Muscle-Building Workouts
Why Muscle Building is Important for Health
According to fitness research, published
in the Journal of The American Dietetic Association, increased muscle
strength, achieved through resistance-training exercises, actually helps
people to increase their aerobic activity level and possibly reduce the
risk of many chronic diseases associated with old age.
Muscle Building Avoids Sarcopenia
For example, while both aerobic exercise
and general toning/conditioning are recommended, the report says that
only strength training can stop or reverse sarcopenia - an age-related
condition of reduced muscle mass, leading to loss of physical endurance
and weight gain.
How Muscle Building Benefits Fitness and
Weight Levels
Strength or resistance activities, such as
weight lifting, leg-presses, or exercises such as push-ups, squat-thrusts
and chin-up, cause large muscle groups to generate force and power that
is progressively increased over time. For older men and women who need
to lose weight, resistance training can preserve or even increase muscle
mass. And, since muscle is more metabolically active (uses up more calories)
than body fat, increasing muscle-mass through resistance activities enables
older adults to consume more nutrients with less risk of weight gain.
How to Increase Muscle Strength?
In order to make your muscles stronger, you
need to work them against some form of resistance, either from weights
or gravity. If you want to gain muscle strength, try exercises such as
weight-lifting freeweights, barbells or dumbells (for upper-body muscle-strength)
or weight machines like a leg-press machine (for lower-body muscle strength).
Lifting weights (freeweights or via machines) boosts muscle strength as
well as bone-strength, by placing more strain on muscles and bones than
they are used to. During a weight-lifting workout, the muscles are compelled
to work harder to balance/overcome the resistance offered by the weight
being lifted or moved.
Weight Machines Best for Beginners Muscle
Strength
Apart from lifting small hand-weights (eg.
to perform biceps curls etc.) beginners should focus on using weight machines.
This is because weight machines are designed to strengthen specific muscles.
Doing a weight-training circuit using a variety of weight-equipment can
give beginners an optimal resistance-training workout.
High-Intensity Training Useful to Build
Muscle
High-intensity training was popularized by
Arthur Jones, who claimed that you could achieve better muscle-building
results with very short infrequent workouts. In high-intensity training,
each exercise should be taken to the point of concentric muscle failure.
This means continuing an exercise until you simply can't lift the weight
without assistance. Indeed, many fitness experts state that the best way
to stimulate muscular hypertrophy (growth) is to continue a set until
you reach the point of concentric muscle failure. At the same time, high-intensity
training includes regular rest periods for optimal muscle recuperation.
Back to Advice
About Exercise and Fitness Programs
Calorie Intake
For information about the calorie content
of popular food and drinks, please visit: Calories
in Food
Back to Top
|
