Strength is a fun topic! Personally, when I hear strength training, I immediately think of weight lifting. It should rank high as a fitness goal because it can be directly translated into every day skills. That heavy bag of groceries? No problem if you lift weights regularly. Carrying around a toddler? Strength training can help make that easier as well. Yardwork? It’ll be a breeze if you are in shape. It really can help prepare you for every day tasks and prevent injury while doing them. If you play a specific sport, strength training can also help make you a better athlete.
When building strength, it is important to keep your personal goals in mind. Maybe you want to squat a certain amount of weight, or generally sculpt a fit physique. Your goals don’t have to be specific, but you do want to make sure that every couple weeks you are increasing your weight by a little bit. I recommend increasing somewhere between 5-10% at a time. Be sure to listen to your body, and back off weight if it’s too much. Keep a notepad with you as you workout, and write down how much weight you used for each exercise, along with how many repetitions you were able to do with good form. I personally recommend 10-12 repetitions for each exercise, repeating the exercise for 3 sets. If you aren’t feeling challenged towards the last couple repetitions, you should definitely increase your weight.
Men and women can absolutely lift heavy weights and build strength in the same way. Numerous fitness magazines use the word “tone” when referring to women’s strength training to make it more appealing to women. This is because many women are afraid of weight training. They don’t want to become “bulky” or “too big”. Women don’t have as much testosterone as men, therefore it simply isn’t possible to add mass as easily as men. However, doing repetitions in the higher range of 12-15 repetitions with lighter weight creates longer and leaner muscles, and the lower range of 6-8 repetitions with heavier weight creates bigger muscles. Depending on your age, body type, genetics, current fitness level, what works best for one person may not work best for the other. Try out both methods, and see what works best for you.
I personally aim to work one particular muscle group each day, giving the other muscle groups rest. For example, Mondays I work my back, Tuesday I work shoulders, Wednesday I work legs, Thursday I work biceps and triceps, and Friday I work chest. My goal is to feel a little muscle soreness the next day or two in that area. If you aren’t feeling any muscle soreness at all, that is a sure sign you aren’t lifting heavy enough or aren’t doing enough repetitions.
Happy lifting!!