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Resistance exercise is one of the three major components in a healthy exercise programme, the other 2 being aerobic and flexibility training.
There’re numerous principles, that apply to each of these modes of training and this article covers the fundamental principles, which must be applied to resistance exercise.
When preparing a resistance training programme it’s important to ensure that exercises are integrated to target each and every main muscle group in the body. This is imperative to keep a well-balanced body, avoiding possible muscle weaknesses, or postural problems. The primary areas to target are back, chest, shoulders, arms, abdominals, quads, hamstrings and calves. In some instances, several muscle group could be worked at once by using compound exercises, but it is still important to target each of the key muscle groups listed.
Another important aspect to any resistance training programme is to allow enough rest for each muscle group between workouts. There is little or no benefit to targeting the same muscle group more than once or twice every week, as when a muscle is worked, it needs enough recovery time to repair and rebuild. Training splits are an excellent way of avoiding muscle over training. A 3-day training split might look something like this:
Monday: back, biceps and hamstrings, Wednesday: quads, triceps, chest, Friday: abdominals, calves, shoulders
Another key element in any resistance training programme relates to the number of repetitions done in each set of a certain exercise. The number of repetitions completed is proportional to the goals of the person. Training for muscular strength and toning usually requires 12 or more repetitions. Reps ranging from 8-12 stimulate muscular growth and muscular strength enhancements are attained when rep ranges of 4-8 are used.
The last major element is progression. To enable your body to improve, you need to continue to raise the stimulus on your muscles. This is achieved by raising numbers of repetitions (whilst remaining within your preferred rep range), increasing weights, or raising the number of sets done. Additionally it is necessary to change your workouts or training splits every 4 to 6 weeks to avoid plateaus in progress.
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