Weight training - breaking through the gym fiction...

There's a lot of gym room experts when it comes to weight training, but it all really comes down to one thing: what do you want to achieve from your training?? Let's be honest, we don't all want to look like this:

...and even if you do - do you know how to go about training the correct way to achieve this??

Let's start with the three most common goals of weight training:

1. training to increase muscular strength

(notice Damon Kelly looks nothing like the chiseled abdomen displayed above??)

Training to increase muscular strength is usually undertaken about a building phase, which I will discuss next - and it's usually a pretty simple theory: lift a big weight a few times. In more complex terms, lift 85-90% of your one rep max (the maximum amount of weight you can lift one, often referred to as ORM) around 4-6 times in a set. The top athletes in this field may do anywhere from two to four sets depending on where they are in their training schedule. This time of training won't give you a chiseled frame, or make your muscles bigger, but you will get strong...and usually pretty quickly...

2. training to build muscle

This is a phase of weight training that works on increasing the size of the muscle fibre - you start with a weight that is 50-65% of your ORM and your repetitions (or reps for short) usually vary between 8-12 and performed over three sets. The muscle derived from this type of training usually isn't very functional, and requires further training if you want to specialise towards a certain goal.

3. training to tone

This phase of training usually works on stripping away excess muscle fibre and adipose tissue (otherwise known as fat), leaving a body with a large amount of lean muscle mass. The training principle is relatively simple - grab a weight around 40-50% of your ORM and lift it between 15-30 times for three sets. Body weight exercises (push-ups, chin-ups, etc) tend to be utilised a lot here.

(female voice) "...but won't I get all bulky if I lift weights??"

...I actually get told this, or asked this, a lot...the honest truth is that most women who weight train will initially start training to build muscle, and then will quickly switch to a toning regime with the occasional building session over time. If you stick to the principles above, and have a good trainer, there's no reason you should wind up looking like this:

 

...as always, if you want to know more: the.chiro@mail.com