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Weight Training Tips

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For one thing, no single exercise adequately build all aspects of fitness equally well. And having more than one activity to turn to keeps exercise from getting monotonous. Studies also show that people tend to stick with activities that are accessible and enjoyable.

Isotonic exercises use both free weights and machines. Free weights are barbells and dumbbells - ordinarily used in pairs, one in each hand.

The advantage of free weights is that they allow movement in any direction and so lend themselves to an enormous variety of exercise routines; and they are relatively inexpensive.

Their disadvantage is that they do not isolate muscles as clearly as machines do; and the stress that they provide is not nearly as uniform over the full range of motion as that provided by some machines.

Machines can isolate muscle groups very efficiently by maintaining your body in a particular position and by making you move a weight along a predetermined path. And isokinetic machines are also designed to provide variable resistance through the full range of motion, so that as you move a limb, the resistance stays at or close to maximum.

Weight training tips
A typical workout with weights includes a warm-up of five to ten minutes followed by an exercise routine that leaves the muscles thoroughly exhausted. Your exact exercise routine should be formulate with an exercise specialist in a gym, who will tell you just how to position yourself, how to lift so as to prevent strain or injury, which weights or machines to use, and how many repetitions and sets to do. If you continue to work out with a trainer or a friend, he or she will keep your routines interesting, give you emotional support, and help see to it, through proper "spotting" techniques, that you do not injure yourself.

A good exercise routine for overall fitness will work out different parts of the body. It will consist of about a dozen exercises - six for the upper body, six for the lower body. Above all, it will be scheduled so that you give each muscle a full day's rest before you exercise it again. If you exercise the same muscle two days in a row, it won't recuperate; it will become weaker, not stronger. Therefore, you should either exercise different muscles on successive days (upper body on day, lower body the next, for example) or space workouts at least two days apart.

Also, remember to exercise the "large" muscles before the smaller ones. For example, if you are weight training both the upper and lower muscles on the same day, start with the leg muscles.