Strength training is so vital to every day life because it can help maintain the muscular balance of the body. No matter what your goals are, strength training is an important component of your exercise program and it’s never too late to start. Despite its reputation as a “guy” or “jock” thing, strength training is important for everyone. With increasing awareness, women have come to realize that strength training is an essential component of life long fitness-mind and body.

Along with aerobic exercise, stretching, and balance and stability, strength training is one part of a well-rounded fitness program. Strength Training is when you perform exercises with resistance to build muscle mass and strength. Strength training is just what your body needs to fight the loss of muscle, bone mass and strength that comes with age. One of the primary positive outcomes associated with strength training is an improvement in body composition.

Basic Principles Of Strength Training

Most gyms or weight rooms set up their machines in a circuit, or group, of exercises that you perform to strengthen different groups of muscles. The basic principles of strength training involve a manipulation of the number of repetitions (reps), sets, tempo, exercises and force to cause desired changes in strength, endurance, size or shape by overloading of a group of muscles.

Training commonly uses the technique of progressively increasing the force output of the muscle through incremental increases of weight, elastic tension or other resistance, and uses a variety of exercises and types of equipment to target specific muscle groups. Exercises often alternate between “pushing” and “pulling” movements to allow their specific supporting muscles time to recover.

Performing a series of exercises with little or no rest between them, referred to as “circuit training”, will draw energy mostly from the aerobic energy system. The exercises are performed at a steady pace, taking at least two to four seconds to lift and lower the weight, to avoid jerks that can damage muscles and joints.

Aerobic Exercises

Aerobic exercises are very beneficial and make one’s life healthier. Talk to any world renowned fitness expert or any recent contest winner they will come with the same answer, “Aerobic Exercises are the best Weight Loss Exercises there is”. Aerobic exercise and stretching should be performed first followed by resistance training participation.

Cardio exercise is any rhythmic activity performed continuously and can include activities like walking, running, aerobics, cycling, swimming and dancing. Though weight training can stimulate the cardiovascular system, many exercise physiologists, based on their observation of maximal oxygen uptake, argue that aerobics training is a better cardiovascular stimulus. Regular aerobic exercise, such as running or using a stationary bike, makes your muscles use oxygen more efficiently and strengthens your heart and lungs.

Aerobic exercises are those which strengthen the heart and circulatory system, and in doing so, results in more efficient use of oxygen by the body. Examples of aerobic exercises are bicycling, aerobic dance and step classes, running, swimming, jumping rope, and vigorous walking. For a beginner, aerobic exercises are suggested over anaerobic exercises, so as to ensure an overall fitness.

Conclusion

An encouraging aspect of strength training is the fact that you’ll likely experience rapid improvements in strength and muscle tone right from the start of your program. More frequent strength training is not more beneficial because the body does not actually get stronger while strength training; instead, we get stronger while we recover from strength training.