It’s a common misunderstanding amongst those who exercise regularly as well as those who are new to the field, that only experienced athletes involve themselves in strength training. However, this is no more than a myth. When you ignore strength training in your workout schedule, you leave out too much health, physical and mental benefits. Take a look at why you should incorporate this very important aspect into your training program:
Weight training – the benefits
There are a number of benefits to strength training:
- It helps up your physical work capacity and gives a boost to your ability to perform ADLs (activities of daily living).
- When you include well-planned weight-training activities into your routine, it will help you work harder and for a longer period of time.
- Adding some strength training into your regular workout plan is the best way to keep bone loss under control.
- With decreasing sarcopenia, it also helps build fat-free body mass.
- The fact is that with age, there is a decrease in the lean muscle mass; and if you don’t include strength training into your routine, it will eventually turn into fat.
- Weight training also helps increase the strength of the tendons, muscles and the connective tissue; and this decreases the risk of injury and improves motor performance.
- As you gain body confidence, it helps improve your quality of life.
- Not only will strength training make you stronger, it will also help in weight management.
Getting started with weight training
It’s important to consult a fitness specialist or a personal trainer, before you begin with weight training. These professionals will explain all the basics in a very detailed manner, show you the proper form and chalk out a custom weekly program for you. If you are an experienced athlete, the fitness professional will explain how to correctly overload your body, in order to help you continue achieving endurance and strength gains.
Setting up a strength training program – the benefits
- Start out very slowly, as this significantly reduces the chances of soreness and injury.
- Begin only with single sets and then transition to multiple sets.
- Use the right amount of weight; using too much will only impact your form and increases your chances of injury.
- Contrastingly, if you don’t lift enough weight, it won’t challenge your muscles and you won’t get the benefits you should. There is one simple way to know whether you are actually lifting the right amount of weights – it should be difficult for you to perform the last repetitions without compromising your form.
- It’s important to give your muscles the time to rest and recover; and wait for a minimum of 48hours before you go back to training that same muscle group again.
- Your body always works much harder when it’s trying to maintain muscle over fat. Including strength training into your routine can give a distinct boost to your mechanism and this helps you burn more calories throughout the day.
Tweak your routine
Some people find weight training to be boring; but it doesn’t really have to be that way. It’s important that you switch your routine regularly; this helps keep your body guessing, reduces the boredom and increases strength gains. Switch between bands, bars, free weights, machines, as well as your own body weight. Change the number of reps, the exercises and speed and before long you will notice an increase in benefits.
If you have any questions about a proper strength training routine, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at Schembri PT. You can send us an email to info@schembript.com or fill in this contact us form and we’ll reply as soon as possible.
Thanks for reading,
Schembri PT Team
02 9648 6405