Resistance Training Principles

Happy New Year folks. It has been way too long since my last post. I will blame it on finishing a post-graduate diploma and a surprize (but more than welcome) visit from family during the holidays.

Having worked in the fitness industry I realize that January is a special time of year. This is when everyone decides to do better. Whether it is lose weight, gain muscle, eat right or quit smoking, we all wait until the new year to begin. How many succeed? – not nearly enough. 

What does this have to do with your students? Well, believe it or not, over the holidays, many of your students have decided to get fit, and you may be their best chance of reach their new years goal. Here are a few resistance training principles, that when used correctly, can help you and your students see continued results.

The Principle of Overload

Our bodies are constantly adapting to the stresses that we put on them. Have you ever noticed that your body responds wondefully when you begin a new exercise program but the results don’t seem to come as easily after a couple of months. That is because the body is not working hard enough anymore – it is not being overloaded. For example; if you wanted to increase the size of your muscles, each work out must be done at at least 70% of your 1 rep max. Anything less and you won’t grow. Introduce too much weight too fast, and you risk injury.

The Principle of Progression

Although our bodies respond very well to overload, it is important to introduce this overload over a period of time. By progressing at a slow rate and allowing our bodies to adapt to each new level of stress (running faster, lifting more weight, exercising longer, etc) we are able to reach levels of fitness in a safe and effective way. This is why setting short term goals that will eventually lead to the attainment to a more long term  is so important.

The Principle of Specificity

This prinicple is based on selecting exercises that stimulate the individual’s everyday work or sport action as closely as possible. There four aspects to this principle that should be taken into consideration: movement patterns (what movements are you actually doing – bending, lifting, etc); contraction type (the order the muscles contract – writing and throwing a baseball both use the forearm, but very differently); velocity (try to stimulate the same speed when selecting the exercise); and force (try to stimulate the same mass and acceleration).

Use these principles when designing exercise programs and continued success should come easier (or least more regular – success is hardly ever easy).

Yours in movement,

Coach