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Characteristics Of a Good Weight-training Program
In order for weight training to be effective, the following rules should be
followed:
 Sessions should be short: 60 minutes maximum. The maximum amount of time a
weight training session should last is 60 minutes. After 60 minutes the levels
of muscle building and fat burning hormones (like
growth hormone and
testosterone) begin to drop. In addition, the glycogen (stored carbohydrates) in
your system, which is the fuel that your muscles use to contract, is depleted.
If you weight train more than 60 minutes you will actually be wasting your time
since you will no longer have the hormones or the fuel necessary to produce
muscle growth. Continue to train past 60 minutes and you will get impaired
recovery, which leads to overtraining, a condition where your body does not
recover from its weight training sessions. This leads to loss of strength and
muscle mass.
The rest between sets should be kept to a minimum: 90 seconds or less. Keeping
your rest time in between sets and exercises to a minimum not only allows you to
perform a prodigious amount of work within the 60 minute weight training window,
but also helps to improve your cardiovascular system and most importantly
maximizes the output of growth hormone, a powerful fat burning/muscle building
hormone. Also, this rest interval promotes a muscle voluminizing effect in which
water goes inside the muscle cells (not outside) and makes the muscles look more
firm and toned. Do not confuse this with water retention outside of the muscle
cells, which is what makes us look puffy and
fat.
 Sets of each exercise should consist of 8-15 repetitions. There are many reasons
for this. First and foremost, it has been shown that it is within this range
that growth hormone output is maximized. As we already know, this is a good
thing since this hormone does exactly what we are looking for (increases
muscle
and decreases body fat). In addition, since you are performing so many
repetitions, you get a great pump (blood rushing into the muscle) that provides
nutrients to nourish muscle cells and helps them recover and rebuild faster.
Finally, performing 8-15 repetitions reduces the possibility of
injury
dramatically since you will need to use a weight that you can control in order
to perform the prescribed amount of reps. (Notes: This rule does not apply to
the calves and
abdominals as these muscles usually respond better to higher
repetition ranges, in the order of 15-25 reps).
 Training must be progressive. Progression means one more repetition than the
last time the exercise was performed or a little bit more weight if you are able
to do more than 15 repetitions for a particular exercise. It is important to
understand that you will not be able to increase weight or the number of
repetitions every session. However, progression comes in many forms; like
performing more work within the 60-minute period. The overall goal of a training
routine is to ensure progression over a period of time to bring about continuous
improvements in muscle tone and definition.
Training must be varied. This principle is vital to ensure continuous
gains in strength and muscle tone as well as to prevent boredom. Variation does
not necessarily mean changing all of the exercises in your program. Variation
can occur in the form of using different techniques to stimulate the muscle,
changing repetition and set parameters, and even changing the rest in between
sets or simply changing the width of your grip placement on the bar to help
isolate specific muscles.
Training must consists primarily of free weight basic exercises. Only free
weight basic exercises provide the fast results you are looking for because they
recruit the most muscle while you are performing them. Besides, the body is
designed to be in a three dimensional universe. Whenever you use a machine you
limit your body to a two-dimensional universe and consequently you limit the
amount of muscle fibers that are going to do work. However, not all machines are
bad. Some definitely have a place in our
weight-training program because they
allow you to isolate the muscle in a way that no free weights would allow you to
do. However, our program should be mostly based on barbells, dumbbells and
exercises where the body moves through space such as the
dip,
the pull-up and
the squat.
Training for Body sculpting
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The goal here is to lose as much fat as it is needed until you reach a goal
of 10-12% for women . Also a gain of 5lbs of muscle for women in order to
increase the metabolism, firm up and increase muscle tone. In order to
accomplish this, the exercise strategy is to perform 20-30 minutes of
aerobic
exercise 3-4 times per week first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Also
conduct 3-4 weight training sessions of 30 to 45 minutes per week utilizing
basic exercises such as
bench press,
chin-ups, and
squats.
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Training for Bodybuilding
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The goal here is maximum muscle
size with minimum body fat. In order to
accomplish this, 4 - 6 weight training sessions of 45-75 minutes composed of
basic exercises are required per week (Note: Due to the cycling of workout
parameters, workout length will vary between 45 to 75 minutes). As far as
cardiovascular exercise, 3 to 4 sessions of cardio first thing in the morning
(or three hours after a meal) consisting of 20 minutes should suffice. More
cardio than this and you may start robbing away your muscle gains.
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