Strength Training Workout introduction

Joe Fitness — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:52:10 GMT

Intro
If you’re ready to dive into strength training at your local fitness center but don’t know where to begin, I’ve created several workouts that are simple to perform but challenging enough to work your whole body. In addition, there are more advanced workouts available when you feel like trying something more challenging. Before you run off to the fitness center, there are a few things you need to understand to make the most of your time.

Level
There are strength training workouts available for trainees of all levels, including Beginner, Intermediate, Experienced and Advanced. If you’ve never worked out before, are rediscovering training after a long layoff or have been training for less than six months, I recommend you try a Beginner workout first. If you’ve trained regularly for six months or more, try an Intermediate workout. If you train hard and have kept a fairly rigorous workout schedule for 18 months or more, you should try an Experienced routine. Finally, if you’re an Experienced strength trainee who’s looking for a REAL challenge or might even be interested in competition, look into an Advanced routine. Additionally, if you feel a workout designed specifically for you is what will help you the most, send an email to 'training at askjoefitness dot com' to learn how to have me design a workout tailored to your goals.

Warmup and Cooldown
Warming up and cooling down are two extremely important, yet often overlooked, aspects of keeping your body in top shape. While it’s tempting to skip the warmup when you start your workout, remember that your muscles are likely to be very tight and cold when you first step into the gym. Strength training with tight, cold muscles can easily lead to painful muscle damage! That’s hardly worth the 5-7 minutes you could save.

When you first walk into your fitness center, grab a cardio machine that lets you move all your joints (elliptical trainers are perfect for this) and move at a fairly quick pace for 2-3 minutes. This will get your blood flowing and your heart pumping. After this, I recommend that you stretch at the least the muscles that you intend to work if not your whole body. Some recent studies claim that pre-workout stretching causes a small decrease in performance, but I have never experienced this. I much prefer a lower chance of injury.

After your workout, a short cooldown for all the muscle groups you worked can also help your muscles from becoming tight and cramped after a hard workout. Again, find an available elliptical machine, but this time move at a slow pace for 2-3 minutes. Follow this up with stretching for the muscle groups that you worked. If may seem like too much additional time, but always remember that injuries can keep you out of the fitness center for weeks or even months! That’s hardly worth the 10-15 minutes that warmup and cooldown can take.

Length of the workout
Every time you go to the fitness center, you should have a goal in mind. One of those goals should be to complete a rigorous workout without wasting a lot of time. If you can keep a high tempo throughout your workout, you’ll burn additional fat and keep your metabolism running at an accelerated pace. So check a clock just before you lift your first weight, or set a stopwatch. If you can complete the workout comfortably in the time allotted, it’s time to try a new workout or maybe even step up another level.

Exercise

Some of these terms may be unfamiliar to you. If so, there’s a great website for strength trainees called ExRx. This site will give you descriptions and short demonstrations of the proper way to perform the designated exercise. Remember, if something hurts (not burns) while you’re working out, STOP and figure out why. If you can’t find the reason, move on to something else.

Repetitions, Sets and Rest
Repetitions (or reps) tells you how many times you should perform the exercise. For example, 12 repetitions of a Bodyweight Squat simply means you should squat 12 times before you take a short rest. For any exercise that indicates use of a machine, barbell (BB) or dumbbell (DB), make sure you select a weight that is challenging, but not so hard you can’t complete the indicated number of reps. Sets indicates how many times you should repeat the exercise (ie 3 sets of 12 Bodyweight Squats). Rest is the approximate amount of time you should take before performing your next set.

Summary
Now it’s time to get to the fitness center with the workout of your choice and give it a try! The next step is up to you.

Copyright ©2009 AskJoeFitness.com

Sample Workouts Blog

Strength Training Workout introduction