5 More Great Reasons You Should Try Strength Training
The benefits of strength training for women and men have been listed a million times by a million different coaches. I’m going to list them again – hopefully, with a new twist.
There’s two reasons I’ve decided to rehash this post:
- No matter how many times it has been said, it always needs to be said again.
- Strength training has been mislabelled in common gym parlance.
If you have ever performed a challenging resistance workout that made you stronger over time, then technically you have engaged in strength training. However, in my opinion dedicated strength training is more than just lifting weights – it’s a completely different workout to the ones you’ll usually see in your local gym. This distinction can cause you to miss out on some of the benefits of a committed strength training period.
So What is Strength Training, Really?
Dedicated strength training is characterised by the following features:
- Increasing the weight you can lift at low (1-8) reps;
- Exercises that use multiple joints and muscle groups through a long range of motion;
- Fundamental movement patterns such as squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, single leg work and carrying;
- An emphasis on free weights or bodyweight (although this can be tweaked for the individual);
- A strong focus on your technique, tweaking exercises to suit your leverages;
- Long rest periods (usually 2-5 minutes).
Unfortunately, strength training is usually confused with:
- Lifting the heaviest weight you can every session;
- Spontaneously maxing out without strategy;
- Chasing failure/soreness;
- One resistance exercise in the middle of a circuit;
- Going so heavy that you only move the weight a couple of inches;
- An overreliance on machines.
