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Sunday, September 21, 2008

Muscular Strength and Endurance Exercise
By admin @ 11:46 AM :: 553 Views :: 0 Comments ::

:: Exercise and Physical Activity

Muscular Strength and Endurance Exercise

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends that a comprehensive “total” fitness program include a muscular strength and endurance component. It should involve a minimum of one set of 8-12 repetitions of 8-10 exercises that condition all major muscle groups at least twice a week.

Dr. Kenneth Cooper advises that muscular strength and endurance exercises be done following an aerobic conditioning session. This is recommended because aerobic activities help “warm-up” the muscles. This helps ensure safety when performing weight-training activities.

For those individuals at risk for cardiovascular disease, maximal muscular tensions are discouraged because they increase systemic blood pressure and also increase the work of the heart.

Individuals should always exhale on effort, warm-up and cool-down properly with each session, and use correct body mechanics and weight lifting techniques.

The best weight lifting system for increasing both muscular strength and endurance is the 3-set, 6-8 repetitions maximum system. In this system, a weight is chosen that can only be lifted 6-8 times, and then the sequence is repeated two more times with 3 minutes rest in between. Weight lifting systems that use more repetitions do not tend to improve muscular strength as much, but do tend to improve muscular endurance a bit more.

Weight training is recommended to be performed on an every other day basis. Chronic fatigue can develop from daily training.

Start your program easy! A 1-set, 10-repetition program with 8-10 different exercise, 2-3 times a week is good for beginners. This can help avoid muscle soreness that will lead to non-compliance.

Use information from the Common Weight Lifting Exercises and Description as a guideline for resistance training. You can also develop muscular strength by doing calisthenics like push-ups, modified push-ups, abdominal crunches, and pull-ups. Rubber tubing or bands work specific muscle groups as well. These should also be entered into slowly with small increases in time, intensity, and duration.

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