Benefits of Exercise And Weight Training
Weight Training: A Preventative to Injury
People involved in sports other than bodybuilding are often blind to the benefits of mixing weight training with their primary activity. Why should they train with weights when what they already do is so strenuous, they say. Wouldn’t too much muscle development impede performance? Who can afford costly exercise equipment and bodybuilding supplements? Wouldn’t muscle-building exercise be a waste of time for a runner? Besides, who wants to look like Conan the Barbarian?
Otherwise intelligent people can be obstinate in their refusal to take part in any kind of weight-training program. Many fitness buffs and weekend athletes still think of weight rooms as dungeons where fanatics take pleasure in punishing their bodies. They have no idea of the benefits they could realize from a higher level of muscular strength and fitness.
Runners and Musclar Fitness
The more muscularly fit you are, the better you can withstand the stresses of vigorous activity and sports. In runners, for example, lower-back problems may be due in part to the superior development of the front thigh and lower back muscles. The force exerted by these muscles tends to tilt the pelvis forward, putting pressure on the lower vertebra. A weight-training program of abdominal and hamstring work can correct the condition. Knees, which are highly stressed in many running sports, also can benefit from the stabilizing effect of strong quadriceps and hamstring muscles. The zeal with which people pursue their favorite activities makes the risk of injury imminent. They wouldn’t have to live with this threat if they were better prepared.
There is no better preparation for any sport than superior muscular fitness. The consensus among many well-known sports medicine specialists is that weight training can prevent more than half of all sports injuries. Stronger muscles simply act as a buffer against pulls, strains, tendonitis and shin splints. Contrary to popular belief, weight-trained athletes are more flexible, in part because weight training today incorporates stretching, but largely due to the nature of weight-training exercises.
Many sports, especially running, don’t develop all-round flexibility. Runners are comparatively stiff because running doesn’t require the muscles to go through a full range of motion. Stiffness can lead to injury. Proper weight training can increase flexibility. A strength and flexibility imbalance of opposing muscles, such as the quadriceps and the hamstrings, puts stress on the weaker muscle, and a tear, pull or strain may result. According to running authority James A. Peterson, Ph.D., many world-class runners are successful not because they don’t train with weights, they’re successful in spite of this negligence. In recent years many more top runners have taken up weight training.
Weight training doesn’t just cut down on injuries; it can also directly improve performance in a sport by increasing the athlete’s speed and toughening the body to the stress of competition. Research studies at the US Military Academy and other universities have shown that weight training is the fastest and safest way to gain higher levels of muscular fitness.
Weight training has been a boom to women who aspire to high-level performance after years of minimal muscular fitness due to cultural discouragement.
The approach to weight training is simple: for best results, do the exercises correctly. Do each set of exercises to the point of muscular fatigue. Perform all exercises through their full range of movement. Don’t compete with either machine or person. Adding to the established work load, even after a rest period, offers no further benefits; the exercise of restraint is more productive psychologically. Strive toward short-range goals. Keep a training log to monitor your program and problems.
Whatever your sport or physical activity, weight training can give you the muscular fitness to do it better and safer.
Author: Rex Grogan
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