Being at ease with a steady running routine is definitely something to be proud of, but when you’re on that cardio workout routine day-in and day-out, you might be ready to change things up and take on a new challenge.
Time to throw some strength training into the picture. It can be a little difficult at first if you don’t know where to even start, but understanding the basics can help you feel confident in your refreshed fitness routine.
Of course, cardio is a crucial part of fitness too, but the benefits of strength training are drastic. Strength training aids in building muscle, and lean muscle is better at burning calories when the body is at rest, which is crucial whether you’re trying to lose weight or just trying to maintain it.
Furthermore, it also helps strengthens joints and bones, avoid injury, better your muscular endurance, and will help you give it your all during your other workouts, whether that means setting a new personal record if you’re a runner or pushing (and pulling) a bit more with your legs during your favorite indoor cycling class.
Nonetheless, the barrier to entry can feel higher than that pull-up bar when you’re not exactly sure what needs to be done. So, here are 10 things you should know about strength training prior to jumping in.
Use Your Own Body Weight
In layman’s terms, strength training means using resistance to create work for your muscles. So even if your mind jumps straight to those hardcore machines and massive weights, there are a handful of ways to create this resistance that require minimal equipment (or none at all). Bodyweight workouts can be a very effective way to strength train.
You can also use equipment such as dumbbells, medicine balls, TRX bands, resistance bands, kettlebells, and slider disks, to help get the job done. Try and keep it simple and focus on equipment-free routines first. No matter what you do, the most crucial thing is to find something that challenges you.
Begin With Two Days A Week and Build Up
Begin with two days for two to three weeks, then add a third day. In a perfect world, you should strength train three to five days per week, but work your way up — starting off at five days a week might put your body in a shock.
Here’s a comprehensive three-day-per-week plan to get you going. Try to complete 20-minute sessions, then little by little, add on time in ten-minute increments until you’re working for 45 to 60 minutes, suggests Davis.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you should skip cardio. Ultimately finding the right mix of workouts will depend on your specific goal.
Prep Your Muscles Prior To Starting
A proper warm-up is an important part of an effective strength workout. Start by foam rolling your muscles to wake ’em up. Foam rolling helps loosen up tight muscles so that they work the way they’re designed to.
A dynamic warm-up is another crucial part of your pre-workout routine, it preps your muscles for the work they’re about to do and helps increase your range of motion.
Bringing up your range of motion gives you an opportunity to go deeper into those squats and fully extend those bicep curls, which means more muscle recruitment and better results.
These two combined help lower your risk of injury and allow you to push harder during your workout. Get started with this five-minute warm-up.
Pair An Upper-Body Move With A Lower-Body Move
You may have heard extreme lifters talk about things such as “leg day,” but when it comes to a beginner strength workout that’s only a few days a week, a full-body workout is often the way to go (rather than splitting your days up by body part).
Full-body workouts maximize your caloric burn and the muscles worked each session. The best way to do this is to pair one upper body exercise with one lower body exercise. This way, the lower body has time to recover while the upper body works and vice-versa.
You should also aim for a balance between movements that feel like pulling and ones that feel like pushing. For example, try pairing these exercises together:
- Squats + push-ups
- Walking lunges + lat pulldowns
- Romanian deadlifts + overhead press
- Mountain climber + bench row