Strength Training Principles and Guidelines:
Part Five
By Chad Tackett
Almost any form of exercise will stimulate some degree of strength and
muscle development. Unfortunately, misconceptions, myths, and
misunderstandings plague the fitness industry, especially in regard to
strength training. There is a huge attrition rate among those starting a
strength training program primarily because most people are not taught the
principles essential for a safe and effective program.
This article is part five of a five part series discussing the very
important principles and guidelines of a safe and effective strength
training program. This article discusses exactly how to avoid the common
mistake of overtraining. The previous article, part four of this five part
series, discusses the importance of using the right amount of weight and
number of repetitions for each set, so you can achieve the results you
desire. The following exercise guidelines are extremely important for your
safety and the effectiveness of your strength training program.
Avoid Overtraining
If you feel burnt out, weak, and/or sore, you are probably overtraining. Not
providing your muscles with enough rest will often prevent you from making
improvements. Training the wrong muscle groups on consecutive days will also
counteract your good results. Doing too many sets and exercises per muscle
group will also cause overtraining.
Remember that weightlifting, especially in an intense program, produces
tissue microtrauma, those tiny tears in the muscles that temporarily
decrease strength and cause varying degrees of muscle soreness. It is
absolutely necessary to provide ample rest time between successive training
sessions. Muscles generally require about 48 hours for the resting and
rebuilding process before you work them again.
You should never train the same muscle groups on two or more days in a row
(abdominals are the exception). Hypothetically then, you would do your
chest, shoulders, triceps, and abdominals on Monday; on Tuesday you would
train your legs, back, biceps, and abdominals; you would take Wednesday off
to give all your muscle groups extra rest; on Thursday you'd do chest,
shoulders, triceps, and abdominals again; and on Friday you'd do legs, back,
biceps, and abdominals again. This would allow two days (48 hours) of rest
for each muscle between training days.
Those of you who train very intensely, would benefit greatly by taking even
more rest time between sessions. A week does not have to be limited to only
seven days--you can expand it to eight, nine, or even ten days. Think about
it: why not? Day one could consist of chest, shoulders, triceps, (pushing
muscles) and abdominals on Monday. Take Tuesday off. On day two, Wednesday,
the routine could consist of legs, back, biceps, (pulling muscles) and
abdominals. Take Thursday off. On Friday you do chest, shoulders, triceps,
and abdominals again--and so on. This is especially important when mixing
pushing and pulling muscles for different sessions. For example, if you
train your chest on Monday and then triceps the next day, your triceps never
really get a complete rest because they are indirectly trained with your
chest on Monday and directly trained on Tuesday. But if you split up
chest/shoulders/triceps or back/biceps, working them on different days, you
can implement this eight day program for maximum muscle resting time.
Remember: always allow your muscles a chance to grow, especially when you
are feeling overtrained. If needed, give yourself an extra day off to grow.
Never feel guilty about skipping a workout. That extra rest could be exactly
what your body needs.
Many people make the mistake of doing too many sets per exercise, and/or
doing too many exercises per muscle group. It's very common for people who
want great muscle size and strength gains to simply do too much for each
muscle group and overtrain to the point where they do more harm than good. A
common weightlifting recommendation is to do at least four sets for each
exercise and at least four exercises for each muscle group. This idea that
"more is better" is a big misconception in the strength training industry
and is recommended in many "muscle magazines" and other sources.
But when you see Mr. or Ms. Olympia in muscle magazines describing their
workouts of four to five sets per exercise and four to five exercises per
muscle group, do not be fooled into thinking that if you want their results
you have to do what they do. These are professional body builders, quite
likely to be on steroids; they can get away with these very intense long
programs because their muscles are able to rebuild very quickly. If you are
not on steroids--and for the sake of your health I hope you are not--your
muscles will not be able to rebuild themselves quickly enough to make gains.
For each of the large muscle groups in the body such as back, chest,
shoulders, quadriceps, and hamstrings, two to four exercises for each muscle
is enough. For the smaller muscle groups such as biceps, calves, trapezius,
etc. one to three exercises are enough. Because your back, for example, has
specific muscles that need to be isolated, it is important that of the three
exercises you perform, you do one that primarily targets each of the three
areas: upper-middle back, lats., and lower back.
When you're doing two to four exercises for each muscle group, make sure you
don't duplicate movements of specific muscle groups. For example, it makes
no sense to do three sets of Bench Press using a barbell and then do three
sets of Bench Press using dumbbells or Push-ups. Each of these exercises
requires exactly the same movement and works the same specific muscle.
Instead, it would make much more sense to do bench press for overall middle
chest (either barbell, dumbbell, or machine); do incline bench press for
upper chest; and do dips for lower-outer chest.
One point--maybe the most important of all for ongoing strength training
programs--that is absolutely imperative to understand and implement into
your training regimen is the need to overcome training plateaus. Ideally,
you want to always be going through a momentum phase in which you try
something new and "shock" your muscles, forcing them to make gains.
Eventually however, you will come to a point in your training where you
either get bored or stop seeing results.
When this happens it is absolutely crucial that you change what you are
doing; this is when you need to get creative by incorporating something new
into your program. You can make effective changes in your program in many
ways: try new or alternate exercises, change the order that you train your
muscles or the order of the exercises, and so forth.
I hope you have found the information in these five part series of articles
helpful. You now have the knowledge to achieve the results you desire and
the benefits your body deserves. Your greatest challenge, however, is not
learning new exercises or the proper technique; it's not learning how many
sets or reps to do or how much weight to use. Nor is it deciding when or how
to change your routine. The greatest challenge facing you at this moment is
deciding whether you are willing to take action and make strength training a
priority.
When you begin achieving great results, the excitement and fun you
experience will make the change well worth the effort. Action creates
motivation! Good luck: I hope you enjoy all the wonderful benefits of an
effective strength training program.
Strength Training Workouts Part 4
Strength Training
Workouts Part 3
Strength Training
Workouts Part
2
Strength Training Workouts
This article was provided by Global Health &
Fitness (GHF). Click here to visit their site for customized exercise and nutrition
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