WEIGHT TRAINING
HOW TO USE WEIGHTS TO IMPROVE YOUR PERFORMANCE
The size of an individual’s muscles does not always reflect physical strength. Strength depends on many factors, including your training regimen and your genetic makeup. Weight training with free weights or weight machines can significantly improve your performance on the sports field and give you an athletic edge, as well as offer aging adults many health benefits.
Most athletes in any sport should lift weights at least three times a week to avoid pre-season injuries. Self-efficacy, or sticking to you program, is the single most important factor in reaping the benefits of exercise. Without following certain guidelines and using proper techniques, however, your workout can cause injury and delay reaching your goals. Weight lifting should include all body parts, but should also be sport specific. Many competitive athletes find that high-intensity training, with extended, slower repetitions, works well in developing muscles. Friction plays a part in developing muscles, too, as raising weights requires more strength than lowering them. Researchers have reported conflicting findings on the use of creatine in the development of muscle strength, but note that nothing can replace the necessity and value of training.
Professional athletes, including golfers on the PGA tour, train with weights to increase muscle strength and endurance. Golfers, in fact, have credited weight training with improving their physical and mental ability to compete and with helping to maintain a demanding schedule. Combining strength and resistance training with aerobic exercise, referred to as “concurrent” training, also benefits many athletes. Although home gyms are commonly advertised to offer benefits of both regimens while minimizing exercise time, dividing your workouts into a weight training phase and an aerobic phase will better address both fitness needs.
Strength-building activities should not just be part of an athlete’s regimen. Most adults should incorporate weight lifting into their fitness program. In both older and younger men and women, weight training can ward off age-related decreased muscle mass. Loss of muscle can not only decrease physical ability and functional capacity in older adults, but it can also lead to weight gain. Physical activity, particularly strengthening workouts, reduces the loss of lean tissue (mostly muscle) and increases metabolism. Lifting weights does not have to be time-consuming or involve multiple sets of repetitions. Single-set regimens of eight to twelve repetitions three or more times a week have been shown to greatly improve muscular strength, muscular endurance and body composition among long-term adult recreational weight lifters. In addition to these physical benefits, regular exercise makes you feel good and helps fight depression, stress, and fatigue. People who are successful in losing weight and keeping it off always attribute their success to regular physical exercise. Unfortunately, diet pills and other magic solutions just don’t work!
Having large muscles does not guarantee that you will be stronger than a person with smaller muscles who trains for strength. It all depends on how you train and your genetic makeup.