Strength Training-component 1 of 4

Let's start breaking down each of the four components of a balanced fitness plan with strength training.  All four are important, and there is no real reason I started here.  Unless you have a specific goal/target, each is important and yields benefits towards wellness and health.

Strength training benefits us both in our daily activities and long-term, but unfortunately has gotten a bad wrap.  For fear of become "muscle bound" or "bulky", many people either don't lift weights, or lift such small amounts there is little benefit.  The benefits from lifting weights only accrues when enough weight is lifted enough times to challenge our muscles and make them grow.  They will grow, but the huge muscles you see on bodybuilders (of both sexes) and professional wrestlers generally come from steroids use to support the heavy training they do.  Most of us won't reach anywhere near that size-there is a genetic cap on how much muscle humans can carry without medical supplementation.  Strength training also benefits our bone density-important as we get older, and we all do!

Strength training has two outcomes, which are slightly contradictory but can be achieved with thoughtful planning.  Pure muscular strength and muscular endurance can both be built, but by different types of workouts.  Unfortunately, the "3 sets of 12 on each machine" workout really doesn't do either while trying to do both.  Muscular strength is built, well, quite simply, by "picking heavy stuff up, making it heavier and picking it up again".  That is way oversimplified, but true.  The idea is to lift ever heavier weights in low reps (usually no more than 3-5, sometimes heavy singles) focusing on good form.  The advantage is fairly rapid strength gains can be made by the novice, and consistent gains by the more expereinced lifter.  Some plans include Stronglifts 5x5, Smolov, the Texas Method, or comment and I can point you at some.

The other type of strength workout is for muscular endurance.  Here, our goal is not to lift a maximum amount, but to lift a certain amount repeatedly for a long time.  Instead of building raw one rep maximal power, these workouts focus on functional strength over longer time perios.  This is very beneficial for military and law enforcement personnel, and first responders.  These workouts have recently been popularized by Crossfit, TRX and P90X but have been around as long as military boot camps with recruits getting "mashed" or "slain" and then running an obstacle course have existed.  Anything from body weight (via calisthenics) to light weights to unique objects (Kettlebells, medicine balls, sand bags) are used in fairly fast-paced workouts with reps many of us don't want to count! 

One word of caution:  "Scaling" is no joke in both pure muscular strength training and muscular endurance training!  First, starting lighter than you think you can lift allows you to build good form, achieve postive reinforcement/motivation, and also minimize soreness.  Secondly, there will always be someone stronger than you, and trying to keep up too soon leads to extreme soreness all the time, and often injury, which instead of helping our fitness, ends up hurting it.

Tomorrow I have a SL 5x5 workout on top of lots of physical work this week, so I guess I'm mixing both.  I look forward to reading your comments on what works for you.