Exercises for Strength, Part 1
Pagina: Anti-Aging For Men
Exercises for Strength, Part 1
Once you’ve decided to get into shapeor that you’re going to retain the shape you’re already in, assuming it’s pretty goodthe object is to design a fitness program that you can stick with, one that will provide maximum benefit for the time you spend at it. Your regimen should be enjoyable and give you benefits for your mind as well as your bodythat old Greek ideal again.
Here’s how you do it.
Strength training can do a number of things for you that tend to get forgotten in this age of aerobic mania. Ubiquitous health clubs everywhere promote cardiovascular fitness that, without question, has been the watchword to the exercise set. Yet strength training, too, especially now and at later stages of your life, must not be forgotten. There are good reasons for this.
First, strength training, as much as stretching for your warm-up and especially your cooldown, is a critical element in preventing injury. By conditioning opposing muscle groups (e.g., quads versus hamstrings, triceps versus biceps), you can strengthen the maximal number of joints and tendons connected to those muscles. One way that well-conditioned muscles can protect joints is simply by preventing hyperextension. Hyperextension is what makes the delicate (and hard-to-heal) tendons and ligaments crack like dry spaghetti. For example, if you have weak knees, you should strengthen opposing leg muscles around the knee: quadriceps versus hamstrings, calf muscles opposing the muscles at the front of your legs (anterior tibialis) and the tendons around this crucial joint.
Have you ever had a shoulder separation? If so, I don’t need to tell you the wisdom of strengthening your arm, back, shoulders, or any of the rotator cuff muscles above or behind your shoulder. A systematic muscle-strengthening program can make the potentially unstable shoulder joint stronger.
Second, strength training can also increase your performance by making you more powerful. By carefully strengthening neglected muscles, you can protect muscle groups that are not necessarily sports specific for you.
Third, there’s vanity. Those in the bodybuilding trade jokingly refer to the process of strengthening your biceps as producing “curls for the girls,” because your biceps may have little significance athletically other than to enhance your physique and make you look better on a New Jersey beach. So Bruce Springsteen really does have a reason for lifting.
