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Strength Training and Free Weights

By Fred Smith, YWCA Personal Trainer

Strength training is an important part of a well-rounded workout. Some benefits of strength training are increased muscle mass, improved posture and overall body composition. Strength training will also help protect you from injury and decrease your chances of chronic disease.

When train for strength (resistance training) you are asking your muscles to work harder than they usually do. By doing this, you are breaking down your muscles in a good way. Then after proper rest and diet your muscles will begin to make gains in strength.

There are many ways to strength train and I am going to talk about one today. Free weights (barbells, dumbbells and any weighted object not connected to an apparatus). Free weights can be used to work multiple muscles groups or can be used to isolate a specific muscle. YWCA Fitness on 25^th has a number of machines which will work a specific muscle or muscle group but the free weights often force you to stabilize the weight in addition to focusing on the specific lift of the weight. This stabilization benefit assists you to be not just stronger but functionally stronger.

There are many exercises you can do with free weights; at all skill levels. The important thing is proper form and technique. That is where the personal trainer like me comes in. As a trainer, it’s my responsibility to advise you one what exercises work best for you. Then, I will teach those exercises and other attributes about how to properly train such as how often to do an exercise and how much weight to lift.

These are just a couple of things we can do for you on your road to your next fitness goal. Come down and talk to one of our Personal Trainers and we will help you achieve your goals.