Strength Training Articles

In today’s society, people struggle to find enough time to complete work-related projects, enjoy their loved ones and also take good care of themselves. A personal fitness trainer (PFT) who can demonstrate to clients that they can spend quality time with their sweetie or friends while helping each other stay healthy and fit will be in high demand! Partner training is more economical f...

During the past decade, the term functional training has been used to describe programs that mirror everyday activities. Functional exercises are sometimes referred to as multiplanar movements that require coordination of two or more limbs, muscle groups, joints or areas of the body. There is another simpler way to define functional movement: pushing, pulling, bending, twisting, squatting and lunging! Look closely at these gross motor patterns that humans perform daily and you see an easy formula and library of movement patterns for a strength training class.

Breast cancer survivors may effectively improve muscle endurance with Pilates chair training, which may have advantages over traditional resistance training since the chair requires less space, can be less expensive and may be more enjoyable for some people.

That 98-pound weakling may want to hit the gym if he hopes to live a long life. A study published in the British Medical Journal (2012; 345: e7279) suggests that male adolescents without much muscle strength may earn early death in adulthood. The large study included 1,142,599 Swedish males aged 16–19 who were followed for 24 years. The primary focus was to determine whether muscular strength had any impact on mortality rates. Premature death in this study was considered death before 55.

Weight training has many benefits. Warding off metabolic syndrome may be one of them, suggests a recent study. Part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the study set out to determine (1) how many adults lift weights regularly and (2) the impact of weight training on the prevalence and risk of metabolic syndrome. The findings, reported in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research (2012; 26 [11], 3113–17), included data on 5,618 adults aged 20 and older from 1999–2004. Here are some takeaways:

While the psoas major muscle affects many fitness activities, there is widespread confusion about its actual role in the body. What does this muscle do, and why is it shortened in so many people? Anatomy of the Psoasnewsletter_teaser: While the psoas major muscle affects many fitness activities, there is widespread confusion about its actual role in the body. What does this muscle do?

Here’s another great benefit to including strength training in your clients’ fitness programs. A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine (doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2012.3138) has reported that men who regularly lift weights may reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Remember when you were in high school and your physical education (PE) teachers made you do push-ups, chin-ups and sit-ups? What about those long-forgotten Presidential Physical Fitness Tests, which required you to run different distances for time? Whatever happened to thos...

Again and again, research has shown that women who maintain a regular, moderate strength training program enjoy a long list of health advantages. Some women still fear that weight training might bulk them up in unfeminine ways; however, as women of all ages realize the benefits of resistance training, negative attitudes about women in the weight room are rapidly fading, according to renowned stren...

Are you getting bored with your strength training program, or not getting the same results you did when you started? It’s easy to fall into a weight training rut, doing the same old routine of favorite exercises day in, day out. Unfortunately, too much “same old, same old” can be the enemy of effective physical conditioning. The key to successful training lies in varying the training stimuli, says...