Posted ByEugeneStrength training is the goal of many gym enthusiasts and athletes. Some are fortunate to be in a position to employ the service of a professional trainer and gain the expert inside knowledge of how to increase muscle strength. For the rest of us, there is a certain amount of trial and error before we figure out which equipment is useful for strength training. There are many online resources, such as Pure-Strength.com, that can be useful for beginners and even for professionals.
Free Weights
Free weights are the lifeblood of the gym. And there’s a reason why you see many of the bigger and stronger gym-goers use the free weights more than weight machines. That’s because free weights cause you to incorporate stabilizing muscles surrounding the major muscle groups, which may accelerate muscle fatigue but increases all-over muscle performance.
It’s also common to see weight lifters use much smaller weights than they can regularly lift. There’s a good reason for this. The smaller weights are performed over many more repetitions than bigger weights because they attack the smaller muscle fibers, causing greater overall muscle size and strength. Training with heavy and light weights ensures the smaller and larger muscle fibers get a workout, leading to impressive strength gains.
Weight Machines
Weight machines on the other hand do not require the lifter to make use of stabilizing muscles and allow you to get a much more targeted workout on each muscle. While it may seem that free weights have the edge of overweight machines, they both serve a purpose and can work together for a balanced and powerful strength training regime.
Bodyweight Exercises and TRX
While many bodyweight exercises can be performed without any equipment, utilizing certain items increase the difficulty in completing a bodyweight training session. For example, when performing tricep dips, a bench or set of dip bars increases the depth of the exercise and brings more tricep muscles into play. Similarly, a pull-up bar is necessary for building back, shoulder, and bicep strength. There is no right pure strength fitness training and each individual has to create the plan according to their own needs.
TRX is perfect for training using just the weight of your body. They simply hang from the ceiling and don’t require any additional weights or accessories to perform lateral raises for back strength, pushups for the chest, and squats for training your leg muscles. Bodyweight exercises with TRX are additionally useful for enhancing joint and core strength. Gyms regularly offer TRX classes but the beauty of TRX is the ability to use it at home.
Medicine Balls
Medicine balls are great for building full-body muscle and joint strength. A common workout includes bending down to lift the ball to chest height and then lifting it overhead before slamming it back down to the floor. This forces you to use the calf, thigh, hamstring, core, chest, back, arm, forearm, and shoulder muscles to complete the entire movement. Repeated over several repetitions and sets, this one exercise can build superior explosive strength necessary for many sports.
After becoming comfortable with this exercise and reaching a plateau in strength gains, a great way to make the move harder is to stand on a Bosu balance ball, which demands strong core and leg muscles to complete the move.
Strength training exercises help the male human body in the production of testosterone. In addition to regulating muscle mass, fat distribution, and red blood cell production, testosterone also aids muscle building and improved cell function. All men naturally experience a drop in testosterone with age. So one should eat healthily and exercise regularly.
