Plans of strength training

Overview

Planning and organization is crucial to being successful. The probability of you being successful is high if you structure your training plans before you take any step ahead in your strength building capabilties. If you are just starting out (or re-starting out), planning is essential from the very beginning. If you are a regular exerciser (more than 6 months of consistant training experience), you can still consider planning effectively because it will clearly tell your position on your path to success.

Concept

Correct planning at any point of time is sure to lead to success thereafter. I personally believe, because of my years of experience, that every individual has the functional capacity and creativity to take the needed steps of improving their physical health capabilties. Successful planning really is an interactive process of becoming aware of and practicing healthy choices to create a more functional and balanced body. Planning is the basis for success; therefore, successful strength training requires extensive, organized planning.

Benefits

Learning how to train your body correctly will better protect your joints from injury, boost your stamina for improved fitness, and ultimately give you a better body with strength that you can use. It will make all of your daily activities easier from carrying groceries to picking up a child. Whether it is your goal to reduce your body fat, improve your physical wellness for everyday life activities, reach a higher level of athleticism, you must appreciate and value the relationship between sound nutrition, appropriate rest/recovery and you will need to develop functional strength (movement strength). Ask yourself a straight forward question – “Are your current strength training plans effective..?”

Philosophy

The last decade has seen a resurgence of a more holistic approach to physical conditioning; it has been coined “Functional Training”. Functional training is now the new buzz phrase in the strength and performance enhancement industry. However, functional training is not a new concept; it has been around since the beginning of time. It has become popular because of its main premise, training movements not muscles. In other words, the main distinction between functional training and bodybuilding training is that functional training more closely mimics the movements one is trying to improve, whether it is cleaning the house, running, hiking or a golf swing. In fact, preliminary data shows that the incorporation of functional training into your strength training plans can yield superior results to traditional bodybuilding or machine-based training.

How It Works

Functional training works on the concept of “specificity”. The concept of “specificity” dictates that you get what you train for: if you train complex movements, you get better at moving; if you train one muscle, that muscle gets bigger. In simple terms, if one wants to get better and stronger at an activity, one would instinctively rehearse the activity, or at least parts of that activity. In sports we always say, the best training for a particular sport, is that sport! Although this is an oversimplification of the concept of functional training, it is its essence.

This movement training approach provides many benefits; let’s take a look at some of them:

• Improved balance and stability

• Better results using less weight then traditional strength training exercises

• Less wear and tear on the body due to a more holistic approach to training

• Burns more calories because of greater muscle mass involvement

* All of these benefits go along with one of the best features of functional training – it’s safe, effective,and fun

Instead of sitting on a bunch of machines and doing three sets of ten repetitions on each,functional training creates a playground-type training environment. Imagine training with bright colored medicine balls, bands, balance equipment, stability balls, weights, bodyweight exercises and many other modalities. This training approach can be tailored to all strength training plans and levels, from the senior population to the elite athletics.

Functional training addresses all of the training needs of today’s fitness or health consumer. For those wishing to lose some weight, functional training is an excellent way to kick your cardio training and caloric burn into higher gear, while developing a muscular body that performs as well as it looks. For those rehabilitating an injury, functional training is the best choice for accelerated rehabilitation. Better yet, functional training can greatly reduce the likelihood of an injury ever occurring. For the athlete or weekend warrior, functional training is the newest and fastest way to enhance performance with half the work volume (i.e. more weight lifted) of more traditional methods. Learn more about the benefits of strength training.