Weight Lifting Exercises

Types, Muscle Groups and Frequency

Weight lifting exercises offer benefits far beyond a firm, toned exterior.

The range in difficulty and type of strength training exercises is quite broad.

Yet all the many types and approaches result in the same outcome -- a healthier, fitter, firmer body.

First, let's spell something out that scares most women away from the weight room: weight lifting does not necessarily mean bodybuilding, at least not in the Miss Universe kind of way.

For women to build the kind of muscle that female bodybuilders carry is not easy. It takes hours and hours of training and dedication each day to carve out that body. Genetics also plays a part in it, so relax, that is not going to happen if you lift a few weights.

Weight lifting exercises can easily be done at home, with minimal equipment. Simple hand weights (or dumbells) and a good workout DVD are all you need.

Alternatively, an Online Personal Trainer can design you a program that will provide the same results as joining a gym. Fewer sweaty men, too.

Muscles Groups Targeted During Weight Training

Top to bottom, the muscle groups are as follows:

UPPER BODY

Deltoids - shoulder muscles
Biceps - the bulgy bit on the front of the arm
Triceps - back side of the arm that flaps around on your grandmother
Pectorals - the chest muscles
Back - includes three main muscles in the upper back and the erector spinae which runs on either side of the spine

LOWER BODY

Glutes - the muscles of the backside or butt
Quadriceps - the big muscles on the front of the leg between the knee and the hip
Hamstrings - the opposing muscle to the quads
Calves - back of the lower leg
Abs - the four abdominal muscles

A beginner's program usually consists of one or two exercises for each body part performed three times a week (Monday/ Wednesday/Friday). Depending on your fitness level, a trainer will specify what exercises to do as well as how many reps (repetitions of an exercise) and sets (a group of reps) to be performed per exercise.

What causes a muscle to improve is microscopic tears within the tissue that heal and it is the healed tissue that is denser, bigger and stronger. To allow the tissue to heal, a muscle needs to rest for 48 hours. This is why programs are designed with a break between working the same muscle group again.

Order and Frequency

A simple and popular program for weight lifting exercises is to alternate between upper body one day, lower body the next and so on. In some ways this is a more flexible work out plan as it can be designed to work each muscle more thoroughly and/or take less overall time.

It also lends itself to sport specific training. For example, if you are a long distance runner, you want to work your lower body after a run and adhere to the day of rest by working your upper body on the following day.

Abdominals are the only muscles that can be given light workout every day. However, the ideal is to treat them like any other group and work them intensely every second day.

A reason for a light daily work out would be, say, a new mother whose abs are not only recovering their original size and shape but who also must be able to pick up and carry her new baby. Heavily fatigued ab muscles could put her back at risk.

PREVENT INJURIES

Caution has to be taken when performing weight lifting exercises. Especially when training the abs and lower back. Overworking these muscles can tire them out to the point where it is easy to injure either the muscles supporting the spine or the spine itself.

Never work them to the point of muscle failure – where the muscle is too tired to contract without a break - a common weight training practice for all other muscle groups.

Weight lifting exercises are an enjoyable and highly effective addition to any fitness program - get lifting and get fit today!

Learn Simple, Effective Exercises

Learn more about fat burning and strength training. Discover the most effective exercises for creating the body you want.

Plus instructions on exactly how to perform the exercises... which is so important to get the best results and keep from injuring yourself.

Master Fitness Trainer, Lynn VanDyke shares it all in her indispensible book How To Melt the Fat.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Workout DVDs
• Home Exercise Equipment

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