Exercise 101: Resistance Training

Now we come to the most recognizable part of the work-out— lifting weights. While weight training is great for achieving all types of fitness goals, it is important to understand how to structure your training sessions so that you can be most effective in reaching those goals. The first thing that I want to bring up is that technique in lifting is paramount, and without it, training is pointless and dangerous. The technique involved in any lift is going to involve controlled movements, stabilization of the weight, and concentration on using the muscle for the correct function. If form is ever broken, it is important to stop the lift, regroup and try again. If it is too much weight, recognize that you have not worked up to that level yet and take some off. There is no reason to injure yourself for the sake of a number.

With that said, we can now look at how training programs differ depending on your goals. The variables that can change the results you get from your training program include type of exercise, organization of exercises, sets, reps, tempo, and rest. Let’s start with the most basic of training goals: stability. This should be the first step for any training program you design for yourself. If you do not have the stability to control your lifts, then your results will be hindered and you will end up hurting yourself. So in training for stability, let’s look at the different variables. Here we would want to focus on exercises that were kinesthetically based, such as push-ups, air squats, pull-ups, or inverted rows. All of these are using your own body weight as resistance, and until you can do this, using weights does not make much sense. Also, when involved in these types of activities, you are forced to use the muscles that stabilize the body to the fullest extent. Take a push-up: to do a proper push-up you not only need strength in the triceps and chest, you also need the stability of the wrists, shoulders, back, abs and glutes just to hold yourself in the right position.

In organizing our exercises, we are going to follow what I feel is the best workout design for anyone outside of the bodybuilding world: alternating movement patterns. When you think about the exercises that need to be performed, don’t think about them in terms of what muscles are being worked, but rather, what movements are being performed. Take the push-up again; this would be looked at as a “horizontal pushing exercise” rather than a “chest exercise”. The next exercise you would want to do would involve horizontal pulling, such as the inverted row. By doing this, we are making sure to focus our efforts more on the reason behind the exercise instead of the arbitrary strengthening of individual muscles. Also, this gets us out of the habit of trying to fit in popular but essentially useless exercises such as wrist curls or tricep extensions. The reason we alternate them is so that as we exercise one muscle, we are stretching out the antagonist (the muscles opposing that movement). This will serve as a natural primer for the next movement.

Continuing along this thought process we would also want to get in a vertical push (shoulder press, lifts) and a vertical pull (pull-ups, chops). After this, you would work on hip extension (single leg deadlifts, bridges), and a form of hip flexion in working our abdominals (ab roller). The last piece of the puzzle would be knee flexion (squats) and knee extension (stability ball leg curls). If you incorporate all of this into your workout, you will have worked on ever major movement pattern, using only multi-joint exercises, making for the most effective and function workout possible.

Now that we have our exercises, how do we set up our routine? Well, we are still training for stability, so we will want to have a set/rep/tempo/rest combo that will facilitate the development of our stabilizers. That means that higher reps (15-20) will be needed, but only one or two sets of each exercise (start with one, work up to two). Our tempo will involve a slow and controlled eccentric movement (lowering of weight/lengthening of muscles- take about 4 seconds) and then a powerful but controlled concentric movement (lifting of weight/shortening of muscle- take about 1 second). Between sets, we will not need much rest, so try to begin the next set within 30 to 45 seconds.

So there you have it- a full workout if stability is your goal. But what about all the other goals?? Because that could take all day to explain, let’s go over some of the basics. In hypertrophy training, where the goal is to increase muscle size, you would still want a high rep but perhaps 10-15 this time, working your way up to 3 sets. As reps go down, tempo goes up, only taking 3 seconds to lower the weight, and rest gets longer—45 to 60 seconds. The exercise selection can stay the same if you like, or if body weight is now too light, you may need to start using more equipment. This could include dumbbells for bench press or overhead press, TRX for rows, weight belt for pull-ups, and single leg squats or front squats. All of these will help increase the resistance. Another type of training is maximal strength. Here the loads get even heavier, so everything changes accordingly. 3-6 reps, 4-6 sets, 1-2 seconds to lower the weight, and up to 3 minutes of recovery time between sets. You will need to be careful that you are ready for this type of lifting however, as it puts a lot of strain on the body. For the ladies out there who are most concerned about staying toned, what I would recommend is alternating between the stability and strength training programs, while also getting in some cardio work. I will talk more about cardio next time, but for now, just remember that both weight training and cardio work will be important in attaining any fitness goal.

This is just a brief overview of all that is involved in resistance training, but if you take nothing else away from this piece, remember that technique is key, stability underlies all movement, and training movement is more important than training muscles. The other thing that I would like to say is that when setting up a program, you will have to decide how many days per week you want to train. For any gains to be achieved, you really need at least two days, and I would recommend that you vary the type of training that you do each time (if you are new to training make sure to spend 4 weeks in the stability training zone before moving on). Keep the exercises the same if you like, but the most effective way to get in overall better shape is to change up the type of training you do each day. So if you’re training 3 times a week, use the 15-20 reps on one day, 10-15 the next, and 3-6 the last day. And don’t be afraid to switch around the order too. The body responds best to variety, even when the movement is that same.

I hope this is helpful and please if you have any questions feel free to ask, there is a lot of information that I could not go into in a single blog. Next time I will talk about cardiovascular training, another key element of one’s training program. Good luck and happy resistance training!