by David Minishian | Jan 6, 2023 | Bodybuilding, Exercise, Fat Loss, Fitness, Strength Training
Resistance training is a popular form of exercise, because it can help you build muscle and strength while burning fat. It’s an effective way to get in shape quickly, but there are a few key things that you need to know in order to maximize your results.
Let’s take a look at what resistance training is all about, why it works so well for building muscle and fat loss, how to set up an effective resistance training program for yourself, and provide a few tips on how you can maximize your gains from each workout session.
What Is Resistance Training?
Resistance training is any type of physical activity that involves using external or bodyweight forces against muscles or joints in order to increase their strength or endurance. This could include activities like weightlifting with free weights or machines, performing exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, squats or lunges, using resistance bands, or even hiking uphill with a backpack full of rocks. Any form of movement where muscles must work against a force – whether it be gravity itself (bodyweight exercises), added weight (barbells), elastic bands – qualifies as “resistance training”.
Why Should You Do Resistance Training?
There are plenty of benefits associated with regular resistance training! For starters, people who consistently perform resistance training workouts have better overall health than those who don’t – including a reduced risk for chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease and improved bone density and joint mobility/stability. This type of exercise also places a higher physical demand on the body, which can boost your metabolic rate for up to 72 hours after the workout. By elevating your metabolism, it becomes easier to lose excess fat fast without sacrificing lean muscle mass along the way. This phenomenon is unique to resistance training, because it can target multiple muscles simultaneously, which stimulates more growth hormone production to drive building or maintaining strong muscles even when losing fat.
How To Set Up An Effective Resistance Training Program
To set up an effective resistance training program tailored specifically towards your personal fitness goals, begin by assessing your current level of strength, ability, and training history. Based on these factors, you’ll need to decide which specific movements to focus on and how often those movements should be repeated each week. Beginners might implement mostly basic compound lifts whereas an advanced lifter might incorporate more isolation movements alongside the compound exercises.
The next step is to select the appropriate number of repetition and sets per exercise. Again beginners might shy towards higher repetitions of 12 to 15 reps for 2 to 3 sets to first build muscular endurance, while an advanced lifter may work between 3 to 12 repetitions for 3 to 5 sets to optimize strength gains. If your goal is building muscle, you can achieve this with either higher or lower repetitions as long as you reach near failure with your lifts.
Finally, the last part of setting up an effective resistance training program is planning out your rest days between sessions. In the beginning, you may need a rest day between each workout, but as your body adapts and you develop a training history you may only need 1 or 2 rest days a week. Recovery is vital to not only get the best results, but also to prevent overtraining injuries down road too.
Tips For Maximizing Your Results From Each Workout Session
Here are a few tips that can help you maximize your results from each workout session:
- Set specific and achievable goals for each workout session. This will help you stay focused and motivated during your workout.
- Warm up properly before starting the workout. A proper warm-up can help prepare your body for the physical demands of exercise, reduce your risk of injury, and improve your performance.
- Use proper form and technique when performing each exercise. This will help you get the most out of your workout and reduce your risk of injury.
- Incorporate a variety of exercises and training methods into your workout routine like negatives or drop sets. This will help keep your workouts interesting and challenging, and will help prevent plateaus in your progress.
- Pay attention to your body and listen to your physical sensations during your workout. If you feel any pain or discomfort, stop the exercise and adjust your form or technique.
- Stay hydrated throughout your workout. Dehydration can impair your physical performance and make it difficult for your body to recover after.
- End your workout with a proper cool-down and stretching routine. This will help your body recover sooner for your next workout.
Follow the methods outlined above and you’ll find it much easier to reach your goals whether that’s toning up, gaining strength or losing fat. With the right attitude and dedication to the process, you will soon start seeing results.
by David Minishian | Dec 18, 2022 | Exercise, Fitness, Injury Prevention, Strength Training
Steps to avoid injury and improve results.
Before jumping into a workout, consider starting with a warm up and ending with a cool down.
Although these additional movements surrounding your workout seem repetitive and unnecessary, they are not pointless.
Warm Up
A warm up is intended to decrease your risk of injury and improve exercise performance by forcing blood into your muscles and stimulating your nervous system.
You can think about a warm up like getting to a cool pool.
If you jump in, the sudden difference in temperature will shock your body. This “trauma” increases your blood pressure, heart rate and breathing rate rapidly, and in a worst-case scenario the shock could trigger a heart attack. Simply put, our bodies don’t like abrupt changes.
A warm up is like slowly walking into the pool, stopping to adjust to the temperature change, so your body can gradually adapt and reduce the risk of being shocked. The warm up lets your body know that it will be put under stress and gives it a “warning” to adapt. As the body prepares, it reduces the risk of injury from the stressor.
“So as long as I warm up I will never get injured?”
No, injuries may still happen, but warming up significantly reduces the risk of injury.
The best warm ups raise your heart rate and engage the targeted muscles of the workout. The most effective way to target the right muscles is by mimicking the same movement patterns of the core exercises in your program.
For example, warming up with body weight squats before starting your Barbell Back Squat set is an ideal practice.
Cool Down
But what about after the workout?
After training you are sweating, your heart is pumping, and maybe you just hit a new PR on your deadlift! The last thing you want to do is walk out of the gym and sit in your car for 10-30 minutes driving home.
This is where a cool down is important.
A cool down helps with the recovery process by removing lactic acid build up and reducing DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness. When you cool down, you recover faster. The faster you recover, the more you can train. The more you can train, the better results you get.
Cooling down can improve your training results.
A few cool down approaches coaches use are stretching techniques (which I will be explaining in next week’s newsletter), core exercises, isolations, and even light cardio movements.
All of these techniques can be helpful in cooling the body down.
So don’t skip your warm up and cool down…they are important.
by David Minishian | Dec 13, 2022 | Exercise, Fitness, Strength Training
How to use three pieces of equipment for resistance training.
Starting a resistance based training routine can be simple and effective with minimal equipment. Whether you’re at home or in the gym, there are only a few pieces of equipment you need.
In a gym it can feel overwhelming with so many equipment options. You don’t need to use everything. The free weight section alone has all the equipment to implement a fantastic program from the extremely versatile dumbbells to more specific tools like kettlebells and barbells.
There is NO WRONG choice when it comes to equipment. The trick is to use the equipment that is going to benefit you most within your current workout plan and move you closer towards your goal.
Resistance Based Training Equipment
Dumbbells, kettlebells, and barbells can be used to complete each of the six fundamental exercises included in a training program. Let’s use the chest press exercise as an example to show when you might use each piece of equipment.
Dumbbells
When training dumbbells are foundational to have in a resistance based program. Dumbbells can be used to achieve muscular endurance, hypertrophy, or strength. In the chest press movement, dumbbells allow you to fully contract the chest muscles by bringing your arms and hands closer together at the top of the movement. Since dumbbells can be rotated in your hand, a neutral hand position can be used to reduce stress on the rotator cuff, possibly allowing someone with shoulder discomfort to complete the movement with little to no pain. Completing the chest press with dumbbells is also a safer choice when going heavier without a spotter as the weights can be dropped to your sides if you fail to complete a repetition. After you perfect your form with dumbbells, use other free weight equipment to challenge yourself in new ways.
Kettlebells
While kettlebells are used in the same ways as dumbbells, for specific movements like the chest press the weight is off-centered. This means controlling the kettlebell throughout the movement requires a higher level of muscular coordination. The stress place on the smaller stabilizing muscles will strengthen them, which will help improve chest press performance when using dumbbells or a barbell.
Barbell
When you want to maximize strength or power, the barbell is your best friend. The barbell allows you to lift more weight which helps improve overall strength. Since the bar requires a fixed hand position, you can also exert less controlled quick movements on the weight to build power. For the chest press the bar will require a spotter during heavier lifts. Safety comes first. Although the bar is specifically better for strength and power, it is excellent for hypertrophy, building muscle, too.
There is no wrong choice when it comes to which equipment you choose to grab. As long as the form is good, weight is challenging, you are progressing the program and having fun, the results you want are bound to follow.