It’s Strength Training vocab time
Remember when you were in junior high school and the teacher popped a surprise vocab quiz on you? At the time you probably had little interest in memorizing word spellings and meanings. Let’s face it that cute little Brad-Pitt look-a-like, two rows over did more to stimulate your mind than such spelling rules as “I before E except after C.” It probably wasn’t until high school or college that the subtleties of English vocabulary began to make some sense.
Strength Training is like most forms of physical activity in that it has its own distinct vocabulary. In fact the words bodybuilding, body shaping, weightlifting, and strength training can be considered your first lesson in this regard. We are going to use the term strength training to refer to any type of training that involves the use of weights to strengthen and tone your muscles. Initially many of the following words and phrases will seem like a foreign language, but trust us, it won’t be long before you’ll become “fluent” in the ways of “body building.”
Reps and Sets
Reps and Sets are the two most basic terms needed for any strength-training workout. They are comparable to bogies and pars in golf, touchdowns in football, and serving in tennis. The word “rep” is just shorthand for “repetition” and means the completion of one lift of an exercise. When you first begin training it is recommend that you perform 10 to 12 non-stop reps for each exercise. As you might expect bodybuilders have come up with another term to designate a group of continuous reps and it’s called a set. Sets and reps form the nucleus of just about every training technique that can be performed in the gym.
For the first few weeks in your new training routine it is recommended that you only perform 2 sets of 10 to 12 reps of each exercise. Around the third week you can increase the number of sets to 3. Your first temptation may be to start doing 3 sets from day one, but we recommend against this. At this stage your muscles are not used to regular exercise. By subjecting the muscles to excessive stress too early, you run the risk of injury or at the very least, intense soreness.
How Much Weight should I lift?
The answer to this question is, it all depends. Although there is no specific answer etched in stone, there are some general strength training guidelines that you should follow. If you cannot lift a certain weight at least 10 times using good technique - with no cheating or swinging of the body - the weight you are using is much too heavy. Conversely, if you can easily perform 15 to 20 reps with a given weight, it’s probably not heavy enough. To tone and strengthen a muscle, you need sufficient resistance to stimulate that muscle. One way practical guide is to select a weight that starts producing muscle fatigue around the 7th or 8th rep. You then have to really work hard to complete the last couple of reps.
How Often should I work out?
Since the average person’s muscles need at least 48 hours to recover from exercise, it is recommend that you workout every second day. In other words don’t train on consecutive days. Most people train Monday, Wednesday, and Friday because it fits perfectly into this thing we live our lives around called a week. But the body doesn’t know the difference and you could just as easily train on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Don’t make things complicated for yourself. Workout on the days that suit your weekly schedule.
Morning, evening, or night – when to train?
Some strength training experts maintain that the best time to workout is immediately upon waking up in the morning. Others argue that the best time is later in the day when your body is more alert and “awake”. Just as with deciding how often to workout, don’t make things more confusing than they really are. The best time to workout is – are you ready for it - whenever you want to! Why force yourself to train at 6 am in the morning when you feel more comfortable working out later in the day? Likewise, why wait till lunchtime or after work if you like to see the sunrise? The most important question is not when you workout, but do you workout? Consistency is far more important than timing.
Following orders?
Although not an absolute must, there is an accepted sequence for performing exercises. Start with the largest muscle groups such as the legs, chest, and back, and then progress to the smaller arm and abdominal muscles. Some people question whether it is wrong to do the exercises out of order. It’s not wrong and in fact you may be forced to do this when there is a crowd at the gym. Simply skip the exercise and go back to it later. The most important thing is that you perform all the exercises in your routine. The order is secondary.
