MUSCULAR FITNESS
Types of Muscle Action
Isometric muscle action: Your muscles stay at the same length during this contraction. An example would be holding a dumbbell at a 90 degree angle with no motion.
Isotonic muscle action: Your muscles are shortening or lengthening. When you contract the muscle, the action is concentric. When you lengthen a muscle the action is eccentric. An example of this would be a complete biceps curl.
Isokinetic muscle action: This is a muscle action in which the rate or speed of contraction is controlled and the force of the contraction is measured. This is often used in a rehabilitation setting and involves sophisticated computer assisted devices.
Muscular strength refers to the muscles ability to produce force while muscular endurance refers to a muscles ability to continually produce force. Power refers to the muscles ability to produce force quickly.
Benefits of improved muscular strength
- Increased athletic performance
- Increased resting metabolic rate
- Minimize bone mineral density loss
- Protection from some forms of injury
- Improved sense of well-being
Signs of Overtraining
- Extreme muscle soreness
- Unexplained drop in performance
- Inability to finish a training session that you’d normally finish
- An increase in muscle soreness from one session to the next
Strengthening Exercises
1) Leg
- Leg press
- Leg extension
- Leg curl
- Heel raises
2) Upper back, shoulder, and chest
- Pull-downs
- Chin-ups
- Military press
- Bench press
- Push-ups
3) Lower back and abdominal
- Crunches
- Leg lifts
4) Arm exercises
- Biceps curls
- Triceps extensions
Training routine
A basic routine is to choose from 8-10 exercises that work the major muscle groups and perform 1 set of 8-12 repetitions for each exercise a total of three days per week.
You can increase strength gains by performing 3 sets of 6-10 repetitions for each exercise
A program could also be 4 days per week that alternated between upper and lower body exercises.
There is no one program that is perfect for everyone. A strength program is similar to a fitness program in that you need to overload your muscles, be specific to your overall goals, should be individual to your fitness and strength level, and should be continued to prevent reversibility.
