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Strength and Power Training:
A guide for adults of all ages
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Strength Training Exercises & Equipment
If you're like many people, you've never lifted
weights in your life and you may wonder why start
now? As you age, muscle tissue and strength dwindles,
but weight or strength training can reverse this
process. It can also lighten your heart's workload,
boost levels of good cholesterol, help prevent
and treat diabetes, ease stiffness from arthritis,
lead to weight loss, and improve your mobility.
While it's clear that there are plenty of reasons
to include strength training in your routine,
you may not know where to start. This report
answers your strength training questions and
helps you develop a program that's right for
you. It includes more than 25 illustrated strength
training exercises with step-by-step instructions,
as well as information on choosing weights and
strength training equipment, avoiding injury,
and stretching. You'll also find information
on power training, a new approach that can help
you ward off frailty in your later years.
Prepared by the editors of Harvard
Health Publications in consultation with
Walter Frontera, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor
of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard
Medical School , and Jonathan Bean, M.D., M.S.,
Assistant Professor, Department of Physical
Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical
School . 44 pages. (updated: 2007)
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Table of Contents:
- The basics
- Strength training:
A traditional approach
- Power training:
A new approach
- Benefits at a
glance
- A look at muscle
and movement
- Muscles at work
- Age and muscle
loss
- Muscles, metabolism,
and weight
- Getting set up
- Choosing strength
training equipment
- Buying basic
equipment
- Building smarter
dumbbells
- Investing wisely
in large equipment
- Gym versus home
- Considerations
when choosing a gym
- Working with exercise
professionals
- Safety first
- Questions for
your doctor
- When you may
need to suspend exercising
- Quiz: Do you
need supervision?
- Tips for avoiding
injury
- Warning signs
- Designing your program
- Strength training
questions and answers
- How often should
I do strength training?
- What are "reps" and "sets"?
- What is good
form?
- How much weight
or resistance should I use?
- How many sets
should I do?
- How long should
I rest between sets?
- Why should I
warm up and cool down?
- Why - and when
- should I stretch?
- Current exercise
recommendations
- Your workout
calendar
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- Working out
- Charting your
progress
- Tips for training
- Workout I
- Workout II
- How to use a
weighted vest
- Forging ahead
- Keeping it interesting
- Maintaining gains
- Stretching
- Strength training
and your health
- Arthritis
- Strength training
improves range of motion in joints
- Benefits at any
age
- Heart disease
- Osteoporosis
- Diabetes
- Depression
- Exercise: A potent
Rx
- Glossary
- Resources
- Organizations
- Books
- Videos
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Here's an
Excerpt from this Strength Training Special Health
Report
Strength training is a popular term for exercises
that build muscle by harnessing resistance — that
is, an opposing force that muscles must strain
against. Sometimes, strength training is also
called resistance training, progressive resistance
training, or weight training. Resistance can
be supplied by your body weight, free weights
such as dumbbells and weighted cuffs, elasticized
bands, or specialized machines. No matter what
kind of resistance you use, putting more than
the usual amount of strain, or load, on your
muscles makes them stronger. Because the muscles
being worked tug on underlying bone, these exercises
actually strengthen your bones, too.
Strength training should not be reserved for
young souls in search of buff bodies or bulked-up
muscles. While it certainly can reshape your
silhouette in a pleasing way, it's also a way
to boost the strength you call upon as you go
about everyday tasks. Just about any activity
becomes easier with stronger muscles. So will
any sport you enjoy.
Weak muscles can make even minor exertion—such
as walking a few blocks, climbing stairs, carrying
groceries, or getting into or out of bed — difficult.
Equally important, weak muscles compromise balance.
Often a debilitating cycle is set in motion when
a fall or disabling condition such as arthritis
curtails activity, says Dr. Walter Frontera,
chairman of physical medicine and rehabilitation
at Harvard Medical School . It's natural to adapt
to limitations, but many people find that the
less they do, the less they are able to
do as time goes on. But people can regain their
abilities and reverse the cycle with exercises
that rebuild lost muscle and recapture a reasonable
range of motion.
Before you turn to the question of which exercises
to do, it helps to learn a bit about how your
muscles work. Strength training — or actually
any voluntary movement in the body — is
made possible by skeletal muscles, which are
fused to bone. The body boasts more than 600
skeletal muscles. Strength training works muscle
beyond its usual capacity. Some experts theorize
that muscles grow in response to this stimulus
because the exercises cause microscopic tears
in muscle fibers. The body rushes protein to
the tear sites to pave over the damage done.
When this cycle occurs repeatedly, muscles become
visibly larger. Another theory, tested mostly
in animals and a few studies on bodybuilders,
suggests that new muscle fibers actually generate
in response to the microscopic injuries.
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