High Intensity Weight Training
People often don’t exercise due to lack of time. However, quick bursts of energy can deliver health benefits like regular cardiovascular training. This is also the case for lifting weights and building muscle. Because high intensity training works more muscles than regular training, you are able to get greater benefits and spend less time.
What Is High Intensity Weight Training?
The principle of high intensity weight training is to overload the muscle, which creates a large demand for the muscle. This creates an intensity that makes the exercise more effective. The overload is caused by slowly doing multiple repetitions without taking a break. This removes the momentum that you typically get from quickly moving the weight and trains the muscle to fatigue.
It is important to maintain proper form during each repetition. Once the muscles have fatigued, you need to stop to avoid injury.
Training Smarter
The more intense an exercise is, the less time it takes to accomplish. There is an inverse relationship between the frequency and intensity of your workout.
You can over-exercise your muscles, resulting in injury. However, when you perform high intensity weight training, you work out a maximum of three non-consecutive days per week.
Intense training breaks down the muscle, making it slightly weaker. Your muscles grow during the rest periods between workouts. Muscle building requires physiologic stress to the muscles, rest and adequate diet.
If you do not give your muscles enough rest, you will plateau and your performance will suffer. The appropriate amount of exercise to avoid overtraining depends on your age, sex, rest, nutrition, quality of sleep, training goals, and genetics.
High Intensity Weight Training Benefits
High intensity weight training improves heart health. When your muscles need more oxygen during this training, you improve your aerobic capacity. The demand increases the stress on the heart and lungs to deliver oxygen to the muscles.
High intensity weight training also trains your body to deliver substrate to mitochondria faster, which increases energy production even more effectively than aerobic exercise. It also increases calorie burn and fat loss.
The most attractive benefit for those who find that they do not have time in their schedules to fit in a workout is the time high intensity weight training saves.
Strength Training is Important With Age
With age, strength training becomes increasingly important to prevent injury due to falls. Activities and exercises that improve balance, strength, and mobility help prevent falls and lower the risk for injury. With age, your gait may become altered due to changes to your joints and strength. Stiff joints and impaired neurological function, along with reduced muscle strength, can all contribute to the risk of falling.
Muscle mass and strength begins to rapidly decline by the age of 40. Including strength training in an exercise routine reduces the amount of muscle loss with age. High intensity weight training is great for the elderly, as it builds on your existing abilities. Also, because most people experience faster results than with conventional weight training, it is motivational.
Determine Your Workout Frequency
Beginners should not do weight training over three times each week, however some may find they need more rest time than others. You can determine your workout frequency by monitoring how your muscles feel. You can tell if your body has not recovered if you have reduced performance and fatigue. When you are on the right track, you will see small improvements with each workout session and only feel slightly tired the following day.
You want to feel energized and invigorated 24 hours after your workout. Also, you should never feel as if you have strained yourself.
Fitness Together Mission Hills offers personal training with qualified professionals by regular appointment in private suites. Exercise and nutritional programs are custom designed to fit your needs and abilities. Call (619) 794-0014 for more information or to schedule a free fitness diagnostic and private training session. See what others are saying about us on Yelp.
Category: Health & Fitness, Local News
