strength training systems and methods

There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

Albert Einstein

   

There are all types of strength training systems and methods. My clients will tell you all the different ways I train them – and they are all correct methods. How to choose the system or program that's right for you? The bottom line is "what works for you, works for you". The method you decide to chose might also depends on how many times a week you plan to train.

Your friend may be using a strength training system that he/she loves and highly recommends as "the way to train". He/She may be getting tremendous benefit from the program. That doesn't mean the same program will work for you in the same way. There are no strict rules about routines, sets, and reps. A system that is working for one person may not be as effective for another.

Also, at some point you may no longer get good results from a set of routines that had been producing good results. When your body gets used to a particular routine it's time to move on, time to change things around.

So, how do you determine what's a good routine for you? First, let's look at what you want to accomplish each week. In a week's worth of strength training, how many days will you train and you want to exercise each major muscle group at least once.

Personally, I train 5-6 times a week (of which all are strength training and additionally 3 times cardio – HIIT (high intensity interval training for only 20 minutes each).

Here are the major muscle groups -

• Chest [pectorals]
• Back [latissimus major]
• Shoulders [deltoids]
• Arms
• Biceps
• Triceps
• Legs
• Quadriceps [front of the thigh]
• Hamstrings [back of the thigh]
• Gluteus [your buttocks]
• Calves [gastrocnemium/soleus]
• Abdominals

Some routines train every muscle group in the same session (full body movement). I personally do a split routine that breaks up the muscle groups by day. My split routines looks as following (it may changes over a period of time);

Saturday: Chest and biceps

Sunday: HIIT and back and triceps

Monday: Legs

Tuesday: HIIT and abs

Wednesday: Shoulders and traps

Thursday: HIIT, calves and abs

Friday: rest

Basically I do 4 sets of each exercise (with proper warm up), and the amount of reps per set varies (more important than reps is to challenge your muscles). Also the rest period between sets I try to control, and won’t have rest periods more than 2 minutes (but try to keep it between 60-90 seconds between sets). Also each workout varies slightly from the previous week’s workout – so my body keeps guessing what it has to do! Furthermore, I try to keep my strength training up to an hour (if nobody distracts me with small talk :-)

Last but not least, I stretch at the end of each workout session.

There are many different split routines possible, and it all depends on your personal preference and frequency of training days. Personally, I found that training Chest and Triceps on the same day and Back and Biceps on the same day - created too much fatigue in my smaller muscle groups and led to a lot of tendon and joint injuries. The smaller muscle group gets fatigued by training the bigger group on the same day. I switched my splits to chest/ biceps and back/triceps on the same day together. Those nagging problems went away after a few months.

Strength training for your wellbeing is of huge importance and I encourage to strength train at least 3 times a week and possibly cardio(respiratory) training a minimum of at least 3 times a week as well (preferably 5-6times). However, I wanted to finish this week’s “mervmail” emphasizing the overwhelming importance of a well balanced nutritional plan as well!

The first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself…Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, and humility.

Nelson Mandela