strength training Archives - Page 2 of 2

May 3, 2019 By GOQii 5 Comments

Strength Training and It’s Benefits

Having covered so many topics across health and fitness, we wanted to focus today’s topic on Strength Training. I have always been fond of strength training. If performed correctly, strength training can provide significant functional benefits and improvement in overall health and well-being.

Weight training can increase Bone Mineral Density and Muscle Mass. It also increases the strength and toughness of our tendons and ligaments, improves joint function and range of motion, and reduces potential for injury. Strength training will tone your muscles.

Strength training or weight training or anaerobic training all are same. In anaerobic exercise, cells use ATP (Adenosine Tri Phosphate) as a source of energy or glucose in the absence of oxygen. It usually lasts up to 2 minutes.

I began strength training at the age of 16 with traditional Indian squat, Surya Namaskar and push ups. At that time, my knowledge was limited. After some time I realized that my immune system is performing better. I used to fall sick more often with fever and/or cold but weight training really helped me make my immune system stronger.

Weight training can be done using body weight, elastic bands, dumbbells, barbells, and kettle bells. I prefer using my body weight as there is no investment which is required and sometimes, I use dumbbells for weight training.

If you are feeling depressed or stressed, try weight training. It helped me overcome depression and might work wonders for you! After a weight training session, endorphin levels increase in the body. Endorphins are the neurotransmitters released by the pituitary gland which makes one feel good. Neuro-muscular coordination improves.

One benefit of strength training is that during training you are burning calories but the effect will remain for more time because of the increased muscle mass. So weight training will help to increase the B.M.R. as muscle needs more energy to survive.

What Happens in Strength Training?

During strength training, there will be a wear and tear in the muscle fiber but that damage will be repaired after sleep and proper nutrition. Your muscles will become stronger. Your muscular strength and muscular endurance will go up after 2-3 sessions. For hypertrophy (increase in muscle mass), you need more training sessions, proper nutrition and rest.

During weight training, blood flow will increase to a particular muscle. There will be more supply of nutrients to that muscle and muscle will increase in size and strength. Smaller muscles need less time for recovery but bigger muscles like the hamstrings or quadriceps need more time and nutrition.

But before starting weight training you have to prepare your body and mind. Start with a good warm up. During or before you exercise, try ballistic stretching where you are not holding the stretch. After your training session, perform cool down and static stretching where you will hold the stretch for 10-15 seconds.

Want to know more about Strength Training? Leave your queries in the comments below!

#BeTheForce

March 13, 2018 By Trishala Chopra 2 Comments

Strength training and exercises for runners

Dear marathoners/runners, I am sure this blog is going to catch your attention! Do read the article, and I would be happy to answer your questions!

Well, not just runners though! Whether you are a runner or cyclist or if you plan any endurance sport, strength training becomes very important. Everybody wants to be good at the sport they play, so this article will help give you some insights about various topics with regard to strength training.

In this blog, I shall take you through four main aspects namely….

What is an endurance sport?

Why is strength training and its importance for an endurance sport?
If strength training is important, how much is too much or how much is ideal?
Which exercises should be included in strength training protocol?

All I knew was running is endurance. I knew of more examples but what exactly is endurance I couldn’t really get through. It’s over time that I learnt what endurance training means. Endurance training uses your aerobic system as opposed to your anaerobic system.

Aerobic system:- Body uses oxygen to produces energy

Anaerobic system:- Body does not use oxygen to produce energy

So why is strength training important for any endurance sport?

I come across runners who say, “I run 5k,10k and 21k which takes a lot of energy, why should I put exact PRESSURE on my body?”

Here are 3 benefits of doing strength training from runners’ perspective!

Your pace will improve, you can run faster!

Your speed matters a lot when it comes to any marathons! What determines your speed?

Stride length
Stride Frequency

If you are a runner, it is important for you to know that stride length means how long is your step and stride frequency relates to how many steps you take per minute/second.

So the technical formula here is,

Speed= Stride length x Stride frequency.

But, what does this have to do with strength training? Well, to improve your speed/pace you have to take longer strides and of course faster strides

How to take longer strides?

Forcing your legs to the ground.

How to put more force?

For this, your legs should be strong.

How to make your legs stronger?

By doing strength training.

So, this shows that strength training is required to help runners run faster!

(2) With Strength training, your endurance will get better!

“How can strength training make endurance better? Endurance training will make endurance better right?” Well, the answer is that strength training and endurance training both are required and helps in increasing the endurance but the mechanism used is different.

Let me take you through some technicalities but in a way, you will understand. Are you aware of maximal aerobic capacity? Maximal aerobic capacity means the maximum rate of inhaling oxygen by your body during any exercise. Maximal aerobic capacity is also called as VO2max.

Your VO2max is made up of 2 components: Central and peripheral

Central component= Heart

Peripheral component= Muscle

VO2max = Q x (a – Vo2 difference)

Here is the complete breakup

Q is the Cardiac output

The cardiac output means how much blood your heart is able to pump per minute.This covers your central component

(a – Vo2 difference) where a is arteries and v is veins and this means that the difference between the oxygen in your arteries and veins.

Smaller the difference, more the endurance!

In simple words, it is the ability of your body to extract the oxygen from the blood. This covers your peripheral component

The reason why I have discussed this in depth is, because endurance training works on the central component which is the heart but the peripheral component which are the muscles is ignored. To get the maximum endurance it is important for your peripheral component to be strong and strength training here helps. High repetitions (reps) helps in pumping your peripheral component.

Hence, to improve your endurance you should do strength training.

(3) Strength training helps reduce injury risks!

Runners, I am sure you can relate to this! More kms to run, more risk of injuries! When I say injuries here I am talking about overuse injuries.

What is overuse injuries?

Your muscles, tendons and bones have a restriction to work.
When you cross that restriction, you tend to injure your muscles, tendons and bones.
Then post injury either you take a break from your routine or you do some other exercises.

Once the injury is done, we cannot do much about it but as the old adage goes- ‘Prevention is better than cure! Strength training helps in increasing the tolerance of your tissues to work which reduces the risk of overuse injuries and helps you train better,

If strength training is important, how much is too much or how much is ideal?

There are 3 main points here which everyone should understand.Strength training of runners completely depends upon,

Distance
The phase of training (current phases and upcoming phases)
Goal

Distance

Greater the distance to be covered, shorter is the strength training requirement.
For eg, if you are running for 5k you need to do more strength training then someone who runs a 21k.
Goal strength training of a runner and the adaptability of the stress is completely different from all the other sports/events
A 5K runner needs about 65% of endurance training and 35% of strength training and for a runner who is planning to run 21k needs about 80% of endurance training and 20% of strength training.

Just because the proportion of strength training is less, it does not mean that we can skip it. As discussed above, strength training is equally important too.

(2) Phase of training (current phases and upcoming phases)

Training phase depends on your competition date
For example, your endurance training is lesser when your competition is about 3 months away which is the perfect time to concentrate on strength training.
Closer the competition, higher is the endurance training.

For example,

When competition is far away then do 2-4 sets 2-3 times per week

When competition is near then do 1-2 sets 1-2 times per week

Variations in between are always accepted.

(3) Goal

Every runner has a period where there are no marathons. This is called as “off-season”. You might be running very little so this gives you a chance to recover the lost muscle during the endurance period.

Most people are of the notion that strength training is only done to gain muscle mass or get those big biceps, chest and arms but that’s not true. I have mentioned above that strength training for everyone depends upon the goal they want to achieve.

Runners might be thinking that strength training will make them gain weight which will make it difficult for them to run but that’s not true at all. Protocol for runners’ strength training only depends upon their goal and not a generic plan which is followed.

When I talk about a goal for runners, during their offseason phase strength training can be done 3-4 times per week. Whenever the competition period comes near, strength training can be done 1-2 times per week and strength training will only be used to minimize muscle loss.

During endurance training, muscle loss is bound to happen but when you strength train the muscle loss will be reduced. The focus of adding strength training is, to only slow down the process of muscle loss or maintain muscle during the competition phase.

How does this muscle loss happen?

As I mentioned, your body has limited capacity to adapt to things. Either it can be endurance training or strength training. For an endurance athlete, adapting to endurance training is more important than strength training but a blend of both of these is important. Cardio and strength training are 2 opposite goals. While in cardio you burn muscles, strength training helps in building muscles. More endurance means more muscle loss, strength training helps in maintaining those muscles

Finally, which exercises should be included in strength training protocol?

I have been with athletes for a year now where I have seen that maximum of my athletes don’t train their legs or they avoid doing them. They often tell me that running in itself is a good exercise for legs so why should we add additional training?

Well, most of the runners have them but that’s not true. Runners have good endurance in their legs but that doesn’t mean that they are strong.

We have covered a lot of endurance and strength training. Now let me come to exercises that are important. Runners you don’t need to do lots of exercises but few major ones are important.

Focus on these lower body exercises first-

Level 1 Squats
Level 2 Lunges
Level 3 can be with deadlifts

Just as lower body exercises are a must, upper body exercises are also a must and should not be ignored. Well, your upper body counter-balances your lower body.

I am not sure if anybody has noticed but when you move your right leg ahead, your left arm goes ahead. If your upper body is not having enough strength then it can reduce the lower body force to coordinate with your upper body. Your lower body is definitely stronger than your upper body but if the imbalance increases, the performance of runners can be affected.

Focus on these upper body exercises first,

Level 1 pushups
Level 2 pull-ups
Head press

I hope this article helps you to run better! Reach out to me in case of any questions and I will be happy to help you!

October 30, 2017 By Trishala Chopra 1 Comment

How much strength training you should do?

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In my previous article, I mentioned about how much cardio you should do? In that article, I have mentioned about 3 components of exercise: –

Cardio

Strength training

Flexibility

So, after writing about cardio exercises and how much one should be doing it, the next logical question which comes to the mind is how much strength training you should do?

When we talk about cardio, it becomes a bit easy to answer the question HOW MUCH? Because we can measure it in time but when we apply this question to strength training it becomes a bit tricky.

When people exercise, not everyone does it in the same way. Some people who exercise for 25 minutes are actually working out more than someone who does it for an hour.

When someone tells me that they exercise for 1.5 hours in the gym, my next question to them is – how can you do that?

So, this 1.5 hours includes 30 minutes of the workout, 15 minutes of phone checking session, 10 minutes of MIRROR SELFIES, 10 minutes of water break and some talks here and there.

This isn’t 1.5 hours of gym.

So, if I answer the question saying you can do strength training for 1 hour that won’t be fair.

When we talk about strength training in sports science,

How much? Means total volume per session.

How is this total volume per session calculated?

Number of sets x Number of repetitions x Weight in pounds

For example: –

Number of sets = 3

Number of repetitions= 10

Weight (60kg) = 132 pounds

Let’s put these values in the formula mentioned above: –

3x10x132 = 3960 pounds (1796 kg)

This means that the answer for how much strength training you should do?

Is 1796 kg for that particular workout?

I know, this was extremely technical for you and I don’t even want you to understand that because except the trainer, nobody actually even thinks about it.

So, my whole point is, do not quantify exercises in the terms HOW MUCH. The answer could be as tricky as the example mentioned above!

You should always focus on the following points when you talk about strength training exercises.

(1) What is your goal?

Same way as the cardio works, strength training to depends upon your goal. For a person who has to make a record in activities which needs strength will have a different goal as compared to a one who has to run a marathon.

Please note: – Everybody requires all the 3 components of the exercise as mentioned in my previous article and also mentioned in the first paragraph. All the components have to be modified based on the GOAL of the individual.

I don’t want my readers to get bored with these scientific basics so I have tried to put some generic numbers depending upon different goals but it may vary from person to person.

GOAL	How many times a week?	How many exercises?	How many sets?	How many reps?
Endurance athlete in sports season	Once	10-12	1-2	3-5
Endurance athlete not in sports season	Twice	4-10	2-4	5-15
Fat loss	Thrice	3-8	3-7	6-20
Muscle gain	4-5 times	4-8	3-10	3-12
Bone-strengthening	3-4 times	3-7	3-8	5-12
Strength training	3-12 times (2 times a day might also be needed)	2-6	3-10	1-5

(2) What is your level?

You are a beginner if you have never done any strength training exercises.
You are a beginner if you are resuming your strength training exercises after a gap of 6-7 months.
You are a beginner if you are doing exercises regularly but yet not reached your desired results (which also means that you are not working out properly)
You can do advanced strength training exercises only after 6 months of proper form.

(3) What is your intensity?

Higher intensity, less frequency helps you a lot if you are planning to lose weight.
Higher intensity strength training exercises less frequently can give you better results than lower intensity strength training exercises every day.

(4) What is your body’s response?

This is perhaps the most important part when you exercise. It all depends upon your body’s response. It depends on your age, metabolism.
For someone who is exactly same like you, working out like you will have different results as compared to you.
All you should do is continue on the right path, trust your body and everything will fall into place.

I always tell,

“Workout for fitness and good health, weight loss will come as a gift to you”

I will soon be out with different strength training exercises for different levels