Strength Training to Build Muscle and Lose Fat

Monday, March 30, 2009 4:45
Posted in category Weight Loss

What do you mean by Strength Training? Strength training is working out with the aim of boosting your physical strength. There are two types of strength:

Relative Strength. Relative strength means developing highest strength while monitoring calories consumed along with cardio to prevent any weight gain, like Gymnasts or rock climbers
Absolute Strength. Absolute strength means being the strongest person irrespective of the body weight like Strongman or Olympic Lifters in the heaviest classes easily. Increased body-weight implies bigger muscles & hence higher strength.

Advantages of Strength Training. Here are some of the common benefits of strength training:
Develops Muscle. Strength training develops muscle: increased strength leads to more muscles. But remember, strength training is not bodybuilding as developing muscle is a side-effect of working out, not its aim.
Burns Fat. Muscle consumes calories. Increased muscle implies more calories burnt & consequently reduced body fat. It is possible to get a year-round body fat of 10% (15% women) with the help of strength training and proper diet.
Better Health. Strength training builds endurance, bone thickness & testosterone levels. It gives strong joints, reduces cholesterol & deepens your sleep. Moreover diet plays an important role in obtaining results from strength training. Both of them give a healthier body & lifestyle.
Builds Character. Strength training helps you develop perseverance, surrender, self-control, accountability & increases self-esteem. The results you obtain from strength training will depend on the efforts you put into it.

How do to increase Strength? It requires time to develop strength. A typical strength training program works as follows:
Stress. Exercising pressurizes your body. Your body doesn’t like stress appreciate it & adjusts by becoming stronger & developing muscle.
Successive Loading. Your body rapidly adjusts to stress. Raise the resistance slowly to prevent stagnation.
However there will come a time when your progress will halt, as it is impossible to keep on increasing resistance permanently. In this case, lower the resistance for some time and then raise it to break through the stagnation.
Pace. Quicker your movement, more strength you’ll develop, since you are using all the muscle fibers and so can use quick pace.
Power. Power is the capacity to speed up: starting from a dead stop to fast. Faster you can reach maximum speeds, the stronger you’ll be. Olympic lifts such as Power Cleans develop power.

Kinds of Strength Training
. There are various methods open to develop strength. Here are few of them:
Weight Lifting. Barbells are the simplest way to increase strength. Begin light, concentrate on form & increase weight gradually. Higher the weight on the bar, more strength you develop. Some weight lifting exercises are the Squat, Bench Press, Overhead Press, Barbell Row & Deadlift.
Body-weight Exercises. Compel you to utilize your own body-weight as opposition. Are difficult initially if you don’t have adequate strength. Some body-weight exercises: Pull-ups, Chin-ups, Dips, Pistols & Push-ups.
Machines. Machines stabilize the weight for you, making them simpler yet more inefficient as compared to free weights or body-weight exercises. Machines also compel your body into a definite motion style. Placing yourself wrongly with heavy weights and you are more apt to be injured.

Beginning with Strength Training. Start with weight lifting & body-weight exercises. Three options are:
StrongLifts 5×5. Novice Strength Training Program using weight lifting exercises. Begin light, learn exercise form in the initial period & increase weight slowly
StrongLifts Dumbbell 5×5. Similar to above but using dumbbells and can be used in the absence of barbells.
SimpleFit. Uses a program based on body weight exercises like Squats, Pull-ups & Push-ups.

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