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Weight training can provide you with fantastic health, appearance, and personal benefits. But like most fitness programs it requires some specialized knowledge to not only prevent injury, but maximize benefits as well.
Weight training is all about your personal abilities. This is a great benefit as you can tailor the program to your strengths and work on improving your weaknesses. With this, you must also add a measure of responsibility as you will be determiner of your training regimen. If you're just starting out, focus your lifting on basic movements that don't involve multiple muscles or joints to complete. The basic idea of weight training is that you are forcing your muscles to move against weight more than usual, but you can't overload them. Try to aim for about three sets of eight to ten reps, whereby the last rep you feel you couldn't do another. Of course, you'll get stronger over time, you'll want to increase your weight to keep build and maintaining your strength.
Muscle builds in 24-48 hours after being exercised, so space your sessions out and don't overwork yourself. Shoot for about two to three sessions a week to avoid exhaustion and to give your body time to build on its previous workout.
Even within your session, you'll want to pace yourself. Always allow yourself rest between sets, at least thirty seconds. Likewise, take a break between specific movements. Furthermore, look at the movements your doing in each session. Unless you're an advanced lifter, don't exercise a specific muscle, your triceps for example, more than three times a session and not more than two days in a row.
When lifting, even with a machine that may provide guidance, always remember to keep your back straight and your abs tight to prevent injury. In the same realm, remember that even though weightlifting is an anaerobic exercise, you need to breathe. Finally, make sure you stretch and warm up your muscles before lifting just like you would for running or an aerobics class.
Now that you have the basics down for safety and pacing, think about your goals for weightlifting. If you're looking to build bulk and increase your size, go for less reps and more weight in each set. Conversely, if you want to tone the muscle you have, try for more reps, but with less weight. Along those lines, if you're looking to supplement your exercise regime as a runner, boxer, or whatever concentrate on the muscles that will aid you the most.
