MENTAL PLANNING: STRENGTH TRAINING

Chicago church Christmas wreaths, PKSenagore November 21, 2016; all rights reserved

MACKENZIE LOBBY WROTE A WONDERFUL ARTICLE, "Beginner's Guide to Strength Training" for Hello Health MyFitnessPal.com about this topic that, depending on your fitness experience, either introduces or reinforces concepts of why you might incorporate it into your healthy lifestyle plan for 2017. This is another post that continues with the theme of  gathering information and reading NOW to prepare for construction of a program later.

Lobby begins with information on strength training benefits (physical and mental health, body appearance) and continues with advice on goal setting (functional strength v muscle mass building).  She discusses the methods that might be used to accomplish those goals (use of body weight exercises free weights, resistance bands, machines). Lastly Lobby offers some general principles that might guide your planning and expectations.
 
“The American College of Sports Medicine recommends working the major muscle groups with resistance training exercises 2–3 times per week. Those muscle groups include: chest, arms, shoulders, abs, back and legs. ACSM suggests performing between 2–4 sets of 8–20 repetitions of each exercise, depending on your goals. In addition to taking rest between each set and exercise, you should also allow for 48 hours of recovery between sessions.” She covers the “principle of progression”, including a link to an ACSM brochure PDF “Resistance Training for Health and Fitness”.
 
Just as you might browse some early Christmas and other holiday gift catalogs as they start to arrive in your mailbox, check out this piece on strength training and begin to save ideas and “how-to” advice for how to get in shape once the new year dawns on January 1, 2017.
 
RUN HAPPY!
 
http://blog.myfitnesspal.com/beginners-guide-strength-training

http://www.acsm.org/docs/brochures/resistance-training.pdf