ANTIAGING EXERCISE

Weight Training

Weight Training

Weight training uses free hand weights to overload the work on an isolated muscle. This overload causes a slight tear in the muscle, which triggers repair. This muscle repair adds additional muscle fibres, resulting in a larger, stronger muscle.

Starting Out

If you are just starting out, be patient. Any muscle that hasn't been worked hard in more than a week or so will let you know within 24 hours that it has been stressed. That's OK. You will be sore at first. You should be sore at first. But that goes away.

• Start light, ease into hard work. For most people, fitness is not a competitive activity, but one of self-realization. Do only what is right for you, and don't worry about the person at the next machine. Resist the temptation to do more than you can.
• Whenever you start a new exercise, make certain that you master the correct form. Use weights with which you can complete, with good form, three sets of 12 to 15 reps. Only then should you increase the weight.
• Start with a program and schedule you will be able to maintain. Fitness is a long term proposition not a short term endeavour

Increase Effectiveness with Mind Focus

To make your workout really effective you must focus and concentrate each and every minute you exercise. You have to perform using the right form that will employ the target muscle and you have to focus like a laser beam on the sub-muscle group.

The chest muscle group should be separated, for example, into 3 groups, each one of them to be worked separately: the upper, the middle and the lower muscles. But the most important is putting your mind into action and focus your thoughts on the specific sub-muscle group.

You think about the sub-muscle group and your mind gives a command to engage the specific muscle while isolating any other muscle.

Warming Up

Warming up takes two forms - overall, and specific. For the "overall" part, it's always a good idea to begin any strength workout with a short aerobic exercise to "get the blood" flowing. This should be a 5-10 minutes low intensity warm-up, and is not a substitute for a more focused aerobic workout.

"Specific" warm-ups are done before you begin heavy lifting with any given muscle group. The first time you work a muscle group you should do 10-12 reps at 60% to 75% of your intended first set weight. When combined with stretching, warming up will help prevent injuries and allow you to get the most from your workouts. If you allow a muscle group to cool by resting too long, between exercises, you should warm it up again before heavy lifting.

How Much Weight

Although it may seem that if you are working to failure according to the table, you are using the right weight. That may not be the case. In fact, your muscles may have accommodated to a point and may need to be shocked.
To select a weight, increase the weight until you cannot complete the minimum number of repetitions you are looking to do. Then back-off by one increment. Look to increase the weight as the number of To-Failure reps increases.

Never work with weights you can't control. If you need a spotter, get one or select a different exercise.

Speed of Lift

Don’t be fooled into thinking doing it slower builds more muscle – its only result is to lower your outcome and extend your work session. Using a 1 second up and 1 second down movement burns 71% more calories than using a 5-second up phase and a 10-second down phase. That tells us your body is working harder, so the results will be better.

The best increases in strength are achieved by doing the up phase as rapidly as possible then lower the weight more slowly and under control. When you lower with control, there's less chance of injury.

Sets and Reps

Reps or Repetitions: The number of times a movement is done consecutively without stopping.

Sets: A set is a group of repetitions. By choosing the proper combination of sets and reps you can shape the effect of your workout. Note that the number of sets doesn't include warm-ups

Weight Training Techniques

There are a number of techniques used by weight trainers to improve performance over just increasing weight or repetitions. These include:

• Working to Maximum Exertion Point
• Supersets
• Pyramiding
• Stripping

Working to Maximum Exertion Point

Also known as “working to failure” Performing an exercise until you are no longer able to complete another rep and maintain good form. Once you have advanced beyond the starting point, you will want to optimize your workouts.

To increase definition or add muscle mass you should to do each set to failure. That means selecting the right weight, and/or changing the weight between sets.

Pyramiding

Pyramiding is a series of low rep, high weight sets aimed at increasing mass. It involves changing the reps/sets routine to one optimized for gaining size. Each set in a pyramid uses more weight at fewer reps. For example: A person who has a "theoretical" one-rep maximum bench press of 150 lbs. would use the following pyramid routine. It consists of seven sets, as shown below:

Important Notes: Pyramiding places a lot of strain on your muscles and supporting structures, and shouldn't be done over significant lengths of time. It is best used with exercises/muscles involving more than one joint - for example bench press, lat pull, squat, leg press - as opposed to exercises that involve only one joint - for example biceps curls, quad extensions, triceps press backs, etc.

Stripping

Stripping is increasing intensity by progressively removing weight at the endof a routine. It involves working beyond failure.

In your final set of an exercise, once you have reached failure, stop momentarily, reduce your workload a little (often by "stripping" plates from a bar) then immediately start again, to failure.

Repeat this until the amount of weight being lifted is negligible for you. This will result in a very significant "pump" because it recruits every possible muscle fiber. But remember - maintain good form.

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