Happiness, Health, Wisdom and Wealth ™"The Owner's Manual for Your Life" |
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Strength TrainingStrength training is essential to creating and maintaining health. A healthy body is a strong body. As you gain strength you will increase muscle mass. Increased muscle mass will lower the percentage of body fat. Furthermore, muscle mass burns calories, a lot of calories, even when doing nothing a pound of muscle burns 3 to 5 times what a pound of fat burns. Think of two cars, a Ford Mustang and a Toyota Prius, the Mustang has a large engine, the Prius a small one. Now, we all know the Mustang gets worse gas mileage than the Prius (it burns more calories per mile). But which one burns the most gas while idling at a traffic light? Still the Mustang, by a lot (it burns more calories per minute). Bigger engines burn more gas even when idling. Bigger muscles burn more calories even when doing nothing. Strength training is based on the knowledge that muscles adapt. When you lift weights correctly you are teaching your muscles what you want them to be able to do. The workout in the table below is a good schedule for strength training beginners. These three exercises are chosen to start you off by working the four largest muscle groups in your body, your gluteus maximus (your rear end), your quadriceps (the front of your thighs), your latissimus dorsi (your upper back), and your pectoralis major (your chest). Developing these muscles will increase your calorie burning noticably. They are also your bodies main 'working' muscles. Normal tasks like pushing and lifting use these muscles so your increased strength will be noticable in your daily life. This workout routine will not give you giant muscles. The only difference you will see will be in a tighter, more toned look. |
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You may decide to do a lot more strength training later but if you are new to strength training you should follow this routine for at least 12 weeks before trying anything more difficult. As with any exercise program, check with your physician to be sure you are healthy enough for strenuous exercise. When you begin each exercise start with 2 sets of 20 easy repetitions (the easy ones are starred*). Then increase the weight so that 20 is all you can do. Then each week decrease the number of repetitions and increase the weight. It's important to work muscle groups on alternate days. For example, squats on Monday, rows on Tuesday, benches on Wednesday, squats on Thursday, rows on Friday and benches again on Saturday. We don't do the same exercise two days in a row. This gives each muscle group time to heal and adapt before you work it again. You can workout either three or six days per week which means you'll work each group either once or twice each week. As you do the exercises, do them slowly, at least 3 seconds on the lift while exhaling and at least 3 seconds on the return while inhaling. This will give you a much better workout and help reduce the chance of injury. If you are prone to injury in an exercise you could go as high as 15 seconds up and 15 seconds down. This will mean you'll need to use lower weight but it will further protect your tendons and ligaments.
When the 12th repetition of the 4th set is fairly easy you can increase the weight a bit. The 12th repetition of the 4th set should always be difficult. Keep increasing the weight you use for each exercise; as long as you can perform 4 sets of 12 the weight is not too much. Most people do their workouts all at once. I don't. I like to do one set every 10 or 15 minutes. As I'm writing this, I pause every 10 minutes or so and do a set. It gives me a good break and I feel like I get a better workout that way. Just like with cardio, it's critical to set up conditions so that you can enjoy your workout as much as possible. I have my workout area between my office and my living room next to a large window looking out into a lovely garden. You might want to have music playing. Wear comfortable clothes that you feel good wearing. People always ask about getting sore, well, yeah, you get sore. I worked chest and shoulders yesterday and my chest is sore today. I've been lifting weights for 48 years and I still get sore but... but I love that! No, I'm not a masochist! It doesn't hurt much but it reminds me that I worked out yesterday and every time it reminds me I feel happy and satisfied that I'm achieving my goals. If I didn't get sore I might forget as I went through my day what a great job I'm doing of developing my muscles. Those kinds of positive thoughts are essential to keeping yourself motivated and happy with your workouts. You don't need a lot of fancy equipment. A set of dumbells that you can put on or take off weight plates from are inexpensive and will do the job just fine. I strongly recommend dumbells over barbells. They do a much better job of developing the 'helper' muscles. If you use a machine use one that has dumbell like grips (each hand free to move in any direction). Machines that restrict your movement develop only a small part of the entire muscle. The other advantage is that you don't need a spotter. You can drop dumbells to the floor if you need to (a mat to protect your floor is a good idea), with a barbell you can be trapped under it. Try lots of different things as you progress; look to make your strength training time a terrific part of your day, not drudgery. Workout with friends if that works for you. Plan it to be a part of your day you really look forward to. If you do that, you'll have you be in great shape in no time. It's your life, TAKE CHARGE!! |
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