ALL THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RESISTANCE EXERCISES

A lot of people nowadays are a bit conscious of how they look and some with more than one or two insecurities about their bodies. This is a product of the culture that perpetuates unnecessary and unhealthy beauty standards causing more and more people to want to look very much pleasing to the eyes.

Nevertheless, we can play this to our advantage by focusing less on the standards set by society and creating our own - one that adheres to beauty in all forms and advocating for a healthy body and lifestyle. When we actually think we look good, we will also instantly feel better about ourselves. 

Through the years, ways of improving our physical appearances have gradually innovated from natural discoveries to the application of this age’s technological advancements. Some of the most popular ways are makeup, cosmetic procedures, and of course, skin care routine. 

But one of the most effective and healthiest appearance improvements is exercise. It will certainly help you tone your body and lose a lot of weight. However, results may vary depending on the exercise that you do. There are a lot of different exercises that you can do. It may focus on the general or full body or a certain part of your body that you would want to improve. One kind of these exercises is the Resistance Exercise.

WHAT ARE RESISTANCE EXERCISES?

These are exercises that require the use of resistance on your muscles to be able to build anaerobic endurance, size and tone of muscles, and muscle strength. Resistance training is doing a collective set of exercises that help build muscle endurance and strength. It is based on a principle that our muscles will learn to resist a certain force once it gets used to it. There are also a lot of factors that may affect your resistance training. These are the following:

• Sets
• Rest Between Sets
• Repetitions
• Frequency of Exercise Sessions
• Kind of Exercise
• Intensity

BENEFITS OF RESISTANCE EXERCISES

Before you do resistance training, you first need to know about the different benefits that you may get from doing this. Resistance exercises focus mainly on muscle strengthening and endurance. But there are also a lot of benefits that you can get with doing resistance training.

1. Help improve muscle strength and muscle tone
2. Better pain management
3. Help improve your sense of well-being
4. Help prevent or control chronic conditions
5. Better weight management
6. Lessen your risk of injuries
7. Better chances of having a good sleep
8. Help reduce or prevent cognitive decline in old people
9. Increased bone strength and density
10. Greater stamina
11. Help improve posture, flexibility, mobility and balance
12. Enhance your ability to perform your everyday tasks

The benefits of resistance exercise can be amplified through the use of modern equipment that can aid in muscle recovery. Massage therapy guns are your alternative to your massage therapy sessions and can provide alleviated pain and soreness at the comfort of your own home. 

These equipment are used in percussive therapy, a clinically-approved treatment targeting muscle recovery. Exercises such as resistance exercises can make your muscles tighten and sore but with the help of a massage gun, your muscles will go back in shape and strengthen to level with the kind of training that you’re doing. 

There are a lot of massage therapy guns in the market now and for equipment that provide quality service and reliable output, these can be costly. Though of course, with the technological innovations, companies are producing more affordable products that do not compromise quality like Legion Gear’s M3 Ultimate Massage Gun. This device is equipped with the newest cooling technology which provides instant comfort for your muscles and has an arsenal of customizable features designed with consumers in mind. It is a powerful yet quiet tool which ensures full body rest. If you want to recover like a warrior after intense resistance exercises, you might want to check this out. 

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF RESISTANCE TRAINING

By this time, you’ve already known about the different benefits that you can get when you do resistance training. However, before you go on, you must understand the basic principles of resistance training and its role in your journey to health and fitness.

1. Program

This the entirety of the routine that you will be following. Your program should be very specific down to the smallest detail. It should be made up of a lot of exercises types such as resistance training, flexibility training, aerobatic training, balance exercises, and strength training. Mixing in different exercises to target different body parts will enable a holistic improvement and will also balance out the exercises to prevent you from getting your muscles overworked. Make sure to include rest in your program as this will help in your muscle recovery. 

2. Variety

Variety is important in any workout routine. It’s a good thing to switch up your routines every now and then by adding in and removing a few things to come up with unique routines. You can add in challenging exercises to add more flavor to your exercise and to push endurance and strengthen your body. But you can also balance it out on some days with rather light workouts. If you can, do a unique workout for every single day. 

3. Weight

It’s a must that you use different weight equipment for every exercise that there is in your routine. It’s possible that a certain weight equipment may be used more than once, but at least put a lot of variety, if not all, into your routine. For example you can put a different weight equipment for a certain exercise in your routine then use either your body weight or resistance bands for the next. Put some variations into your workout routine but make sure that the weight equipment you used is appropriate for the exercise which you will be doing.

4. Recovery

When you workout, muscles generally need rest after being strained for a long time. A muscle group actually takes up to 48 hours to heal so make sure to rest your muscle group for this long before you work on that part again. In the meantime, while a certain muscle group is on a rest, you can work on other muscle groups.

5. Exercise

This is a particular movement made to strengthen and improve a certain muscle or part of our body. There are a lot of different kinds of exercises that you can choose from. You can do an exercise with or without the use of any equipment. You can also do an exercise at the comfort of your own home or down at the nearest gym. Doing an exercise can be as simple as walking. 

6. Repetitions or Reps

This refers to how long or the number of times that you will repeat a certain exercise in every set. In your program, it is important that you indicate this. Some exercises are meant only to be repeated for a few times while lighter ones can be repeated more in a set. Usually, training coaches and other fitness vloggers in YouTube recommend programs with specific number of repetitions. The most important part in this is that you should only do what your body can or push a little bit.  But never overwork yourself. Exercise is also about consistency and not just the intensity. It’s good to keep a good consistency rather than pushing for intensity that you cannot keep up with. 

7. Rest

As mentioned before, our muscles need time to recover. That’s why it is important to also get a small amount of rest in between sets so that you wouldn’t strain your muscles too much. It’s necessary to do so because if you overwork your muscles, chances are you will feel a lot of pain all over your body.

8. Sets

When you do a routine, you should also indicate the number of sets that you’ll be doing this. If you are a beginner, you can start with one or two sets every day and gradually increase the number of sets on the following days and weeks. Make sure to put a certain number of sets that you are sure that you will be able to finish.

9. Progressive Overload Principle

This is a concept that will make you do a certain exercise until you can’t do any repetition anymore. This will challenge you while maintaining a really good technique. It will certainly help you improve more and know all your limitations when it comes to strength training. It’s important that you know more about this principle before you start your resistance training.

BEST EXAMPLES OF RESISTANCE EXERCISES THAT YOU SHOULD DO

Now it’s time for you to pick out the exercises. There are a lot of resistance exercises that you can choose from. Some of these exercises can be done while you are still at home while there are a lot of exercises that you can also do at a gym. There are exercises that you can do on your own. On the other hand, there are exercises that need to be done with the use of machines and equipment. Make sure that you pick the right resistance exercises that will surely fit you and your lifestyle.

1. Exercises with the Use of Your Own Weight

These exercises are the ones that you can do without any equipment. It will only require your body weight to do the work and exert a force that you must resist. Such examples of this are squats, push ups, and planks to name a few. These are exercises that you can do anywhere even at the comfort of your home. We recommend that you do this type of exercise even if you choose a routine that you can do in the gym.

2. Resistance Bands

This is a type of equipment that resembles a large rubber band. It provides resistance when stretched that’s why it’s used for resistance exercises. This equipment is portable so you can use it for any regular exercise to add resistant force.

3. Free Weights

These are the equipment used generally by a lot of people such as dumbbells and barbells. They’re used to add more weight to what you carry and provide more force that you need to counter to be able to improve your muscle endurance and strength. You can add a few weightlifting exercises to your routine as it is the resistance exercise usually done by a lot of people.

4. Suspension Equipments

These are some tools that use both gravity and a person’s body weight in order to complete a certain exercise. Some of these equipment are found in most gyms. You first need to make sure that you have the right equipment before you add this certain exercise to your training routine.

5. Sand Bags or Weighted Bags

As the name implies, these are bags filled with sand or any material that will add some weight to it. This kind of equipment is used by boxers in their training. It adds power to their punches and helps their muscle endure the weight of the bag and become stronger.

6. Weight Machines

These are machines that are connected to weights or hydraulics. They have adjustable seats that will help you choose which part you would want to start with first. You can find these in almost every gym out there. Before you choose to add this to your training routine, make sure that it is available at the gym that is near you.