Should you weight train?

If I ruled the world, I would make it compulsory for everyone to have to lift weights......

Our society today makes our lives “easier” to do and many of us no longer have to do any kind of hard physical work to keep the body healthy. The rise of gyms shows that there is a great thirst for lifting weights, and rightly so. Even without the aesthetic qualities of a work out, those of you who do train will tell you how good it feelsJ.  So, if you want to know more about the benefits and ways to train, then read on....

Weight training increases muscle strength and power by increasing the amount of protein stored within the muscle. Think of you muscle like a big kit bag with only a few items in it – it loses shape and flops around. Now think about packing more items into you kit bag so that it is tightly packed and firm. Think about hitting someone with you half empty bag and then the force of the full bag – now think about the ability to swing that bag faster – the combination of weight and speed leads to POWER.

There are many different training schemes to be had and I will discuss this further in other posts. However, this is a basic outline. If you have not trained before, then you need to spend about a few weeks conditioning the muscle and increasing tensile strength in the ligaments and tendons around the joints. To do this, you need to work predominately in the endurance phase where you lift weights for more than 15 repetitions. There is a formula for how heavy this should be, but unfortunately, this involves doing your maximum lift which is not ideal for beginners!  This weight is known as your “1RM” - with RM standing for “Repetition Maximum” – it is important to understand the concept of the RM, as it does mean to work to your “maximum”. IE – if you chose to do 15 it should be pretty tough to do 16 and impossible to do 20 of that weight.

An endurance range is 15 – 25. This targets specifically the endurance fibres of the body and encourages them to grow more blood vessels and increase the mitochondria (energy production) within the cell. By doing this, you will feel “fitter” and less tired.  The endurance fibres need to work in a steady rhythmic fashion and so you will try to lift and lower the weights at the same steady pace.

The middle range is 8 – 15 reps and this is where we predominantly see the most muscle growth.  The weight is sufficiently heavy to cause changes in the muscle and enough reps to cause growth – this can be more protein cells within the fibres and/or more fibres within the muscle. The muscle itself is responsive to training and fantastic gains can be seen regardless of age or gender with increases of anything between 25 – 100% in a 3 month period. Be aware though that size and bulk is hard to achieve for women as we do not have enough testosterone....

The biggest gains in strength (without bulk) is in the 1-8 RM. This is mainly now due to a neural response. The neural response is hugely important in weight training – this is a nerve response that triggers the muscle fibres to contract. The nerve has to fire to cause the muscle to contract. This happens all day when we are moving etc. However, when we regularly strength train it is like gathering all your friends and family together to help you move house – a huge coordinated effort increasing the amount of muscle you contract in one go and the amount of fibres within your muscle resulting in increased force J  When the neural response is activated, you have all* your nerves firing at the same time - everyone should aim to work in this range at some point in their work out.  We will discuss the neural response in more depth later.

Finally, as with most training systems, repetition, repetition. So, chose the number of reps you are doing and then repeat for about 3 sets. You will need 30 seconds to a minute between each set. For example: newcomers – 15RM x 3 sets with 45 sec recovery and 4 body areas. Been training a month – 10RM x 3 sets with 30 sec recovery. More adv. Pyramids – 15Rm, 10RM, 8RM – 2 sets. Leading on to 12RM, 8RM, 6RM. Adv training, 6RM, 4RM, 2RM. Or even 4RM x 3 sets. Remember the section on Periodisation? Well, you could think about doing this. Week 1 – all weights 15RM X 3sets on week one, 12 on week 2, 8 on week 3 and finally 4 on week 4 – trust me this is a fabulous way to get good gains J

There is of course PILES more things to talk about, but please think about going to the gym. It has so many fantastic benefits that it is worth the effort.

PS - 1RM = 100%, 20RM = 50%, So your 15RM should be 62.5% of your maximum and 10RM is 75%. Use these percentages to work out your weights. There are plenty of charts of the web for you to look at.