Scientific Principles Behind Strength Training pt 2 – Common things that are overlooked on strength training

Here, is the second part of the article. This article will talk about the three other principles of strength training. Here, they go:

4. Over-compensation

Most people neglect the importance of rest and recuperation time needed when doing strength training.

If you want to have the body of your dreams, you need to have short, high intensity workout sessions followed by plenty of time to recover. By doing so, you let the body repair the muscles that were used in the training session, without having to perform new sessions or repair new sets of muscles.

The body needs enough time so that Over-compensation takes place. This will let the body repair and grow the muscles bigger and stronger so that the next time you work out, they would be ready for the strains put on them.

5. Progressive Overload

For strength training, Progressive Overloading holds the utmost important in Strength Training, given that you want to see real results.

The 3 most important characteristics are

1. Complete the exercises with perfect form.
2. Push yourself to your limit without compromising form.
3. Progressively overload the weight used. (Overload the muscles beyond the point they can handle)

This allows the muscles reach their limit where they are used to work at and will force them to adapt to these new demands. To make it simple, you give them the reason to increase their strength to handle the stress put on them.

Once, your body adapts to the condition, it can easily deal with the workout session you performed last week. If you aren’t challenging your muscles, then you can’t expect some change in your muscle. This is where progressive overload becomes important in your strength training.

The moment that the muscles get accustomed to a certain weight, it is time to further overload them. It can be done by means of increasing the amount of weight used, the number of reps completed or the speed at which you complete the exercises. Just keep on repeating this practice of overloading if you want to grow bigger and stronger muscles.

NB. Don’t forget the perfect form while doing the exercises. Never sacrifice Technique to complete extra reps or to lift more weight.

6. Do not Train When Ill or Tired

If you are sick, or feeling tired/fatigued, forget about training for a while. Give yourself enough rest for your body to recuperate. The body needs all its energy to fight illness or to recover from fatigue.

When you workout while you’re sick, the energy used on other things, instead of recuperating. It would take you longer to get well.