What Makes a Good Weight Training System?

What makes a good weight training system? All of these systems will follow basic strategies to help you with your efforts to gain muscle and generally get fitter.

The first thing you will find in a good weight training system is that it will contain compound exercises. This is the technical term for exercises which will work more than one joint. Think about a bench press – it works the shoulders, the elbows and the wrists. Using more joints means you can lift greater weights, increasing your muscle more quickly. The other benefit is that more muscles are worked per exercise, so you get better value out of the time you spend on a weight training system.

You should also plan your weight training system to concentrate on the larger muscles to begin with – so go with the chest and back first. This help the smaller muscles to get warmed up and it will allow you to lift heavier weights, further increasing any gains you make from weight training.

Design your routine to work your larger muscle groups first, such as your chest and back, prior to working the smaller muscles like the biceps and triceps.

This aids in warming up your smaller muscles, and allowing you to lift heavier weights, simply because your smaller muscles aid in both the lift, and keeping correct technique.

Finally, tailor how much you lift and how often to what you want.

If you are looking for maximum strength go close to as much as you can physically lift, and very few repetitions – 5 or less. If you are more interested in endurance, then you want to perform as many repetitions as possible, so you will need less weight – somewhere around half the maximum you can lift.

Any weight training system can be adapted from the basics to meet your needs and get you on the road to substantial fitness improvements in weeks.