The basics of strength training
Would you like to know more, or even just the basics about strength training? Today’s session gets you started and brings you up to date.
We’ll learn about the role of the muscles in the body and explain how to properly train the muscles. We’ll also explain how strength training affects our health and wellbeing.
Section 1: Muscles and movement
Our driving force
There are more than 650 muscles in the human body. Together with the bones, joints, tendons and ligaments, they form the human musculoskeletal and locomotor system.
Without our muscles, we wouldn’t be able to move our bodies.
Function and tasks
The main function of the muscles is to set the body in motion. The muscles also support the skeleton and protect us against external impacts. Straining the muscles also generates heat – a good example of this is our body shivering when it’s cold.
Muscles support us, provide warmth and perform vital functions.
Important:
Never do exercise when suffering from an acute cardiovascular or respiratory condition. And definitely stay away from it if you have a fever.
Avoid overexerting yourself with high intensity exercise and avoid sports that place one-sided stress on the body.
Strength training
To keep our muscles in shape, exercise is a must. Sadly, most people don’t recognize all the benefits that strength training can bring.
In the following, we’ll familiarise you with strength training and its various facets.
Strength training has something positive to offer to everyone, regardless of age or gender.
Strength training is widely used in rehabilitation for a large number of illnesses and injuries. It’s also very important as a preventative measure.
Benefits of strength training
On the outside, muscle development and increase in strength make up the more visible effects of strength training.
Although not visible to the eye, strength training also:
- stabilises bones and joints
- reduces the risk of osteoporosis
- increases the basal metabolic rate (linked to weight loss)
- optimises the metabolism
- strengthens the blood vessels and improves oxygen transported in the body
- stimulates the formation of new nerve cells in the brain
- activates the immune system
Strength training not only prevents back pain and posture problems, but also improves self-awareness.
Strength training protects against illnesses and can even help in the recovery process.
What to do:
In order to benefit from all that strength training has to offer, it’s important to be regularly active. Strength training should be a priority on your to-do list!
Section 2: Training principles
After the ‘Why’ comes the ‘How’
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends doing muscle-building activities at least twice a week, with a focus on the large muscle groups.
For optimal efficacy, leave a space of 48 hours between 2 training sessions for the same muscle group.
Maintaining balance:
It’s important in strength training to train the muscles evenly to avoid bad posture. Pay attention to both the agonists (or ‘acting’ muscles) and their counterparts, the antagonists.
When stretching the torso, our back muscles are the agonists and the stomach muscles are the antagonists. If we were to work on only one or the other, problems in muscle imbalances would likely develop.
For a healthy posture, both groups of muscles should be trained, since they act together in movement.
Training intensity
In order to benefit from the effects of strength training, choosing the right resistance or weight is important. First, go by what feels right – you’ll be able to tell straight away whether a weight is too light or too heavy for you. Ideally, the weight you’re using becomes challenging by the last 2 reps while still allowing you to keep good form.
Our movement consists of 2 phases:
The positive or concentric phase is where the muscle shortens and tension is overcome as we move an object, like when lifting weights.
The negative or eccentric phase is where the muscle lengthens and tension slowly subsides as we lower a given weight.
An example:
When doing push-ups, the concentric phase is the pushing up and the eccentric phase is the controlled lowering of the body.
Important: Hurried and abrupt movements should be avoided at all costs, as they increase the risk of injury. When training, move with control and focus.
Section 3: Training methods:
How to train
There are many training methods and your personal goal will determine which one you choose. What’s most important is that you’re actually doing strength training.
Strength training methods are either based on:
the intensity of the resistance you’re moving
the number of reps of an exercise
Before training, it’s best to determine the number of reps you’ll do per exercise, and then decide the level of resistance, which can be adapted as you wish.
Maximum strength:
When lifting a weight at 80-100% of your maximum strength over a few repetitions, you are training your maximum strength (FMax).
Usually, reaching your maximum strength is of little importance if your goal is to simply become more physically active for your health.
Training with your maximum strength is risky when done alone. You should only train at maximum strength if you have a lot of experience with strength sports and your muscles are well trained.
The risk of injury is high with maximum and sub-maximum resistances. If your muscles can’t handle the training weight, tendons, ligaments and cartilage are negatively impacted.
Hypertrophy:
The increase and growth of muscle cells is called hypertrophy. In this kind of training, fitness experts recommend an average of 6-12 reps, with an intensity between 60-80% of your maximum strength.
Hypertrophy training is very popular with athletes and can be well-integrated in everyday life. Compared to maximum strength and strength endurance training (more on that next), in hypertrophy training, beginners can quickly feel improvements.
Strength endurance:
Strength endurance involves maintaining a certain level of strength or muscle tension over a fairly long period of time. Ideally, you should be training at 30-70% of your maximum strength with 12-25 reps.
Strength endurance is not only important for athletic fitness, but for general performance in everyday life. Training in strength endurance is good for withstanding strain for as long as possible.
To improve overall physical fitness, combine different resistance areas.
Section 4: Tips
Preparation
As we can see, strength training plays a significant role in maintaining our health. It’s important to warm up properly before strength training with light, dynamic mobilisation exercises and very light strength exercises (without resistance), as these help get our metabolism going.
Examples: making arm circles or circling with the hips.
It’s also important to always train with controlled movements and to make sure that you’re paying attention to how you move – whether you’re training on machines, devices or with your own body weight. This keeps the risk of injury to a minimum.
Muscular balance:
It’s important to avoid one-sided strain during strength training. This means that if you train your right leg, you should do the same with your left.
Always train both the agonist AND the antagonist muscles so that muscular imbalances do not occur.
Even if we sometimes lack motivation, strength training keeps us physically active and healthy. For a better quality of life, too much rest is the wrong way to go.
Remember that it’s our muscles that protect us against injury and carry us through life. The more we train, the more strength we’ll have.
The positive effects of training will only last if we stick to our training consistently.