Physical activity is equally as important as nutritious food when it comes to a healthy lifestyle. Getting started in a physical activity routine is often the hardest part. Just like you add healthy food to your diet little by little, until it becomes a normal part of your life, you can add physical activity to your schedule little by little. My last Create an Active Lifestyle post was about aerobic exercise. Today, we will focus on resistance training.
Resistance training is a form of physical activity that is designed to improve your muscular strength, power, and endurance. Resistance training done on a regular basis can:
- Improve muscle and bone health
- Reduce body fat
- Increase energy
- Increase lean body mass
- Help to prevent injury
- Improve self confidence
- Reduce stress
- Lower LDL (bad) cholesterol
- Lower blood pressure
With results like these, why wouldn’t you add some resistance training to the mix! It’s a great way to improve overall quality of life.
When I posted about aerobic exercise, I introduced the FITT principle. FITT stands for frequency, intensity, time, and type. This principle applies to resistance training as well.
Frequency (how often should I do it?)
Resistance training should be completed at least two days a week, with a day of rest in between.
Intensity (how difficult should it be?)
Intensity will vary person to person. Choose a weight that is heavy enough that it will tire your muscles, but not so heavy that it causes you to do the exercise incorrectly.
Time (how much should I do?)
Each exercise can be done anywhere from eight to twelve repetitions. A repetition is the number of times an exercise is performed. If you can, repeat the exercise for one to two sets, each with the same number of repetitions. This allows your muscles to recover a bit between sets.
Type (what exercises should I do?)
You should perform one exercise per main muscle group (shoulders, arms, legs, chest, core, back).
To make it easy, here are a couple of sample workouts you can try:
Workout 1:
- 5 minutes dynamic stretching
- 10x push-up
- 10x seated row with band
- 10x shoulder raise with band
- 10x squat
- 10x crunch
- 10x arm curl with band
Repeat exercises twice. Finish with 5 minutes static stretching.
Workout 2:
- 5 minutes dynamic stretching
- 8x chest fly w/ band
- 8x bent row w/band
- 8x shoulder press w/band
- 8x walking lunge
- 8x Russian twist
- 8x arm kickback
Repeat exercises twice. Finish with 5 minutes static stretching.
See the graphics below for help on proper form for each exercise. To learn what static stretching and dynamic stretching is, click here.
Candi Merrit
Give a resistance training workout a whirl this week as you try to create better health. Come back and let me know how it went. In the meantime, give Chipotle Summer Roasted Veggies a try.
Stay tuned for more Create An Active Lifestyle posts over the next few months. They will help you build your understanding of the different aspects of an active lifestyle, and learn how to build an exercise routine all on your own. Enjoy!
