Proper body alignment
Body positioning is essential in sports and in everyday activities. The same is true for strength training. Being in the proper body alignment is important to avoid injuries as well as placing an emphasis on the targeted muscle(s). The “neutral spine” position is simple to learn but hard to master and it is the body position necessary for every strength movement. Very simple stand up and pull the shoulder blades back and stick your chest out while keeping your core tight. See you in the weight room!
Cardio Training
Cardio training should not be something you dread it should be something you enjoy. If you hate to go for a run then don’t go for a run. Find something that is enjoyable but will still increase you heart rate at least 3 days a week, ideally everyday. It can be anything fun and can be multiple activities like biking, hiking, swimming, playing tennis, really anything that gets you up an moving. During those winter months you still need to find something to do to increase the heart rate at least 3 or 4 times a week but I can talk about that later. Remember cardio will not really reshape your body that will be mainly accomplished through resistance training and nutrition however it is still important to increase the heart rate to get the blood flowing and and the heart pumping.
Muscle failure
The idea is to do one set to concentric (positive) muscle failure or fatigue. This is the philosophy of high intensity training or HIT for short. How it works: by training to muscle failure you are training all 3 muscle fibers in the muscle(s). A muscle will only recruit enough muscle fiber to complete the task, if the muscle is trained to failure all muscle fibers within the muscle(s) will be needed to complete said task. A single set done slowly with little to no momentum done to failure is believed to be just as effective as multiple sets not done to failure. For those who don’t have the time to spend hours in the gym this can be a very efficent way to train (or even if you do have the time).
number of reps
A big question is how many reps should I do? The answer is the number is not as important as the effort. The number is important so you know if you are progressing each week and there is some evidence that shows certain reps schemes will elicit different results but at the end of the day if your not working hard then 5, 10, 15 reps means nothing. Your muscles don’t have a brain, they don’t “understand” that at a certain number they are supposed to grow big or get more defined they only recruit what is needed to complete the task. I talked about this a little in the muscle failure blog as well. For anybody who needs a guideline then here is the most popular rep schemes and what they are supposed to do: 1-5 reps for strength, 6-10 or 8-12 for muscle building (hypertrophy) and 12-15+ for muscle endurance. Always remember that hard work, proper nutrition and genetics are more important then the number of reps.
Number of sets
Another question commonly asked is the number of sets per exercise. There are again differing opinions on this topic and none of them are really wrong. There are many ways to go about training and there are a variety of programs. If done with hard work and proper technique any program, as long as it is safe, will produce positive results. Programs can have a wide range of possiblities, everything from exercise selection to set and rep schemes to full body or split routines. So how many sets do you need: studies have shown that 1 set to concentric (positive) muscle failure is all a muscle needs to get stronger (even some bodybuilders used this method). Just keep in mind that performing 1 set to failure can be very difficult physically and mentally. Multiple (2 or more) sets also work as long as as you have the time and you don’t overtrain. For time reasons most of us would best be suited for 1-3 sets per exercise but again it all works if done properly.