Strength Without Size

Strength is the mazimal amount of force a muscle or muscle group can exert. A muscle contraction is ininated by the nerve cells in the brain sending impulses via the spinal cord then to the muscle, the amount of muscle fibres stimulated depends on the strength on the impulse. Sometimes due to nerve inhibition not all of the muscle fibres can be stimulated, this is why when you start a new training programme you make drastic improvements. This is because those dormant fibres are being awakened. So you can see that it is the nervous impulse what determines how strong the contraction is.

Gaining strength through the neuromuscular system is quicker and requires less training volume than strength opposed through size gains. By engaging in neuromuscular training improvements happen every 2-3 weeks of increasing the amount of weight lifted from previous levels. The formula for an effective programme is to lift a weight which you can only lift 3x with 2 minute rest intervals 3 sets 2-3 times a week allowing at least 1 day more effectively 2 days rest in between sessions. The reason for this is the heavier the weight with less repetitions involves more of the nervous system, lighter weights with more reps target muscle.

The major difference between neurological than the morphological (muscle and tendons) is the amount of muscle damage and tightness you will accumulate at the end of each training session. People who body build aim to cause as much micro trauma to the muscle as possible to stimulate the growth process. In comparison to body building training the nervous system requires that at the end of each session that there is no muscle fatigue but that their is a cessation in contractile strength. When you do this you will notice that even though your muscles aren't tired you cannot contract your muscles maximally, when this happens then you know that this is an indicated that you are taxing the nervous system. The rest period is along with the amount of weight and repetitions performed are vital as not to stimulate muscle growth, the major difference between body building is the rest interval, short intervals will accommodate mass. Do realise not to take to long a rest past 5 mins if you want to see results. If your muscles are burning than you are body building.

Many people who have gained strength through size have reported a loss in speed and joint mobility. Having bigger muscles requires more energy to move them so you lose energy in the movement process.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17442840

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Cardio Versus Strength Training: Which One Accelerates Calorie Burning?

Getting into shape is a desired goal for both men and women. Usually, women have issues with burning fat from problem areas like abdominal fat and lower body fat. If they ignore it they will look like pear-shaped. Nobody like unattractive people around them. This is the reason so many people enroll in the gym each year. Sadly, 80 percent of these people never used their gym membership. Keeping in mind the goal of calorie burning which training is more helpful Cardio or strength?

Cardio Training

You might have probably seen many people doing the workout in the gym. You might have seen many people doing treadmill or stationary cycling. This is what comes in Cardio training. As the name indicates, the focus of this workout is to burn calories while regulating heart functioning at optimal level. Long sessions with Cardio training helps you burn about 500-800 calories. You need to burn about 3500 calories to lose weight. If you do your Cardio workouts regularly and do not indulge in overeating, you will definitely lose your weight quickly.

Beachbody Les Mills Combat workout helps you burn 700-1000 calories per workout. You can make it home with ease and it is a fun Cardio workout for 60-days. No gym membership required!

Strength Training

Women usually do not like strength training due to many reasons. One reason is that they think they would bulk up like men. Other reasons count for knee and joint pain. Also, there exists a myth that strength training is for muscle gain only. In fact, strength training helps in weight loss too. In home based workouts like P90X, Chalean Extreme and Les Mills Pump help built lean muscles while burning calories. Strength training is safe for women and they should engage in it since they are more prone to muscle loss due to ageing.

Strength training hurdles muscle loss and helps burning fat by accelerating metabolic rate. It means that even if you are done with your workout, you are still burning calories.

Why Women would not bulk up through strength training?

Men and Women are biologically different. Their hormonal functioning is different and so are external factors like diet. Men usually bulk up because of higher testerone levels in their body and their diet. You might have seen many huge guys eating a lot of food. Women do not have higher testerone levels plus they do not eat like men do. Many women who had experienced mass muscle-building workouts like Body Beast got ripped off instead of bulking up. They will get a more defined outlook with strength training.

Conclusion: Both, strength and Cardio training are effective in calorie burning provided that they are performed regularly. A best workout would be a fusion of strength, Cardio and resistance training to do an ideal calorie burning while getting into better shape.


Chalean Extreme

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Learning More About Strength Training

If you have been looking to train for strength for quite some time now then it is clear that you are doing a wise thing, and the main reason for this is that there are a lot of different functional health benefits to strength training on the regular that you could take advantage of. Of course, there is one thing you should know about strength training and it is that it is going to be a life long effort if you want to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and know that you are getting stronger every day. Strength training is a battle and it can take many years for you to develop a very high level of strength, although it is certainly true that if you are starting out from scratch you will gain a lot of strength right away. In any case, one of the major keys to gaining strength and gaining a lot of it is to always remember to go out of your way to apply an extra bit of motivation and effort to each and every one of the work outs that you perform in the gym.

Another key point to remember when you are out there trying to build up a high level of strength is that it is not going to come easily without a proper dietary foundation. This is to say that if you are constantly eating unhealthy food it will be highly difficult to maintain and build strength than it would be if you always went out of your way to follow a good diet to the letter. While you do not have to go over board and be very strict with your nutrition plan, keeping to healthy foods in general will go a long way towards helping you build up a considerable amount of strength. This in addition to a work out plan that involves living heavy weights for low reps will help you to build both strength and muscle quite quickly.

One thing that a lot of people who know about strength do is work out with very low reps and very long rests between each set, and the main reason they do this is because it takes the body a long time to recover after a very heavy set. When you use heavy weights your body is forced to adapt right away and the way it does this is by making you stronger, so that it will end up being a lot easier for you to lift the same amount of weight in the future.

If you have recently lost a considerable amount of strength due to something like and injury, then you will definitely want to set aside some time to learn more about how to build up strength in a short amount of time. There are plenty of strength training programs out there and also a lot of sports clinics where you could go to get the right targeted training that you would need for your condition.


Do you have a soft tissue injury? Step Up Physical Therapies is the right place to be. Their massage therapy will get rid of the pain while addressing the cause. Check out their website supt.com.au for more information.

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A Rarely Used Strength Secret

Most trainers and strength coaches all over the world use a few strength building exercises, the squat, the dead lift, the power clean for over all body power. These are great strength builders, but how effective are they really? And do they promise all the hype of real strength building?

I will tell you there is a better way of building overall body strength that will transfer to all athletic sports and everyday life. It's an exercise that our bodies are made for. You don't need a lot of weight for a total over all body workout.

If you look and think how the body has been used for centuries you will see that some things modern day trainers look at as full body workouts are damaging to the body.

The squat is considered the "King of exercises" but how often do you really need to put 300lbs on or shoulder in real life and stand up? The fact is that if you ever did need to stand up with 300lbs the chances are you would fail. Why? Because, in the real world 300 lbs that you are lifting would never be balanced, it would be awkward and most men that could squat 300lbs would have a tough time standing up with 200 lbs on their shoulders.

Squatting is big in football, for instance a lineman is always coming out of a squat, There is more pushing than anything else. The pushing will require overall body strength and a big part is the core and not one of the 3 exercises I mentioned will strengthen the core to a point of real function.

Same goes with the dead lift, deadlift 400lbs now grab a 250lb rock and lift it up. The rock is a lot lighter but there is no nice bar to grab your body needs to call on muscle memory to lift something compact, awkward with a whole different body dynamic.

The power clean is another story, most people don't do it right. Most people are doing it like an explosive reverse curl. Olympic style weight lifters do this correctly most others do not.

The body does not know whether you are lifting sandbags, logs, weights, digging ditches or moving furniture it's all weight.

But the one thing you can do to build a functional strong body from head to toe is the simple method of shouldering and carrying an unbalanced object for time or distance up hill and downhill. I say it will build strength from head to toe because carrying will strengthen the entire body and the core muscles that are required in all sports and in everything else that will need total body strength and the head meaning it takes mental toughness to carry a weight for time or a predetermined distance.

The great thing is a weight as little as 40 or 50lbs will enough for most men try carrying a 50lb sand bag, rock, log for a ¼ mile or more switching the object from shoulder to shoulder. I like to use a 70 or 100lb heavy bag for walking hills and climbing steps and walking wooded trails. And if you want to build heavily muscled traps and shoulders try shouldering and carrying and let me know how them shoulders and traps feel.

Shouldering and carrying an awkward object should be a big part of any strength training program. Balanced objects fool you into thinking you are stronger than you actually are. Just like bodyweight exercises that require more muscles to do pushups than it does to do bench presses.

Toughness Builds Winners


Johnny Grube B.C.S. is the holder of 10 bodyweight world records in physical fitness is an expert on the subject of Building Physical and Mental Toughness through bodyweight training. He has 30 years of training experience and is the author of life changing fitness programs that have been used by Military,mma,police,martial artist all over the world. "Ultimate Physical Fitness in 5 minutes available at amazon http://www.wildmantraining.com

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