How much do you know about Strength Training?

Performance of Physical Exercises Designed to Improve Strength

• Strength training involves physical exercises designed to increase strength and endurance.

• It can include lifting weights, bodyweight exercises, isometrics, and plyometrics, among others.

• Strength training can increase muscle, tendon, and ligament strength, bone density, metabolism, and the lactate threshold, and improve joint and cardiac function, reducing the risk of injury in athletes and the elderly.

• The basic principles of strength training involve progressively increasing the force output of the muscles and using a variety of exercises and types of equipment.

• Proper form is essential to prevent injury and challenge the desired muscle group sufficiently to reach the threshold of overload.

• Stretching the entire body or the specific muscle group being worked helps increase overall flexibility, but static stretching can increase the risk of injury.

• Breathing technique during strength training involves inhaling when lowering the weight and exhaling when lifting it.

• Three important variables of strength training are intensity, volume, and frequency, with intensity limiting the number of repetitions that can be carried out in one set.

• Periodization and training splits are useful to maximize progress to specific goals and yield better strength improvements than non-periodized training.

• Resistance training can be done with free weights, weight machines, resistance bands, or through inertia in flywheel training.

• Strength training is primarily anaerobic, but lower weights are used for rehabilitation, weight loss, body shaping, and bodybuilding, adding aerobic character to the exercise.

• Strength training has many benefits, including greater muscular strength, improved muscle tone and appearance, increased endurance, cardiovascular health, and enhanced bone density, among others.A Brief History and Overview of Weightlifting

• Weightlifting was first introduced in the Olympics in the 1896 Athens Olympic Games as a part of track and field, and was officially recognized as its own event in 1914.

• The gradual introduction of exercise machines in the 1960s led to the increased popularity of weight training in the 1970s, following the release of the bodybuilding movie Pumping Iron.

• Nearly one in five U.S. women engage in weight training on a regular basis.

• Men and women have similar reactions to resistance training, with comparable effect sizes for hypertrophy and lower body strength, although women experience a greater relative increase in upper-body strength.

• Absolute gains are higher in men due to their greater starting strength and muscle mass.

• A systematic review found that women experienced a larger increase in lower-body strength in older adults.

• The National Strength and Conditioning Association states that strength training is safe for children if properly designed and supervised, and there have been no reports of injuries to growth plates in youth training programs that followed established guidelines.

• Younger children are at greater risk of injury than adults if they drop a weight on themselves or perform an exercise incorrectly.

• Resistance training can mitigate the decrease in muscle mass and strength associated with aging, and even the oldest old (those above age 85) can increase their muscle mass with a resistance training program.

• With more strength, older adults have better health, better quality of life, better physical function, and fewer falls.

• Resistance training programs are safe for older adults, can be adapted for mobility and disability limitations, and may be used in assisted living settings.

• Supervision of minors is vital to ensuring the safety of any youth engaging in strength training.