Typically, resistance training is based around four outcomes: Strength, Power (Single and Multiple effort), Hypertrophy, and muscular endurance. If I want to train for strength I must train for strength.
Your training history dictates how quickly your body adapts to training. A newer lifter will see gains rather quickly due to several adaptations. One of those is neural. Ever hear about mind muscle connection? That is the adaption that you mind sends signals to the muscle to recruit enough muscle fibers to pick up the weight and how fast. The more weight you lift the more muscle fibers are involved in the lift. As you progress in training the muscles respond faster this leads to greater synchronization of muscle fibers. To break it down further the body recruits’ smaller type 1 fibers first then larger type 2 muscle fibers. When you lift all these fibers get bigger and thicker this is more well known as the All or nothing principle. Unless you’re a higher trained individual your body muscles are recruited this way. With continued training your muscles recruit at a faster rate (rate coding).
Another key aspect is figuring out your 1 Rep Max (1RM). One way is to keep piling on the weight until you can lift it one time. This can be time consuming and involves at least one spotter. I simpler way that involves less spotters are to estimate it through a chart. If I can lift 150 pounds 10 times, then my 1RM would be roughly be 200 pounds. Keep in mind this is an estimate, and it may differ if you choose to get your 1RM. Many apps have features to estimate your 1RM. Charts are well circulated across the web as well.
Simply, put strength is the ability to move weight. As you would imagine lifting heavy would constitute strength. Strength is typically broken down into six or less repetitions with roughly 2-6 sets. This would be your 5x5 (five sets or five reps), 4x6 (four sets of 6 reps) training methods. Lifting at this method would involve at least 85% of your 1RM. In our above example taking that 200-pound 1RM multiply by .85 which comes out to 170 pounds. To train for strength, I am at least lifting 170 pounds for a maximum of 6 repetitions. As long as you’re in that window then you are training for strength. Lifting heavy requires more rest. This resting time allows your body to re-coup some of the ATP (energy currency) your body lost during training. 2-5 min is an appropriate rest time between sets. I am sure you have seen videos on social media making fun of this training with the lifter bring a pillow to the gym to take a nap between sets. This is an over embellishment. Your body needs that rest time to hit your desired rep range. An example would be 5x5 at 87% with 3 min rest time.
Power on the other hand is the ability to exert force quickly. Since the intent is to move weight quickly dropping the weight to 75%-90% of my one rep max is ideal. Think of it this way if I am lifting 190 pounds (using the above example) moving that amount of weight would be slower than if I dropped that weight down to 140 pounds. The smaller load allows me to lift it faster with ties back into the rate coding princible. This is a wider range of load because it breaks it down into a single effort or multiple efforts. Think of a shot putter in track and field for single effort. They only throw one time. Basketball or volleyball players would fall into the multiple effort power training. Single would be 80%-90% of your 1RM with a goal of 1 to 2 reps. Multiple efforts are typically broken down into 75%-85% of your 1RM with 3-5 repetitions. The high stress of these lifts also requires additional rest. A rest cycle of 2-5 min is appropriate for this type of training.
Hypertrophy training is like body building style of training. The goal is to build muscle. This is one of the more common methods of training. Again, this involves lighting the overall load and the reason is to be able to lift the weight more times in a set. Typical reps would include 6-12 reps with 3-6 sets at 67%-85% of your 1RM. It is inversely based. If I want to lift 80% of 1RM then ideally, I will lift the weight 8 times. Or if I want to lift 10 times (reps) then I would lift at 75% of 1RM. Rest cycles are 30 seconds to 90 seconds.
The last goal of training is muscular endurance or the ability to exert force over an extended amount of time. Long distance runners fall into this category. Lifting at 67% of 1 RM or less falls into this training with at least 12 repetitions. Since a lighter weight is used less rest is required. 30 seconds or less is recommended for the rest cycles.
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