Strength Training Exercises
Strength training exercises are those exercises that will challenge
your muscles through resistance.
The resistance can
be from
exercise equipment or using gravity and your own body weight.
In order to strengthen your muscles you must provide resistance.
This resistance needs to be enough to challenge
and add resistance to task your muscles.
You need to task your muscles more than they are used to from
normal everyday activities.
When you provide resistance to your muscles they contract.
This contraction is what builds strength and increases
anaerobic endurance.
This will help increase the size of your skeletal muscles.
Weight Lifting

The
most common form of exercise to build muscle strength is weight
lifting.
Although some exercises can be performed with a simple weight bench and
free weights, to really get the benefit of weight lifting you will want
to use specific exercise equipment.
Most gyms offer a wide
variety of weight lifting equipment or you can purchase a home gym.
Weight
lifting does not mean creating "bulky" muscles, so don't worry ladies.
It's just a great way to tone and add lean muscles to your body.
Start with the lower settings on the machines until you find this too
easy.
Then add more repetitions and/or more resistance by increasing the
weights.
Resistance Bands
If access to a local gym or purchasing a home gym is out of the
question, then try an alternate strength training method.
Resistance
band exercises are a great alternative to weight lifting.
Forsome people this is probably a good way to start your strengthening
routine.
With resistance bands you can strengthen and tone
all the major muscle groups.
The advantage of resistance
bands is that you can adjust the resistance, using less resistance when
needed or increasing the resistance to increase the challenge.
You can buy a variety of bands that will offer different degrees of
resistance.
Dumbbells

Another
fairly inexpensive alternative to weight lifting are
dumbbell
exercises.
There are two types of dumbbells; fixed
weight and adjustable weight.
If you use the fixed weight
dumbbells be sure to by several different weight sizes so that you can
alter the resistance during your strength training.
While
you won't get as high of a resistance as in weight lifting, dumbbells
are a good way to tone those muscles.
They are smaller and easier to
store, so are easier to work with at home.
Body Weight / Gravity
Lastly you can use your own body weight and gravity.
Body
weight exercises are a great way to strengthen and tone your
muscles.
Many
abdominal exercises are done with no resistance exercise equipment.
Instead, they rely on gravity to provide resistance.
You can also
perform many upper and lower body exercises with no dumbbell weights or
resistance bands.
Exercises like squats for the glutes will
get some resistance from gravity.
As these become too easy
you will want to find a method to add more resistance.
Here
are some
toning
exercises you can do with just your body weight.
Benefits of Strengthening
By strengthening and building lean
muscle
you are increasing your basal
metabolic rate. This is one of the key strength training
benefits. By increasing the lean muscle mass you are burning
more fat and calories.
The more calories you burn the more
fat you
burn and the leaner and toner your body will be. So rev up
your metabolism by building lean muscles.
There are many other benefits of
strengthening muscles beyond burning fat and increasing your
metabolism.
These benefits include increased bone, ligament
and tendon
strength as well as improved joint function.
Strengthening
the muscles also minimizes risk of muscle injury. Be sure to
check out all the
benefits of strength training.
Although strength training is primarily an anaerobic exercise, by
performing
circuit
training you can add some aerobic benefits as
well.
If
you want to use a personal trainer to learn the proper way of
performing your strength training exercises, then you want to know what
to look for.
Here is an article from a site dedicated to
fitness
for fun on
personal trainer qualifications.
Additional Articles
Aerobic Exercises
In addition to strengthening your muscles you want to add some aerobic
exercises to your weekly workout routine.
Free Fitness Videos
Make sure you are doing your exercises correctly by using these free fitness
videos. From abdominal exercises to body stretches, you can find what
you need.
Fat Burning Exercises
Burn more fat and calories during your workout with the best fat
burning exercises. Read this article to learn more.