Body Workout Plan

It is a common misconception that only professional bodybuilders need to ‘pump iron’ or lift weights. Body building involves increasing the size or mass of the muscle and defining its shape.

Weight lifting is just one part of bodybuilding exercises. Weight lifting is important in power lifting, Olympic lifting, as well as in strength training and conditioning the muscles of the body.

Athletes use strength training and conditioning exercises to increase their physical stamina and improve their performance. These exercises should not be used to merely feel stronger. People often fail to appreciate the difference between body building and strength training.

Though the exercises used for these are the same, they are different in performance. Body building centers only on improving the physical appearance of the body, while strength training and conditioning exercises aim at making the body strong. It is how these exercises are performed that produces the desired result.

Functional strength is defined as the ability to perform physical tasks easily because of well developed muscles. It is possible for a person to become extremely strong within a short time with strength training and conditioning exercises. Since the human body adapts well to strength training, the process is not as difficult as it might seem to some. Let us now at look at some basics of strength training.

When performing strength training you may wish to do only compound exercises. These exercises involve many sets of muscles which provide strength. By contrast, isolation exercises involve a single muscle category and these exercises are used to define or shape the muscle. Isolation exercises are often used during rehabilitation when a person is recovering from injury. It is best to follow compound exercises for strength training.

There are many compound exercises for strength training and conditioning. Some of them are given below.

Shoulder Presses: Press a barbell or dumbbell over the head, on the shoulders which are places of primary stress, also on places of secondary stress which are the upper back, chest, and biceps and triceps muscles of the arms.

Bench Presses: For this exercise you need to lie down and push barbells or dumbbells away from the chest. You may lie in a supine, incline or decline position when you do this exercise. Chest muscles and biceps are the primary muscles worked. Secondary stress is on the triceps and shoulder muscles.

Barbell Squats: Rest a barbell on each shoulder behind the head and perform leg squats. In this exercise, all the quadriceps muscles, the glutei of the buttocks, the lower back and calf muscles are worked.

Dead Lifts: For this exercise you stand up, and hold a barbell in your each hand. Hold the hands by your side. Now bend forward, and as you are bending lift straight up. This exercise mainly works the muscles of the lower back and places of secondary stress though out the body.

You will do well to use fairly heavy weights, about 60% of your maximum single lift, and repeat each exercise just 5 -6 times. The best way to perform strength training exercises is to use a smaller number of repetitions and larger weights.

A great dumbbell set for strength training is the Bowflex 552 SelectTech Dumbbells.

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