Muscular Strength and Flexibility

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Muscular Strength and Flexibility
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• Body has more than 600 muscles
• Disuse vs. Use
• Atrophy vs. Hypertrophy

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Benefits of Resistance Training

• Fat loss and weight control
• Improved personal appearance
• Get stronger and reduce risk of injury
• Strong, healthy bones
• Stay healthy
• Increases muscle mass/decreases fat
• Increases muscle strength and endurance
• Increases metabolic rate
• Increases bone density
• Improves balance
• Improves mobility and range of motion
• Improves reaction time

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Health Benefits of Resistance Training

• Fat loss, weight control and weight maintenance
• Increased metabolism
• Increased calorie burning during workout
• Increased calorie burning after exercise
• Lowered resting blood pressure
• Lowered risk of diabetes, heart disease, and some
  types of cancer
• Improved blood lipid profile raised HDL

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Health Benefits of Resistance Training(contd)

• Decreased risk for osteoporosis increased bone
  mineral content
• Improved structural and functional integrity of
  tendons, ligaments, and joints
• Increases insulin sensitivity
• Combats depression
• Aids sleep
• Improved posture
• Enhanced physical activity experiences
• Improved personal independence
• Improved self-image, self-esteem

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The Importance of Resistance Training

• Recent research suggests that the single most
  important step to not just retard, but to reverse
  the aging process, is strength training.
• It is a myth that the older adult or elderly
  lose their ability to respond to a strength
  training stimulus. Strength levels have tripled
  in well controlled and designed strength studies
  using older adults and other studies have shown
  strength improvements as high as 200 percent.
• Source Brooks, Douglas. Effective strength
  training analysis and technique for upper body,
  lower body, and trunk exercises. Mammoth Lakes,
  Calif. Moves International, 2001.

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Muscular Strength

• Definition the maximal force that a muscle or
  muscle group can exert in a single contraction

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Resistance Training and Aging

• Loss of muscle mass with age, result of
  inactivity
• 50 loss in muscle mass from age 20 to 90
• Leads to decreased quality of life
• Inability to carry out every day tasks
• Muscle mass can be increased with training
• Hypertrophy is not limited by age

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Types of Resistance Training

• Dynamic involves concentric and eccentric
  contractions, may be isotonic or isokinetic
• concentric muscle shortening
• eccentric muscle lengthening, cause of muscle
  soreness (DOMS)
• Static (isometric) muscle contractions, but no
  movement
• Causes an increase in blood pressure
• Specific to joint angle

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Free Weights, Machines and Circuit Training

• Free weights
• Inexpensive and space efficient
• Resistance changes throughout range of motion
• Mimics everyday life
• Develop joint stability
• More difficult to isolate target muscle(s)
  technique and form are critical
• Machines
• Maintain resistance throughout range of motion
• Does not require spotting
• Must adjust the machine to fit the individual
• Isolate target muscle(s) well

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Free weights, machines and circuit training

• Circuit Training
• Combination of resistance training and
  cardiovascular endurance training
• Continuous activity, maintaining target heart
  rate for 30 min.
• Increases muscular strength and endurance as well
  as cardiovascular endurance, but not as well as
  training specifically for those benefits

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Exercise and Age Continuum
Atherosclerosis and other factors in CV disease
develop early in life, therefore, CV training to
reduce the risk of CV disease is important at
this stage. During our middle years we are
often pressed for time, working and raising
families. In order to maintain range of motion
throughout the body and continue to reduce
the risk of CV disease, circuit training seems
most appropriate. Finally, quality of life in
our last decades is often reduced a result of
decreased mobility. Resistance training can
help combat this problem maintaining muscle mass
and flexibility.
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Principles of Resistance Training

• Stress-Rest
• Specificity (SAID)
• FITT
• Symmetry
• Contraction Control

• Ceiling
• Progressive Resistance Overload
• Maintenance
• Reversibility

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• Stress-Rest
• One day of exercise followed by one day of rest
  to allow body to recover
• Optimal rest is 48 to 72 hours between workouts
  for same muscle group
• Specificity (SAID)
• Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands
• Only muscles used in the exercise will adapt, and
  they will adapt to the specific demands imposed
• Low reps, high resistance increase strength and
  size
• ( gt3 sets and lt 10 repetitions)
• High reps, low resistance increase in endurance
• ( lt 3 sets and gt 15 repetitions)

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FITT

• Frequency
• Depends on type of exercise
• Intensity
• Based on 1 RM (repetition maximum)
• Mostly trial and error
• Depends on training goals
• Time/Duration
• 20 min (ACSM)
• Depends on individual program
• Type of Exercise
• Cardiovascular, strength, endurance, flexibility

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• Symmetry
• Overall balanced development of body body should
  be trained as a whole unit
• Muscles aid in support of a joint if more
  developed on one side, likelihood of injury
  increases
• Functional and motor fitness strength
  development should be considered along with
  cardiovascular and stretching/flexibility
  components
• Contraction Control
• Raising and lowering of weight must not involve
  momentum to ensure work is done through muscular
  contraction
• Reduces risk of injury
• Ceiling
• As fitness level increases, strength and
  endurance increase
• As the potential/genetic fitness level is
  approached, increases in fitness level decrease
  participants will plateau and become bored
• Address through temporary training pause, change
  of exercises, decrease in intensity to rest body

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• Overload
• Muscles must be subjected to greater resistance
  than they normally encounter, by increasing the
  weight
• 5 increase
• Maintenance
• Once training effect/goal has been reached,
  maintain fitness level through reduction in
  training frequency workouts 2x per week instead
  of 3x a week
• Intensity and duration must remain the same
• Reversibility
• Benefits of training will be lost at 1/3 the rate
  gained e.g., training effect of 1 month will be
  completely lost after approx. 3 months
• Loss of training effect is eliminated by
  following the Maintenance Principle

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Ergogenic Aids

• Definition Substances, techniques, or treatments
  that theoretically enhance physical performance
  in addition to the the effects of normal training
• Protein supplements, creatine, ginseng, chromium,
  steroids, growth hormone, etc.
• Generally speaking there are no magic pills and
  scientific evidence is often lacking. The most
  effective performance enhancers often are illegal
  and/or have serious side-effects

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Flexibility

• Definition the range of motion at a joint or
  series of joints
• Influenced by 3 main factors
• Bony structure of the joint
• Amount of tissue around the joint
• Elasticity of the muscles, tendons, and ligaments
  that cross over the joint

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Other Factors Influencing Flexibility

• Age
• Tendons lose elasticity with age
• Range of motion declines in the mid-20s for males
  and at about 30 for females
• Gender
• Physical activity and type of activity
• Physical inactivity has a greater influence on
  the loss of flexibility than age

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Types of stretching

• Ballistic
• Oldest type of stretching
• Makes use of repetitive bouncing movements
• Virtually abandoned by almost all experts in the
  field due to safety concerns
• Static
• Very effective, relatively safe, popular method
  of stretching
• Involves passively stretching a muscle to the
  point of mild discomfort
• Holding time recommendations vary from 10 to 60
  seconds 20-30 seconds per stretch is normal
• Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF)
• Stretching technique involves partner actively
  stretching participant by combination of altering
  contraction and relaxation of both agonist and
  antagonist muscles
• Potentially more effective in producing greater
  flexibility
• Usually involves 10 second push phase, followed
  by a 10 second relaxation phase, typically
  repeated several times

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Guidelines for Safe Stretching

• Warm-up first, 5 10 minutes this will decrease
  risk of injury
• Stretch after workout contrary to popular
  belief, stretching before a workout does not
  decrease risk of injury
• Stretch should feel uncomfortable but not painful
• For static stretches - hold stretch for 20 30
  seconds
• Stretching daily is best

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Stretching Other Considerations

• More flexible individuals do not necessarily have
  less incidence of injury
• More flexibility may actually lead to more injury
  because joint integrity is compromised
• Greater flexibility may impair performance in
  sports that do not require a high degree of
  flexibility e.g., running
• Intense static stretching may reduce maximum
  force production
• Persons participating in sports that require more
  than average flexibility gymnasts, dancers,
  figure skaters will experience performance
  benefits from stretching

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Stretching Other Considerations(contd)

• Improved flexibility helps prevent back and other
  orthopedic problems
• Individuals with muscular imbalances and postural
  problems can benefit from stretching
• Stretching maintains flexibility which would
  otherwise decline with age or inactivity due to
  injury

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Low-Back Pain

• Affects 80-90 of adults
• Causes
• Excess body weight
• Weak abdominal muscles
• Weak and inflexible hamstrings
• Poor posture
• Lifting objects incorrectly
• Work or sports related injuries
• Diseases such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Prevention
• Strengthen abdominal muscles and improve
  hamstring flexibility!