Strength Training Principles and Guidelines : Part 5
By Chad Tackett
Part : 1
2
3
4
Almost any form of exercise will stimulate some degree
of strength and muscle development. Unfortunately, misconceptions, myths,
and misunderstandings plague the fitness industry, especially in regard
to strength training. There is a huge attrition rate among those starting
a strength training program primarily because most people are not taught
the principles essential for a safe and effective program.
This article is part five of a five part series discussing
the very important principles and guidelines of a safe and effective
strength training program. This article discusses exactly how to avoid
the common mistake of overtraining. The previous article, part four
of this five part series, discusses the importance of using the right
amount of weight and number of repititions for each set, so you can
achieve the results you desire. The following exercise guidelines are
extremely important for your safety and the effectiveness of your strength
training program.
Avoid Overtraining
If you feel burnt out, weak, and/or sore, you are probably overtraining.
Not providing your muscles with enough rest will often prevent you from
making improvements. Training the wrong muscle groups on consecutive
days will also counteract your good results. Doing too many sets and
exercises per muscle group will also cause overtraining.
Remember that weightlifting, especially in an intense program,
produces tissue microtrauma, those tiny tears in the muscles that temporarily
decrease strength and cause varying degrees of muscle soreness. It is
absolutely necessary to provide ample rest time between successive training
sessions. Muscles generally require about 48 hours for the resting and
rebuilding process before you work them again.
You should never train the same muscle groups on two or
more days in a row (abdominals are the exception). Hypothetically then,
you would do your chest, shoulders, triceps, and abdominals on Monday;
on Tuesday you would train your legs, back, biceps, and abdominals;
you would take Wednesday off to give all your muscle groups extra rest;
on Thursday you'd do chest, shoulders, triceps, and abdominals again;
and on Friday you'd do legs, back, biceps, and abdominals again. This
would allow two days (48 hours) of rest for each muscle between training
days.
Those of you who train very intensely, would benefit greatly
by taking even more rest time between sessions. A week does not have
to be limited to only seven days--you can expand it to eight, nine,
or even ten days. Think about it: why not? Day one could consist of
chest, shoulders, triceps, (pushing muscles) and abdominals on Monday.
Take Tuesday off. On day two, Wednesday, the routine could consist of
legs, back, biceps, (pulling muscles) and abdominals. Take Thursday
off. On Friday you do chest, shoulders, triceps, and abdominals again--and
so on. This is especially important when mixing pushing and pulling
muscles for different sessions. For example, if you train your chest
on Monday and then triceps the next day, your triceps never really get
a complete rest because they are indirectly trained with your chest
on Monday and directly trained on Tuesday. But if you split up chest/shoulders/triceps
or back/biceps, working them on different days, you can implement this
eight day program for maximum muscle resting time. Remember: always
allow your muscles a chance to grow, especially when you are feeling
overtrained. If needed, give yourself an extra day off to grow. Never
feel guilty about skipping a workout. That extra rest could be exactly
what your body needs.
Many people make the mistake of doing too many sets per
exercise, and/or doing too many exercises per muscle group. It's very
common for people who want great muscle size and strength gains to simply
do too much for each muscle group and overtrain to the point where they
do more harm than good. A common weightlifting recommendation is to
do at least four sets for each exercise and at least four exercises
for each muscle group. This idea that "more is better" is
a big misconception in the strength training industry and is recommended
in many "muscle magazines" and other sources.
But when you see Mr. or Ms. Olympia in muscle magazines
describing their workouts of four to five sets per exercise and four
to five exercises per muscle group, do not be fooled into thinking that
if you want their results you have to do what they do. These are professional
body builders, quite likely to be on steroids; they can get away with
these very intense long programs because their muscles are able to rebuild
very quickly. If you are not on steroids--and for the sake of your health
I hope you are not--your muscles will not be able to rebuild themselves
quickly enough to make gains.
For each of the large muscle groups in the body such as
back, chest, shoulders, quadriceps, and hamstrings, two to four exercises
for each muscle is enough. For the smaller muscle groups such as biceps,
calves, trapezius, etc. one to three exercises are enough. Because your
back, for example, has specific muscles that need to be isolated, it
is important that of the three exercises you perform, you do one that
primarily targets each of the three areas: upper-middle back, lats.,
and lower back.
When you're doing two to four exercises for each muscle
group, make sure you don't duplicate movements of specific muscle groups.
For example, it makes no sense to do three sets of Bench Press using
a barbell and then do three sets of Bench Press using dumbbells or Push-ups.
Each of these exercises requires exactly the same movement and works
the same specific muscle. Instead, it would make much more sense to
do bench press for overall middle chest (either barbell, dumbbell, or
machine); do incline bench press for upper chest; and do dips for lower-outer
chest.
One point--maybe the most important of all for ongoing
strength training programs--that is absolutely imperative to understand
and implement into your training regimen is the need to overcome training
plateaus. Ideally, you want to always be going through a momentum phase
in which you try something new and "shock" your muscles, forcing
them to make gains. Eventually however, you will come to a point in
your training where you either get bored or stop seeing results.
When this happens it is absolutely crucial that you change
what you are doing; this is when you need to get creative by incorporating
something new into your program. You can make effective changes in your
program in many ways: try new or alternate exercises, change the order
that you train your muscles or the order of the exercises, and so forth.
I hope you have found the information in these five part
series of articles helpful. You now have the knowledge to achieve the
results you desire and the benefits your body deserves. Your greatest
challenge, however, is not learning new exercises or the proper technique;
it's not learning how many sets or reps to do or how much weight to
use. Nor is it deciding when or how to change your routine. The greatest
challenge facing you at this moment is deciding whether you are willing
to take action and make strength training a priority.
When you begin achieving great results, the excitement
and fun you experience will make the change well worth the effort. Action
creates motivation! Good luck: I hope you enjoy all the wonderful benefits
of an effective strength training program.
This article was provided by GHF.
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