Strength training — easy and fun for endurance, great body
Sheila Cluff

Strength training is important for everybody, regardless of age or current level of fitness commitment. Strength training will increase your endurance at the fitness center and in real life.

For instance, after only six weeks of using the simple routines, I've added below, you should feel powerful. You should see more contour in your muscles. You should be less fatigued after a long day at work. Moving weight objects, such as the baby from the car seat or a pile of files at work, should become less demanding. Yes, strength training takes a commitment but it will pay off next time you’re lugging a suitcase through an airport or carrying home a hefty briefcase.

Do you want to have stronger muscles and feel less tired? Then workout smart: Discuss the programme with your doctor. Should you feel pain or discomfort, become winded for no reason or just feel "odd," don’t wait. Talk with your doctor.

Start with a small amount of weight — the lightest dumbbell you can find at the fitness center. Increase the weight as you become stronger. You can also do these exercises with objects of like weight, such as books, unopened cans of soup or even unopened, uncooked bags of beans or pasta.

Be sure to breathe deeply and evenly as you’re lifting the dumbbells. Sports injuries occur when people think they’re stronger when they hold their breath. While doing the exercises, contract your abdominal muscles and you'll give them a good workout too.

* Dumbbell lunge for your lower body: You’ll definitely feel this in your thighs, and with summer coming before we know it, you’ll want to do this one for great-looking legs.

Stand holding a dumbbell in each hand and with arms at your sides and your feet slightly apart. Now, looking straight ahead, take a long step forward with the right foot. bend your right knee slightly so that your right knee is lined up directly over your right ankle. Place your body weight on both legs.

Bend your back leg until your knee is almost touching the floor. Then slowly push off with your right foot and step back into the starting position. Repeat with the left food forward. Begin with as few as two to five lunges on each side and work up to eight to 15 repetitions.

* Dumbbell shoulder press for the upper body: Holding dumbbells in your hands, sit on a chair (or weight bench) and place feet flat on the floor. Bring dumbbells up to your shoulders with elbows bent close to the body. Palms face away from your body. Slowly raise dumbbells up toward the ceiling until your arms are extended but don't lock your elbows as you need a slight bend in them. As you’re raising your arms, consciously push your shoulder blades together. Start with five repetitions and increase as you’re ready.

* Dumbbell row for the upper body: Holding a dumbbell in your right hand, place your left knee on a low, sturdy bench, such as a weight-lifting bench. Place your left hand flat in front of your knee on the bench. You’ll be leaning forward so that your back is horizontal. Your right foot should be flat on the floor with the knee slightly bent.

Now lower your right hand so that the dumbbell is extended down toward the floor. Slowly pull the dumbbell to your chest and across your body. Now slowly allow it to go back down to the floor. Always keep control of the dumbbell

This is a challenging exercise but will help your all over body power. Start with as few as five repetitions and wok up to a challenging level. Repeat on the other side.

Strength training can work to relieve stress and depression. It should also be a part of your all over fitness programmes. What do you have to lose but some sagging muscles? What do you have to gain? Strength, endurance and a great-looking body.

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New iron age for kids
Carol Krucoff

Few areas of fitness are as surrounded by myth as strength training. One common misconception is that lifting weights makes women look like men. It kept many females out of the weight room for years. Kids also were warned to refrain from strength training because of the false notion that it was unsafe and ineffective before adult hormones kicked in.

During the past decade, however, these myths have been debunked by a growing body of scientific evidence documenting the importance of strength training for virtually everyone, from elementary schoolers to nursing home residents. Today, working out with weights is one of the most popular fitness activities among adult men and women; particularly those over 40 who want to combat the age-related decline in muscle mass and bone density.

More children are muscling into strength training, too, many at the growing number of gyms offering youth programmes. "There’s a strong demand from parents who want working out to be a family activity," says Maeve McCaffrey, spokeswoman for the International Health, Racquet and Sports Clubs Association. "Many schools don’t provide physical education anymore, and parents are trying to set a good example of a healthy lifestyle and help their kids get fit."

But kids — and adults — don’t have to use any special equipment to strengthen their muscles. "You can strength train using only your own body weight, such as by doing push-ups or climbing a rope or going up stairs," says Lee Brown, director of the Human Performance Research Lab at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Any time you move your body against resistance — whether it’s a dumbbell, your own weight or a machine — you’re strength-training.

Despite the misconceptions, Brown says that strength training has nothing to do with bodybuilding, which is a competitive sport for adults. Strength training is a systematic programme of exercises designed to increase muscle strength, endurance and power, which in turn can improve fitness, appearance and athletic performance and reduce the risk of injury.

"Half of all youth sports injuries could be prevented if children were better prepared for the game," says Avery Faigenbaum, assistant professor of exercise physiology at the University of Massachusetts.

With today’s sedentary lifestyles and lack of physical activity, Faigenbaum notes, "Many kids aren’t in shape to play a sport. They sign up for soccer or baseball and get so tired they can’t keep up or they develop an overuse injury. Both of these things turn kids off sports, so they become even more sedentary and unfit."

Just as athletes get in shape during the off-season, he says, "Children should participate in a pre-season conditioning programmes for six to eight weeks prior to sports participation." This programme should include aerobics, flexibility and strength training.

Faigenbaum says extensive research on boys and girls 7 to 12 years old indicates that pre-adolescents can increase their strength by about 40 per cent by doing an 8-to-12 week programme of strength training. Such activity may be particularly beneficial for girls, who in later life are at greater risk for osteoporosis.

"Bones are most responsive to the stimulus of resistance training during childhood and adolescence," Faigenbaum says. "This is an ideal time to increase bone mineral density and build up the so-called bone bank."

Girls need not believe the myth that they’ll develop bulky muscles by strength training. While strength training will make a girl’s muscles stronger, females of any age (and pre-adolescent boys) don’t have enough of the male hormone testosterone needed to increase the size of the muscle.

Despite strength training’s many health benefits, there is potential for serious injury if safety standards are not followed.

It is recommended that children:

* Get instruction and supervision from a qualified adult, who has experience with children.

* Always warm up and cool down.

* Get a medical examination first if they have known or suspected health problems.

* Do one-to-three sets of six to 15 repetitions, two to three times per week on non-consecutive days.

* Avoid maximal lifting (hefting the heaviest weight possible in a single repetition).

* Emphasise proper technique and safety, not how much weight they can life.

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