Muscular Strength and Endurance
Resistance training includes any exercise that causes you muscles to contract against and external resistance, with the aim to increase muscular tone/mass/endurance. This external resistance can be in the form of free weights, resistance machines, your own bodyweight, resistance bands or any weighted object used to make your muscles contract.
In simple terms, resistance training works by microscopically tearing muscle fibres for them to be repaired and regenerated, growing back stronger- anabolism. During this regeneration process nutrients as well as testosterone, protein and growth hormone move in to help repair the muscles during the recovery period after MSE training.
Benefits of MSE Training:
+ increase muscle strength and tone
+ increase metabolic rate, helping to maintain weight
+ increase bone strength, reducing risk of osteoporosis
+ can reduce blood pressure
+ maintain muscular strength throughout life- after age of 30 muscle fibre size and type 2 muscle fibre quantity decreases.
Strength Training for Hypertrophy:
Muscular hypertrophy refers to increasing size, so bulking for large muscles. For this type of training you need to be looking higher weights/resistance that cause your muscles to fatigue by around the 6th-8th rep, and this should be done for 2-3 sets. This is a very general overview of reps/sets to start strength training on, and we shall go in to more detail on more specific training methods and plans in the future.
Muscular Endurance Training:
This type of training is aimed more at increasing muscle ‘tone’ and definition without focusing on grain large muscle size. (Again, not to stereotype! But ladies, this is often a popular choice for you when your looking to improve muscle shape and tone without bulking). For this you need to be looking at lower weights/resistance but working the muscles for longer. For example to the point of fatigue setting in more around the 12th-15th rep, for 2-3 sets. Still, this is again a very general overview of reps/sets to start on and we shall look in to more specific plans in the future.
Categories of Muscular Training:
Isotonic
Isotonic contractions create movement by the muscles contracting and shortening.
+ good for movements/actions relative to your sport
+ strengthens your muscles throughout a range of movement
- can cause muscle soreness through stress whilst lengthening
- the strength gains are not evenly distributed throughout the action
Isometric
Isometric training involves contracting the muscle without it shorting, therefore giving no movement. e.g the plank. This should be done as well as isotonic training.
+ develops static strength, e.g used in pushing/pulling/holding up a heavy object
+ they’re quick
+ can be done anywhere
+ no expensive equipment needed
- can cause temporary raises in blood pressure and be risky for those with heart conditions
- the muscles worked only gain strength at the angle it is used during the exercise.
Isokinetic Training
Isokinetic training involves constant speed of muscle contraction throughout the action, as opposed to isotonic contractions where the contraction is usually slower at the start and gets easier as the resistance comes closer to the body.
+ even strength gains throughout range of movement
+ fastest way to increase muscle strength
- very expensive gym equipment
Showing posts with label MSE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MSE. Show all posts
Saturday, 2 April 2011
Thursday, 31 March 2011
The Right Training For What You Want!
Catabolic Vs Anabolic!
After thinking about your fitness goals, then next step is to plan your training plan! Here you need to think about what you want to achieve, how you’re going to achieve it and when. You need to consider the functionality of your training and think about the biology behind it to get the results you want.
Although of course everyone and their personal goals are different and these two goals do overlap, generally you can spilt people into one of two groups when it comes to starting training; the ones that want to build muscle mass and the ones who want to loose fat mass. From this you are instantly talking in terms of catabolism and anabolism.
Anabolism is the construction of molecules from smaller units- i.e. in this case, the building up of tissue, using energy. Catabolism is the opposite- i.e the breakdown of tissue to release energy. Different types of training force our bodies into either anabolic or catabolic states.
To build muscle we want our bodies to be in an anabolic state, promoting the build up of muscle tissue and increase muscle fibre size. For this we need to be doing resistance training (to build muscle size weight should be heavier for 6-8reps and to build muscle endurance 12-15reps) Resistance training releases testosterone in the body which promotes the anabolic state.
To burn fat we want our bodies to be in a catabolic state, breaking down triglycerides and fatty acids the burn off as energy. To do this we need to do cardiovascular training (this can be low or higher intensity but need to be long lasting- over 20mins) When we do CV training our bodies release cortosol which release fatty acids to break down for energy, hence fat burning.
These two metabolic states don’t work together, you are either in a catabolic or anabolic state. The cortosol released in CV work inhibits the anabolic process of testosterone.
So, if you want to improve fitness but also increase muscle mass CV work should be done on a different day to resistance training or at least 6hours after for optimum results. This way you get the health benefits of CV training, including fat burning to increase the definition of you muscles, without it inhibiting the hard work your are doing resistance training to build muscle size.
If you want to burn fat and improve muscle tone without massively increasing muscle bulk, do your cv training before the resistance training within your training session. This way you will get the toning benefit of strength training, but the cortosol inhibiting the action of the testosterone in your body will prevent your muscles gaining bulk- often relative to women (not to generalise!) that want tone but not a masculine shape.
So, before you think about your training sessions, think: what do i want? and so: do I want to be catabolic or anabolic?
Hope this helps!
After thinking about your fitness goals, then next step is to plan your training plan! Here you need to think about what you want to achieve, how you’re going to achieve it and when. You need to consider the functionality of your training and think about the biology behind it to get the results you want.
Although of course everyone and their personal goals are different and these two goals do overlap, generally you can spilt people into one of two groups when it comes to starting training; the ones that want to build muscle mass and the ones who want to loose fat mass. From this you are instantly talking in terms of catabolism and anabolism.
Anabolism is the construction of molecules from smaller units- i.e. in this case, the building up of tissue, using energy. Catabolism is the opposite- i.e the breakdown of tissue to release energy. Different types of training force our bodies into either anabolic or catabolic states.
To build muscle we want our bodies to be in an anabolic state, promoting the build up of muscle tissue and increase muscle fibre size. For this we need to be doing resistance training (to build muscle size weight should be heavier for 6-8reps and to build muscle endurance 12-15reps) Resistance training releases testosterone in the body which promotes the anabolic state.
To burn fat we want our bodies to be in a catabolic state, breaking down triglycerides and fatty acids the burn off as energy. To do this we need to do cardiovascular training (this can be low or higher intensity but need to be long lasting- over 20mins) When we do CV training our bodies release cortosol which release fatty acids to break down for energy, hence fat burning.
These two metabolic states don’t work together, you are either in a catabolic or anabolic state. The cortosol released in CV work inhibits the anabolic process of testosterone.
So, if you want to improve fitness but also increase muscle mass CV work should be done on a different day to resistance training or at least 6hours after for optimum results. This way you get the health benefits of CV training, including fat burning to increase the definition of you muscles, without it inhibiting the hard work your are doing resistance training to build muscle size.
If you want to burn fat and improve muscle tone without massively increasing muscle bulk, do your cv training before the resistance training within your training session. This way you will get the toning benefit of strength training, but the cortosol inhibiting the action of the testosterone in your body will prevent your muscles gaining bulk- often relative to women (not to generalise!) that want tone but not a masculine shape.
So, before you think about your training sessions, think: what do i want? and so: do I want to be catabolic or anabolic?
Hope this helps!
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