The Three Things You Should Do When Strength Training

August 7, 2012 by admin
Filed under Strength Training

Article by Derek

The Three Things You Should Do When Strength Training – Health

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If you want to learn about strength training fitness over 40, then you’ll want to read this article. Specifically we’ll discuss the ‘mind-to-muscle’ link, proper form in exercise repetitions and the speed of each repetition. After reading this article, you should be able to use strength training to improve your level of fitness and minimise the potential for injury.

What is the ‘mind to muscle’ link? It is the ability to be able to focus your awareness or attention on the specific muscle or muscle group you are trying to work. To do this you will need to know some basic anatomy. I do mean basic, for instance, though there approximately 640 skeletal muscles in the human body. You only need to divide the body into areas such as the leg, the shoulders, the chest and back, and the arms.

Take your arms for example; you basically have the muscle groups. The biceps at the front of the arm above the elbow. The triceps at the back of the arm above the elbow. And last but not least the forearms between your elbows and hands. If you start with a straight arm and bend it toward your shoulders as your hand comes to your shoulder you should be able to your bicep muscle tends tense. It is these feelings of tension that you should feel while performing your exercise fitness program to strengthen the bicep muscle. This feeling of tension is the ‘mind to muscle’ link. If you then straighten in your arm, as your arm comes to full lock you should feel tension in your triceps at the back of your arms.

Once you know how your bicep muscle feels like under tension, then when you are performing a resistance exercise, during your fitness workout, to target this muscle you will know how to use good form. Because, good form in resistance or strength training for fitness over 40 comes down to basically minimising the use of any muscle except that one are working on. For instance, the squat is supposed to target the legs and buttocks. If your form is bad you might be tempted to round your back in order to assist you in lifting the weight up and down. Apart from potentially damaging your spinal discs, you wouldn’t be working on legs and buttocks effectively. So at the very least your wasting your time in the gym, at the very worst you may be laid up with a bad back.

Another aspect linked to bad form is performing your repetitions too fast in your fitness routines. This is usually because the weight is too heavy and you have to jerk it up and dropped it down. Your repetitions should be performed at a speed whereby if needed you can force pause the exercise at any point for a second or so. Not that this is something you should be doing during your repetitions, but that you are sufficiently in control of the weight that you could do so if you wanted.

The ‘mind-to-muscle’ link will enable you to perform each repetition of any exercise with the best chance of correctly targeting the muscle you’re trying to work on. Good form will lessen your chances of injury and allow you to make any corrections needed in exercise technique. Monitoring your rep speed will enable you to choose the correct amount of resistance and help you to use good form in you fitness over 40 routines.

About the Author

Derek is a 46 year old who suffers with severe asthma and lower back problems. Now as he gets older it’s vital for him to stay fit and healthy. So he’s decided to go out and find easy, alternative ways ANYONE can get fit without endlessly puffing away on treadmills, without expensive gym memberships or enduring hours of exercise. Sign up for my FREE newsletter and report What Everybody Ought To Know…

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Derek

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