Strength Exercise
Keeping your body strong needs more than your usual proper diet and nutrition. Even exercise needs to be specialized to get the body that you want. With strength training, you are isolating problem areas to eliminate fat and contour it to its best form.
When you get your doctor’s approval for weight training, you must start the program slowly. Warming up and taking the time to stretch before resistance activities are vital and important. Otherwise, you will be risking injury to your muscles by straining them and putting pressure on your joints. You may not see the ill effects right away but the long term damage can give you disability in the future.
It is necessary that you give your muscles time to recover after undergoing strength training on a particular set of muscles. Overdoing it can give you the usual muscle soreness and pain. In exercise, especially in strength training, “no pain, no gain” expression does NOT apply.
Benefits
One of the benefits that you get from strength training is the development of strong bones. Weight can actually help build your bones and decrease your chances of developing osteoporosis, which is the abnormal condition of thinning of the bones. Since you are building your muscle tone, you are definitely controlling your body fat. You are more in control of your body; thus, it boosts your self-esteem and you improve your sense of well-being. Additionally, you minimize the risk of injury since your developed muscles can protect the joints and vulnerable tendons and ligaments in your body. You are not only stronger, but you also feel good about yourself!
Examples
Weight training does not imply using weighted dumb bells and tools. If you opt for gym classes, you can see various resistance training machines. Alternatively, you can go for inexpensive equipment and tools and do your weight training at the convenience of your home. Home-made weights made from filled plastic soft drink bottles and canned foods are good examples. Resistance bands, cords or tubes are various tools in place of weights if you think weights are not for you. Do not discount your own body weight too! Push-ups, pull-ups and squats utilize your own body weight for resistance.
Physiologic responses
Through resistance training, microscopic damage is caused on the affected muscle cells. The muscle then regenerates and repairs itself. In this process, muscle re-growth is expected and makes them hypertrophy. After the muscles rest from the work out, healing time is observed. Should this healing period or rest is bypassed, injury will result.