Weight Training Tips
A Typical Workout
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 formulated with an exercise specialist in a gym.
Your personal trainer 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.
