The Strength Trainer?s Guide to Success Essay -- essays research paper

Your body has about 650 muscles. No matter that you care about just four or five of them, all of which can be sculpted with maybe a half-dozen strength-training exercises. You still need all of them to perform the normal functions of everyday life; breathing, eating, walking, sucking in your stomach at the beach. Of course everyone wants to have the perfect body; however, few of us don’t effectively know how to reach our body building goals. Since muscle growth is such a slow process, weight-lifting should be broken down into three muscle developing stages.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first stage of muscle development is the process of preparing your muscles for growth. This is the stage all beginning weight-lifters should start from. A muscle will not grow until the muscle is at its’ peak condition; this means your have to slowing condition your muscles in order to move to more powerful and intense exercises. In this stage, you want to do lots of different exercises and variations of exercises; use a high number of repetitions, at least 12. However, only do each exercise once during your workout. Most beginners have the mistake of trying to push themselves to hard at the start of their training and find themselves so sore they won’t be able to train for a week or more. Soreness is the sign that your muscle are not at its peak condition. This is why advance lifters don’t get muscle soreness nearly as bad as beginners, even when the advance lifter does much more intense workouts.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Try to do exercises that isolate a muscle or muscle group rather that multiple muscle exercises. An example would be doing a set dumbbell flies, instead of a set of barbell bench press, for your pectorals exercise. Try to train three times a week having at least a days rest between workouts. Set up your workouts so you are doing â€Å"push† exercises one day, such as presses and squats, and â€Å"pull† exercises on the next workout, such as pull-ups and hamstring curls. This is a good way to keep track of your training and it makes sure your muscles get enough rest in-between workouts. This stage of muscle growth takes around six months of training in order to move to stage two.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stage two is the start of the actual muscle building process. After six months of training: you have largely improved your muscular strength; noticed ... ...are working the same body area in another exercise you do during the workout. Try to do about half isolated lifts and half core lifts. A good stage three workout for an upper-body â€Å"pull† day would be: abs, an isolated exercise; biceps curl variations, isolated; variations of back rows, core; and finally pull-ups variations, core. During the variations of exercises, do about two sets per variation. Stage three is three days a week with at least one days rest in-between exercises, as well. Continue in this stage until you reach your desire strength training goals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Remember that muscle growth is a very long and slow process, and it needs a healthy, high-protein diet as well as weight-training. It takes time and a lot of effort in order for sufficient muscle growth to accrue. It really isn’t all that bad though; after the first month or two going to the gym will just be a habit and you won’t be walking around as sore from the lifting. Research has shown people up to the age of 65 can built muscle and strength; therefore, almost anyone, by following the three stages of muscle development and training, can reach their strength training goals with success!