back. We recommend practising in front of a mirror with lighter weights until you are comfortable with the exercise.
Glute-bridges
The glute bridge is a hip stretching exercise that primarily targets the glutes, but it also works the hamstrings and core muscles. If you’ve never done a butt bridge, ditch the weights and go with your own body weight first. This is an effective move without any additional resistance.
Push-ups
Push-ups are pushing and pushing movements that work all the compressive muscles of the upper body, including the chest, shoulders and triceps. Dumbbell or barbell chest presses can improve strength and form.
Bent over row
You can also do initial bodyweight pull-ups as you work to improve your rowing strength. This is a difficult exercise that is also an indicator of good strength. This slouching row is an exercise that engages all the pulling muscles in your upper body, including your back, shoulders, and biceps. It also requires leg and core engagement to maintain a strong position.
Hollow body hold
Hollow body holds are a great full-body exercise for maintaining core stability. This core strength provides a stronger foundation for many other compound movements, such as pull ups and deadlifts. The hollow body hold is an isometric exercise that targets all muscles of the core. If the traditional hollow body grip is too difficult, you can change it by bending your knees or holding your arms forward instead of overhead.
Getting started with Strength training
If you have a chronic medical condition, or if you are over the age of 40 and have not been active recently, consult your doctor before starting any weight training or aerobic fitness program.
Warm up for 5-10 minutes with brisk walking or other aerobic exercise before starting weight training. Cold muscles are more prone to injury than warm muscles.
Choose enough weight or resistance level to tire your muscles after about 12 to 15 repetitions.When you can easily increase the number of times for a particular exercise, gradually increase the weight or resistance.
Common FAQs about strength training
1.What is better for strength training: equipment of free weights ?
Both of the techniques have positives and negatives and you should consider these points alongside your primary strength aims.
2.How can I get started with Strength training?
As a beginner, you should start choosing eight to 10 exercises, which would cover the main muscle groups: shoulders, chest, biceps, triceps, back, lower body, and abdominals.
Conclusion
Strength training involves performing physical exercises which are designed to improve your energy levels. Often associated with lifting weights. You can also use different training techniques such as bodyweight exercises, isometrics and plyometrics.
