Fit For Life

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The key to exercise is targeting the right muscle for the right function.

The term weight training or resistance training is quite common in most gyms, but what does effective weight training really mean?

Before you get into an exercise program you need to understand what your goals are and how you can achieve them.

Proper exercise definitely affects the outcome of your efforts. There are 3As you need to focus on when exercising. Anatomy (muscles used), Alignment and Action. These must be applied from the first to the last repetition of every exercise.

Force and movement play a crucial role in the 3As of your exercise. This determines the strength, size, balance, functionality and most importantly the safety of your exercise routine. Force stimulates body muscles. External force is considered to be the resistance coming from dumbbell, barbell, strength machine etc, while internal force is the reaction of the muscle against the external resistance. Movement, execution or whatever you may want to call it, is an action coming from a joint to emphasize muscle function. All exercise requires a full range of movement.

Some other factors that affect the force of your training are the weight, distance from the axis (joint) and the speed of the action.

By example most people realise that if they could life 40 lbs on the chest press, they could hardly perform the same weight in chest fly. If we consider the distance between the dumbbell and the body, the distance of the chest fly is almost doubled (because of the need to extend your arms wider). According to rotational inertia, double the distance equals 4 times the force at a joint, that is, if you could life 40 lbs in a chest press, then you could probably lift 10 lbs in a chest fly.

The speed of motion is also important. Once you perform it faster, you will realise that it is easier and vice versa because the movement is mostly coming from momentum. If you wish to add challenges to your workout and, to maximise muscle utility, try doing it slower than usual and you’ll have a new training experience.