Along with endurance sports, strength training is a valuable resource for strengthening our health. Whether in the gym or at home, whether with equipment or your own body weight – strength training has many advantages. In this article you will find out what they are and how you can successfully strengthen your muscles.
Weight training - what is it good for?
Increase strength and performance
During strength training and muscle growth, we gain muscle mass, provided we train properly. So we become stronger and are able to apply more force, do not get out of breath so quickly and are therefore more powerful.
Improve posture
Spending the whole day sitting in front of the PC sometimes leads to muscle shortening and weakness. Our posture becomes flabby, our shoulders drop forward and we hunch over when we look forward and down at our smartphones. Targeted strength training prevents poor posture and improves as well as strengthens our posture.
Support joints & bones
Our muscles provide stability and support our bones and joints. Thus, strength training helps protect against their wear and tear and counteracts overloading.
Push for the psyche
Sport leads to feelings of happiness through hormone releases. In addition, one feels fitter and may also like oneself better, so that self-confidence is increased and we feel more comfortable in our bodies.
What does muscle growth depend on?
Muscles grow through strong stimuli
There is often disagreement about how to ensure muscle growth during training. Sports science deals with such questions and comes to the following conclusion: In order to make a muscle grow, it needs a sufficiently high stimulus that exceeds the usual stress. An indication of whether this threshold has been reached is muscle soreness on the last day. Sore muscles cause tiny tears in the muscle, called microtraumas, and lactate is produced. The body responds to this by adapting and the muscle fibers become thicker – muscle growth occurs. So it’s crucial to push yourself to your limit when training (assuming it’s health permissible). Whether one exerts oneself through high weights or many repetitions is of secondary importance.
What does a suitable strength training program look like?
Most people base their workouts on repetitions. However, it is more effective to do your exercises by time. That is, during an exercise, the muscle should be under maximum load for as long as possible (about 60 seconds) instead of performing fast and many repetitions. The number of repetitions can thus be neglected. A combination of equipment and free weights is recommended.
Those who have no experience with strength training should start with two to three sessions per week and feel their way along to prevent injuries. From a health point of view, it is beneficial to strengthen the muscles of the entire body rather than individual regions such as the abdomen. In the Teamfit app, you’ll find different workouts for your level. You can also put together your own workouts from the individual exercises and adapt them to your individual needs.
Extra proteins are especially needed by bodybuilders
When it comes to protein intake, a distinction must be made between the purpose of muscle training: Those who do strength training to be healthier and do something good for their body do not need an extra portion of proteins. From 4 to 5 very intense training sessions, as is the case with bodybuilders, for example, should be increased protein intake to have enough building blocks for the enormous muscle growth available.
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