Author: Joy Page 1 of 5

There comes a point in everyone’s exercise program when you are ready to increase the intensity of your workouts… and you should be! If you have been incorporating the same routine with the same resistance and the same exercises day to day, week to week, year to year, then you are ready for a change.

Maintaining is just fine, but why not work on increasing strength and muscle fibers to adapt to greater loads or force creating a stronger more efficient body that can endure more. Increasing the intensity of your workouts will do just that.

Here are three ways in which you can increase the intensity of your workouts:

1. Increasing resistance
2. Increasing speed
3. Increasing range of motion

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Increasing resistance simply means to add more weight to each of your exercises. If you are always doing the same amount of weight your muscles are not adapting to greater forces and therefore are not strengthening any further. In order to encourage muscle growth and fiber increase, simply increase the size of your weights. It could be as little as a 1 lb increase for just one set. That extra weight will encourage muscle growth to adapt to the increase. Continue to increase as your muscles adapt to the new weight.

How do you know if you are ready to increase resistance?

If you have total control over the movement of an exercise and it becomes easy for all designated sets and reps, then you are ready to increase. Once you increase be sure that you can control the new weight with proper posture and form. If you cannot maintain proper posture and form then you are not ready to increase and can look to the other methods of increasing intensity instead.

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Increasing speed is a great way to increase intensity and actually make your strength training somewhat cardio driven. This allows you to include both strength and cardio into one workout. All you need to do is increase the speed of your movement for each exercise. Keeping proper posture and form when increasing speed is crucial. In order to ensure this, reps are typically done with lighter weights. Something you can control through full range of motion without breaking form. Be careful not to jerk or overextend joints while increasing speed.

Increasing speed is great for Hi-Intensity Interval Training. It will allow you to get a lot of reps and exercises into a small amount of time while elevating your heart rate and increasing your endurance and reaction time. It does not require a lot of weights, heavy dumbbells, barbells and equipment. You could grab one or two sets of dumbbells and get a 30 minute full body workout in just about anywhere.

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Increasing range of motion is another way to increase your intensity.

Range of motion is defined as the full movement potential of a joint, usually its range of flexion and extension.

Many do not exercise to their full range of motion or try to increase it. It is important to try to increase your range of motion through your full potential. It is a way to increase your overall flexibility and ensure all muscle fibers are at work.

Last thing you want to do is constantly be working in short ranges of motion keeping the muscles in a flexed state (such as pulsing only). You want to practice bending and extending your joints to their full capability. Working on increasing your range of motion will do just that and it will require more muscle fibers to be engaged, increasing the intensity of your workout.

When starting to increase your range of motion, such as squatting lower, decrease your weights and see if that helps you increase that range. Once you are able to increase your range of motion you can start to increase your weights again. Sometimes the reason you cannot engage in a full range of motion is because the weights are just to heavy to accomplish that range. Therefore, decreasing the weights is a great way to work on increasing the range of motion.

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You now have three different ways in which you can begin to increase the intensity of your workouts. You can do this by either increasing your resistance, increasing your speed or increasing your range of motion. You can also incorporate more than just one way or even all three at the same time. Just be sure whatever you increase, proper posture and form are maintained throughout the move.

What is strength training and why is it important to include in our fitness routine?

Strength training is defined as a type of physical exercise specializing in the use of resistance to induce muscular contraction which builds the strength, anaerobic endurance, and size of skeletal muscles.

There are two types of training when it comes to exercise and they are aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic is defined as occurring with the use of oxygen, or requiring oxygen. Aerobic exercise includes activities in which oxygen from the blood is required to fuel the energy-producing mechanisms of muscle fibers. Aerobic exercise includes activities such as running, cycling, skiing, tennis, such activities that maintain a steady state for more than a few minutes. These types of exercises or activities are considered cardiovascular activity.

What I would like to discuss is the anaerobic system, and that is defined as occurring without the use of oxygen. Anaerobic exercise includes short-term activities which muscle fibers derive contractile energy from stored internal compounds without the use of oxygen from the blood. Anaerobic exercise includes activities that require short bursts of “all-out” effort such as sprinting and weightlifting. These activities will tax the muscles in a way that will bring them to fatigue at a quicker rate which you will not be able to sustain for long periods of time.

Both types of exercise are crucial and required for maximum health benefits. Most people understand the importance of and incorporate cardiovascular exercise (aerobic), but not everyone incorporates or understands the importance of including strength exercise (anaerobic) into their fitness routine.

There are endless benefits to exercise in general, both aerobic and anaerobic, which includes helping to alleviate or reduce the risk of:

• Allergies
• Anxiety
• Arthritis
• Back Pain
• Bursitis and Tendinitis
• Cancer
• Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Cholesterol
• Constipation
• Depression
• Diabetes
• Fatigue
• Glaucoma
• Headaches
• Heart Disease
• High Blood Pressure
• Insomnia
• Knee Problems
• Lung DiseaseMemory Problems
• Osteoporosis
• Overweight & Obesity
• Varicose Veins

Not only does exercise reduce the risks of all these issues, it helps to improve:

• Overall Strength
• Endurance
• Speed
• Stability
• Balance
• Flexiblity

The problem is that if you are only training your aerobic system you will be benefiting from only some of these elements. The aerobic system will only train part of the muscle fibers called the slow twitch muscle fibers. In order to hit the rest of the muscles called the fast twitch muscle fibers you need to strength-train in some way. To get the most out of your fitness routine and to experience as many of these benefits as possible, you must incorporate both systems.

As we age, our muscle size will naturally decrease. In order to just maintain strength it is crucial to include a strength training routine into your program. Your muscles will not increase on their own, but they will certainly decrease. The only way to maintain and increase muscle size is to train it to increase. Stability, balance, endurance and flexibility are directly affected by muscle strength, and will also naturally decrease with age, making strength training important to maintain these elements as well.

Now that we know why it is important to strength train, let’s discuss how to incorporate it.

Strength training can be incorporated in several ways through:

• Your own knowledge and/or research
• Group fitness classes
• Personal trainers
• Fitness videos

Resistance can be incorporated through several modalities including:

• Your own body weight
• Weight machines
• Cable machines
• Free weights – dumbbells, kettle bells, plates, barbells, weighted balls and bars, etc.
• Bands and tubing

Incorporating anaerobic training (strength) in with your aerobic training (cardio) will make a world of difference in your every day tasks and the aging process. If ever there was a fountain of youth it is in these two systems working together. If you would like to find that fountain, make sure you include both of these systems into your daily fitness routine.

   

When it comes to strength training, there are so many ways in which you can train your body using resistance. Knowing where to start and what to use can be overwhelming. Typically, gyms will have a few different sections designated to strength training that include:

1. Seated Machines
2. Cable Machines
3. Free Weights
4. Bodyweight

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Let’s discuss these sections along with the pros and cons of each:

The seated machines are usually in a circuit that will hit most of the major muscle groups of the upper body, lower body and core in a seated position. These machines are adjustable in both position and resistance, and isolate a particular muscle group or groups.

Pros:

• Easier to use for most of the general public with little knowledge of exercises
• Shows what muscle group or groups are being used for the exercise, including pictures and how-to instructions
• Great to isolate a particular muscle group on which you may be focusing
• Helps to keep you in proper position and form
• Good for supporting the back
• Completing exercises on entire circuit machine section will hit most major muscles of the body

Cons:

• Less effective in developing strength
• Limits the recruitment of other muscle groups and stabilizer muscles
• Limits core activation
• Doesn’t incorporate balance
• One size does not fit all – machines are built for the average frame. If you are too short or too tall the machine may not properly adjust to your measurements and will therefore be unsafe, ineffective and/or unusable
• Some can be hard to manage or adjust properly due to limited strength or not knowing proper adjustments
• Weight limit – If the lightest setting is too heavy or the heaviest setting is too light you cannot regress or progress
• Expensive and large space required

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Cable machines are one of my favorite sections. This is the area of the gym that has a bunch of cables and available attachments. There are endless things you can do in this section for incorporating exercises to hit all muscles of the body. These machines offer varied positions, attachments, directions and resistance.

Pros:

• Shows some exercises you can do including pictures, how-to instructions and what muscles are being used
• Versatile – multi-directional positions and exercises can be done from one area
• Options to isolate specific muscle groups or work multiple muscle groups
• Recruits stabilizer muscles
• Requires core activation
• Requires balance and stability
• All sizes and ages can use effectively with knowledge

Cons:

• Need knowledge in this area to utilize properly
• Good posture, form, core activation and stabilization are crucial in this area to prevent injury
• Can be hard to adjust pulleys – can be too high or tough to move into desired position depending on strength and height
• Weight limit – If the lightest setting is too heavy or the heaviest setting is too light you cannot regress or progress
• Expensive and a large space required

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The free weight section includes resistance weight such as dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, weighted balls, etc. It also includes benches, seats, and racks. This section is another area where you can do endless work for every muscle group of the body in varied positions.

Pros: 

• Extremely versatile – varied positions and exercises can be done
• Works multiple muscle groups
• Recruits stabilizer muscles
• Requires core activation
• Requires balance and stability during standing exercises
• Greater power and overall strength is improved and achieved more efficiently
• Benches and seats allow options between seated or lying exercises to help stabilize the back or help isolate particular muscle groups
• There is no weight limit – weight starts at 0 lbs. and can progress to as heavy as you can manage
• All sizes and ages can use effectively with knowledge
• Inexpensive and a small space is required for most equipment

Cons:

• Also need knowledge in this area
• Can be time consuming if removing/replacing plates and making weight changes
• Can be difficult to isolate a muscle or muscle group
• Good posture, form, core activation and stabilization are crucial in this area to prevent injury
• Very easy to have improper control – free weights require an extreme amount of control working both with and against gravity — too often people use momentum to drive the move rather than control of the muscle or muscles being used

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The final section of resistance is where you use your own bodyweight to achieve strength gains. This section will have things like mats, stability balls, box steps, bosu balls, resistance bands, etc. When using your own bodyweight, no equipment is necessary but certain equipment can assist in the exercises to make them harder, more challenging, or recruit more muscles.

Pros:

• No equipment necessary means you can do these type of exercises anywhere, not just in a gym
• Recruits multiple muscles in almost all exercises
• Recruits stabilizer muscles
• Requires core activation
• Can incorporate balance and stability depending on exercises
• Produces lean muscle
• Little to no expense and space required

Cons:

• Also need some knowledge in this area
• Can be hard to maintain proper form — good posture, form, core activation and stabilization are crucial with these exercises to prevent injury

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As you can see there are some pros and cons to all sections. Where you end up will depend on your goals, knowledge, injuries and what you are trying to achieve.

• If you are looking to support your back, isolate and strengthen each muscle group in a fairly safe and effective way without much knowledge of exercise, than it is best to work on the seated machines.
• If you are looking to recruit multiple muscle groups, stabilizer muscles and core along with building lean muscle and/or muscle mass, than cable or free weights would be best.
• If you are looking to produce super lean muscle while recruiting multiple muscle groups and activating the core, then bodyweight exercises are an excellent choice.

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Depending on what you are trying to achieve, each section has it’s benefits. I personally like to jump around and hit all sections in one workout. Whether I am working upper body, lower body, core, or full body, I like to incorporate the benefits of all sections. I hit my muscles from different angles, through different methods and sections of the gym to ensures I fire up all the muscle fibers. This allows me to isolate a particular muscle group as well as recruit other muscles in besides the ones I am focusing on. I particularly like to make sure my core is constantly being activated so multiple standing and bodyweight exercises are a must in each of my workouts.

Most important thing to note is that no matter what section you are in, be sure you are knowledgeable in the exercises you are performing. Proper posture, form, control and weight is required to do an exercise properly and effectively without injury.

If you are unsure about a particular section of the gym and would like to learn more about what exercises you can perform, be sure to visit your local fitness center and speak to one of the qualified trainers on staff about setting up an appointment.

Most of us work extremely hard to loose weight, struggle to maintain, or more often than not just keep gaining. Poor food quality and sedentary working lifestyles are partly to blame.

With weight gain comes extra stored fat. Reducing and burning excess fat in our bodies can be quite a challenge. It takes a lot of hard work and consistency to loose just a few pounds and rid your body of stored fat. In order to boost that fat burning process you must consider:

• cardio exercise
• proper diet and nutrition
• building muscle

By far one of my favorites ways to burn fat is by building muscle. How will building muscle help you loose fat?

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First, muscle burns more calories than fat. The body requires more energy to maintain muscle, therefore burns more overall calories. If you increase the amount of muscle in your body, you increase your resting metabolic heart rate increasing the amount of calories you burn at rest as well as during exercise and activities. These increases can potentially help your body burn more overall calories on a daily basis. That extra calorie burn will help assist in overall fat loss. The goal is to build more lean muscle while ridding the body of stored fat.

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Second, lets face it… how are you going to build that muscle? Building muscle requires exercise and exercise burns even more calories. Exercise will require the muscles to work harder, increasing the total amount of calories you burn. The extra calories you burn during your workout will help to convert fat into energy and that means fat loss.

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As you can see building muscle will boost your metabolism and get you exercising, both of which encourages the burning of extra calories. Those extra calories lead to the break down of fat cells.

Does this mean that it is the only thing you need to do to burn fat? No. However, it will give your body an added boost to help the process along. You absolutely must incorporate cardiovascular exercise for heart health and more calorie burning along with a proper diet and nutrition plan.

Incorporating muscle building and not just cardio and nutrition alone will give you better results in your fat loss goals. It creates a more efficient metabolic body that will have you looking lean and strong!

You may or may not have heard of a push/pull/leg split. This is a type of workout routine that involves splitting up your weekly workouts into a push day, pull day and a leg day. The push and pull days include upper body workouts and the leg day involves lower body workouts.

This is a great way to split up your week. A push/pull/leg split routine breaks up your body into three parts working different muscle groups. This guarantees you hit all of the major muscles of the body by the end of the week.

Let’s discuss each one of these days and the specific muscle groups involved in them:

Push days recruit the muscles of the upper body that are involved in pushing movements. These muscles include the chest, triceps and front shoulders. Best way to approach this is to do several exercises for each muscle group including dumbbells, barbells, cables and bodyweight exercises and movements.

Here is a sample workout for a push day:

Chest:

• Bench Press (flat, incline and/or decline)
• Dumbbell flys (flat, incline and/or decline)
• Cable chest fly (double and single arm)
• Pushups

Triceps:

• Cable rope tricep push downs
• Overhead dumbbell tricep extensions
• Single arm tricep dumbbell kickbacks
• Tricep dips

Front shoulders:

• Cable straight bar push down
• Overhead dumbbell press
• Dumbbell lateral raise
• Single arm dumbbell frontal raise

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Pull days recruit the muscles of the upper body that are involved in pulling movements. These muscles include the back, biceps and rear shoulders. Best way to approach this is to do several exercises for each muscle group including dumbbells, barbells, cables and bodyweight exercises and movements.

Here is a sample workout for a pull day:

Back:

• Cable lat pulldowns
• Barbell bent over rows
• Barbell deadlifts
• Single arm dumbbell rows
• Pull-ups

Biceps:

• Cable straight bar curls
• Barbell preacher curls
• Single arm rotating or hammer curls
• Concentration curls

Rear shoulders:

• Standing cable reverse flys (double and single arm)
• Cable rope face pulls
• Bent over dumbbell reverse flys
• TRX wide row

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Leg days recruit the muscles of the lower body that are involved in all lower body movements. These muscles include the quads, hamstrings, hips, glutes and calves. Best way to approach this is to do several exercises for each muscle group including dumbbells, barbells, cables and bodyweight exercises and movements. Also important to include in leg days are compound exercises. A compound exercise are multi-joint movements that work several muscles or muscle groups at a time. A squat is an example of a compound movement as it engages several muscles of the lower body including quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves.

Here is a sample workout for leg day including several compound movements and a few muscle specific exercises:

Compound movements:

• Squats
• Lunges
• Step ups
• Deadlifts

Quads:

• Machine leg press
• Seated single leg extensions

Hamstrings:

• Machine hamstring curls
• Bulgarian split squat

Hips:

• Machine hip abduction
• Standing cable single leg hip abduction
• Dumbbell Plié squat
• Side lunges

Glutes:

• Cable single leg hip extension
• Wide stance goblet squat
• Hip thrust or bridge
• Single leg donkey kick

Calves:

• Standing calf raises
• Seated machine calf raises (on calf machine or leg press)

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Now that you have have the exercise list for your push/pull/leg days let’s see what a typical week may look like:

• Monday: Push day
• Tuesday: Pull day
• Wednesday: Leg day
• Thursday: Rest day
• Friday: Push day
• Saturday: Pull day
• Sunday: Leg day

With this plan you know that you will hit all these muscle groups twice a week. You can include the same workout twice a week for your push/pull/leg day or you could mix up your exercises for each workout. For example on Monday push day you could do all barbell and dumbbell push exercises and on Friday push day you could do all cable and bodyweight push exercises. This will mix up your workouts so you don’t get bored and challenge those muscles in a different way.

If you don’t have time to do 6 strength days a week, just include one push/pull/leg day each week instead of two.

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Now you just need to figure out where to place your cardio and abs. Cardio and abs can be included into any of these days either before after or included with your strength training workout. Specific ab workouts can also be done on your rest day. Plan the days that you are going to include cardio and/or abs into your routine around your push/pull/leg days

A few examples of how to include cardio:

• as a warm up or a finisher to your strength training workout.
• included on the days that you have shorter strength training workouts planned. Leg days may take longer and require more energy since they include some bigger muscle groups and therefore you may not want to include longer steady state cardio on those days.
• within in your strength training workout. A HIIT style workout would be perfect to get both strength and cardio in by adding bursts of cardio such as plyometric in between sets of strength.

Push/pull/leg split is a great way to plan your workout week. You ensure hitting all of the major muscle groups of the body keeping your body strong and balanced.

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