Strength Training

by Molly Magunga, MS ATC, CPT, CES

Hello Everyone! This week’s “Fitness Tip of the Week” is about strength training. Strength training goes by many different names, including resistance training and weight training. Just as it goes by many names, the structure looks completely different depending on your fitness goals and level of experience. It may not seem like it, but powerlifting competitions, bodyweight workouts, and everything in-between fall under the strength training umbrella. I would never be able to do strength training justice with just one weekly tip. Because of this, I think the best way to introduce this topic is to start with general strength building tips.

General Strength Tips

Everyone should be doing some sort of strength training in whatever exercise program they have. Unless you have a very specific fitness goals, a general strength training program will work for many exercise programs. The following tips will help you get started!

• A Proper Warm Up and Cool Down is a Must:
  • Just like with any type of workout, you need to make sure your muscles are warmed up and ready for the type of stress you will place on them. Going straight into lifting without warming up is just asking for an injury, like a muscle strain.
  • Cooling down is just as important as warming up. A proper stretch after strength training helps reset your body, improve recovery, and reduce muscle soreness.
• Form and Tempo First:
  • Before you even pick up weights, you want to make sure your form is correct. It is rare that form improves once extra weight is added, so insuring proper form helps protect you from getting hurt.
  • Your speed of movement is also very important. You want slow and controlled movement to help strengthen the muscles through the entire range of motion. Going too quickly can lead to form breakdown, loss of control, and potential injury.
• Breathe!
  • You need to remember to breath while you lift. Many people find themselves holding their breath while lifting, which will elevate your blood pressure and speed your heart rate up. Some forms of strength training (i.e. Pilates) build breathing into the practice, but for general purposes exhale during the hardest part of the movement and inhale for the other.
• Start Light and Gradually Increase:
  • Many people start too heavy, can only do a few reps, and then are sore for days after a workout. To reduce this likelihood, start with lighter weights you can do 12 to 15 repetitions of the exercise with. The amount of weight should be challenging when you are about 2/3 of the way through the set. This means a set of 12 repetitions should get tough at around rep 8 or 9 of 12.
  • After a few times of repeating the same workout, gradually increase the amount of weight. You shouldn’t jump up more than 2 pounds with upper body exercises or 5 pounds with lower body exercises. Keep the 2/3 rule in mind when deciding to increase weight so you have a better idea of when and how much to go up.
• Train All the Muscle Groups:
  • Strength training is meant to keep the body balanced during a workout program. You don’t want to create imbalances by always skipping leg day. Make sure you strengthen all the major muscle groups 2 to 3 times per week.
• Listen to Your Body:
  • Give your body rest when it needs it. This includes between sets in a workout and days off between strength training sessions. The rest days between strength training are especially important if you are brand new to lifting. Your muscles are being stressed in a completely different way. They will likely be sore as a result and need more time to recovery before the next lift.
  • The very last thing you should do is ignore pain. There is a difference between soreness pain and injury pain. If you are having pain while doing an exercise or experience injury pain after, listen to your body and take the necessary steps to heal properly.

If you have any questions, you can email me at mmagunga@healthworksfitness.com or comment below!