Strength training is central to any excellent physical training program for achieving fat loss. Here in this first section is the orientation for beginners.
Getting warmed up well and properly executing reps are central to the free program presented here on our website. This orientation page and the next two pages will provide you with helpful specifics that you can apply to any such program.
If you have not yet read the general page on
Strength Training,
you might first want to do so and then return here. Beginners will need to read these pages.
If you are an intermediate strength trainee or an expert we encourage you to read the pages, if only to learn the terminology.
Strength Training: Key Terms
First, we would like to clarify some key terms.
Exercises
A strength-training exercise is one kind of movement against resistance such as squats (deep knee bends) or standing barbell curls.
Rep or Repetition
A rep or repetition is one movement of an exercise.
For example, if you were doing standing barbell curls, one rep would be moving the barbell once by curling it from the starting position, which is standing with your arms straight down holding the bar in front of your thighs, raising it to in front of your chest, and lowering it to the starting position.
Even without using momentum, reps can be performed relatively quickly or slowly.
TUL
What is more important than the number of reps is the time under load, called 'TUL.' This is the number of seconds that a muscle group is under tension.
If the TUL for one rep is 5 seconds and there are ten reps, the TUL is 50 seconds. Usually, the TUL should be at least 30 seconds.
Set
A set is a measured sequence of reps. A set could consist of any number of reps from one to dozens.
Continuing the same example, if you were to curl the barbell ten times, rest briefly, and curl it another ten times, you would have done two sets of ten reps for that exercise. That would be written '2 x 10.'
Routines
A routine is a measured sequence of different sets of different exercises for a single major muscle group.
For example, your shoulder routine might consist of 2 x 8 seated barbell presses, 2 x 10 standing dumbbell laterals, and 2 x 10 seated bent-over dumbbell laterals.
Workout or Training Session
A workout or training session is two or more routines done consecutively.
For example, in addition to doing a shoulder routine during a given workout, you might also do routines for your upper arms, forearms, and calves.
(Since it is possible to have a whole workout consist of a single set of a single exercise, such as 1 x 20 breathing squats, sometimes 'routine' or 'set' may be correctly used to mean the same as 'workout' or 'training session.')
Beginners and intermediate strength trainees should neither do more than one training session in a single day nor more than three in a single week.
Typically, training sessions are planned weeks or months in advance.
Program
The whole set of training sessions is called a program.
The free training program presented here at lasting-weight-loss.com includes mild fitness training, intense fitness training, flexibility training (there's a brief excellent program in McRobert's first book that we recommend), and strength training.
Our free strength training program for beginning and intermediate strength trainers is based on double resistance training in which stress is deliberately increased over time in two different ways.
Here's an example of how it works:
Suppose that today I do 1 x 10 standing barbell curls using a 100 pound barbell as part of my upper arm routine. Since I should be slightly stronger, let's imagine that during my next workout I am able to do 11 reps and then 12 reps during the workout after that. It is not as effective as possible to keep increasing the reps indefinitely.
So, instead, let's increase the resistance. In the workout after I get 12 reps with 100 pounds, let's increase the load to 105 pounds and imagine that I am able to get only 8 reps. I'll keep using 105 pounds during subsequent workouts until I hit 12 reps, and then I'll again increase the load dropping the number of reps. This is written as '1 x 8-12.'
The purpose of strength training for fat loss is to challenge your body to overcompensate for the stress of resistance training by increasing lean muscle mass. Your body will not add more muscle until more is necessary.
This is why it is critical to resolve that during each workout you'll do your best to increase either your reps or your poundage on each exercise.
Focus on that idea. It's the key to success.
Strength Training : Other Considerations
If you train intensely as well as correctly, eat well
(see Weight Loss Tips, Part Two),
and get sufficient rest and recovery, you will get stronger. This will result in increasing your percentage of lean muscle mass, which will enable you to consume sufficient calories for excellent health.
Because they have such a high percentage of lean muscle mass, master bodybuilders and strength athletes typically consume 3,000 to 4,000 calories daily. (Some consume 5,000 to 10,000 calories daily!)
Even if you consume nutritious food, if you are on a semi-starvation diet of, say, 1500 to 1800 calories daily, let us assure you that you'll feel a lot better as well as be healthier if you were to consume 2400 to 2800 calories daily.
Furthermore, you'll really, really appreciate your improved body composition.
You will be trimmer while being able to eat more food
Once you are ready to train intensely you will discover for yourself that it is hard physical labor.
However, because it's intense, it is also brief. It will be interesting to discover what works best for you. If your working life involves mental work, you'll find pumping iron a terrific change of pace.
At least for me, it's much easier to skip a fitness training session than a strength training session. Fitness training is so boring that I usually prefer to listen to an audio program to keep my mind productively engaged.
However, during a strength training session, it's easy simply to be thinking solely about one's training. Neither audio programs nor music are necessary. Each strength training exercise is a new and interesting challenge.
Doing it well really is fun!
Warming Up, Executing Reps, Workouts
Before presenting some effective workouts, let's focus in the next two pages on warming up correctly and executing reps perfectly.
If you do these two things well, you'll be able to use the workouts to make significant progress safely and effectively.
So, start psyching up!
This completes the Strength Training Orientation page.
Click on the first link, listed below, to go to the next page of our Strength Training section.
