Weight Training Made Simple

Almost everyone has heard someone say or read it somewhere that you should included some type of weight training into your exercise program but they do nothing. Perhaps, you do nothing because you think unless you attend a gym or have a personal trainer you cannot do weight training. You are wrong. Weight training is fairly straight forward and when implemented into an exercise program you will see you body form change and feel (because you are) stronger.

Before you learn how to build a weight training program into your exercise routine you need to know a few things about weight training. Weight training helps your body lose fat! Weight training will re-sculpt your body. Cardio and nutrition will help you lose weight and increase the health of your body but weight training will actually change the shape of your body. A wonderful and attractive aspect of weight training is it raises your metabolism therefore you will continue to burn calories after your workout.

There are a few principles of weight training that are important to understand. The first is what they call "overload". Overload basically refers to the intensity of the reps you are performing. In order to build muscle you need to challenge the muscle fibers to the point that exceeds your strength, the point of muscle exhaustion. Once your muscles have been challenged in this manner they will change and grow stronger. When performing weight reps your weight should be heavy enough so that the last rep is very challenging and barely achieved with correct technique but achieved.

Specificity is essential to building muscles. Have a goal and work towards it. Focus on specific muscles and you will see results and gain greater strength.

Work and rest are two aspects that are imperative to losing fat and gaining muscles. The days of rest are equally as important as the days of weight training. Your muscles need days off to grow and repair their muscle fibers. Inject your days of weight training with days of cardio or flexibility.

When weight training you must utilize your Breathe. Breathe is essential to fueling the muscles with needed oxygen. Warming up is always important in any exercising program and weight training is no exception. Proper technique is also important in growing muscles and aids in avoiding any sort of injury.

What exercises do you include in your exercise program? Decide what muscles you want to improve or grow and then choose an exercise that targets that muscle. Each weight training session could contain 8-10 exercises. Here are a few exercise examples;

Chest: bench press, push ups, chest press machine

Back: row machine, back extensions

Shoulders: over head press, front raise, lateral raise

Biceps: bicep curls, hammer curls

Triceps: triceps extensions, kickbacks

Quadriceps: lunges, squats, leg press machine

Hamstrings: lunges

Abdominals: crunches, reverse crunches, oblique twists