Resistance Training

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Resistance Training

What is Resistance Training? 

Bodybuilding.com describes resistance training as a form of training in which you’re working against some type of force that “resists” your movement.

“Resistance training is a form of exercise that improves muscular strength and endurance. During a resistance training workout, you move your limbs against resistance provided by your weight, gravity, bands, weighted bars, or dumbbells. Some exercise machines can also be used for resistance training.” -Verywell Fit

Better Health Channel- “Resistance training increases muscle strength by making your muscles work against a weight or force. Different forms of resistance training include free weights, weight machines, resistance bands, and your own body weight.”

As you can see, resistance training is a form of training that requires some sort of resistance against your movements. Whether that resistance comes in the form of weights, bands, your own body weight, gravity, or machines, if there is a form of resistance against the movement that you are trying to perform. There are many forms of resistance training, many concepts to integrate resistance training in your workout routine, and many ways resistance training can get you the results that you desire. Based on assessment outcomes and goals for each client, the resistance training program you design requires filling in appropriate exercises for each body part, the sets, repetitions, tempo, and rest intervals. To design individually tailored safe and appropriate resistance training programs, trainers need to understand the science and principles of resistance training to be effective! It is important for trainers to know the concepts involved in designing and implementing resistance training programs for a variety of clients. Understanding principles of adaptation, progressive strength adaptations derived from resistance training, training systems used to acquire strength, and specific resistance training exercise progressions is highly important for trainers.

When it comes to resistance training, and it’s concepts, there’s a lot to cover. Here is a list of things we will cover about resistance training, and the sub topics, and workouts used in resistance training:

Principle of Adaptation

• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
• Alarm Reaction
• Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS)
• Resistance Development
• Exhaustion
• Periodization
• Overtraining Syndrome

Principle of Specificity: The SAID Principle

• Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands (SAID)
• Mechanical Specificity
• Neuromuscular Specificity
• Metabolic Specificity

* Integrated Training Program

• Flexibility
• Endurance
• Neuromuscular Control
• Alterations in Body Composition
• Strength
• Power

Progressive Adaptations from Resistance Training

• Stabilization
• Muscular Endurance
• Muscular Hypertrophy
• Strength
• Power

As you can see, there is a lot to cover and go through when it comes to resistance training. You can also understand why this is so important for trainers to know and understand the concepts and systems behind resistance training. Also, understand, although a great way to build strength, power and muscle, resistance training is an unbelievable way to burn calories and fat, and can be a great way to help a client who’s goal is weight loss. In order to cover all of this in greater detail, it will be easier to break resistance training into a couple of parts, and attack it that way. First we will discuss the principle of adaptation and the general adaptation syndrome! Then we will discuss The Principle of Specificity: The SAID Principle, and wrap this part up with Progressive Adaptations from Resistance Training. Part two will discuss Resistance Training Systems!

The Principle of Adaptation

• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
• Alarm Reaction and DOMS
• Resistance Development Stage
• Exhaustion and Periodization

The principle of adaptation refers to the body getting accustomed to a particular exercise or training program through repeated exposure. The human body is amazing, in that it can adapt or adjust its functional capacity to meet desired needs. This is a unique quality of the human body and its ability to respond and adapt to an exercise stimulus and is one of the more important concepts of training and conditioning to understand. The desired or primary goal of most training programs is some element or form of adaptation. Resistance training has shown to produce a variety of desirable effects, whether the goal is cosmetic in nature or health- or performance-related.

General Adaptation Syndrome 

Homeostasis or physiologic balance is the optimal state for the human movement system to be in. The general adaptation syndrome (GAS) is a term used to describe how the body adapts and responds to stress. Hans Selye, a Canadian physician, outlined three stages of response to stress, Alarm Reaction, Resistance Development, and Exhaustion. In this case the stress being placed on the body due to a weight being lifted during resistance training is considered good stress, or eustress. This general pattern of adaptation over time allows the human movement system to adapt and thus be able to maintain homeostatic states under a variety of conditions. For adaptations to occur, the body must be confronted with a stressor or some form of stress that creates the need for a response. Physiological benefits of resistance training are improved cardiovascular efficiency, beneficial endocrine (hormone) and serum lipid (cholesterol) adaptations, increased bone density, and increased metabolic efficiency (metabolism). Physical benefits include increased tissue (muscle, tendons, ligaments) tensile strength, increased cross-sectional area of muscle fibers, and decreased body fat. Finally, performance benefits are increased neuromuscular control (coordination), increased endurance, increased strength, and increased power.

Alarm Reaction and DOMS

During the initial sessions of resistance training programs, the body is forced to try and adapt to increased amounts of force on bones, joints, muscles, connective tissues, and the nervous system. The initial reaction to a stressor on the body is called the alarm reaction.  The alarm reaction activates a number of physiological and psychological protective processes within the body. There’s a number of physiological responses that occur during the alarm stage of resistance training, including an increase of oxygen and blood supply as well as neural recruitment to the working muscles. Over time the body is able to increase its ability to meet the demands being placed on it through applying the principle of progressive overload, but initially the body may be very inefficient at responding to the demands placed on it during resistance training.

Most experts would agree that starting a progressive training program at a low intensity and introducing overload gradually would minimize delayed-onset muscle soreness. Delayed-onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, is pain or discomfort often felt 24 to 72 hours after intense exercise or unaccustomed physical activity. Consider the typical response to either unaccustomed exercise or a sudden increase in a training program. The new work is performed, and during the next 2 to 3 days, muscles may exhibit DOMS. DOMS is considered an “alarm reaction” and can limit exercise because of factors contributing to the soreness.

Resistance Development Stage

By now, you might be witnessing a reoccurring theme, in that the body adapts to whatever stress that you put on it. Early on, the body has an alarm reaction, or initial reaction to the stressor, and may even cause DOMS to occur. This a natural general adaptation to the work load being asked of the body to perform. Part of resistance training, and designing a program that works, is recognizing that this will happen during the course of exercise. During the resistance development stage, the body increases its functional capacity to adapt to a stressor. So, after many repeated training sessions, the human movement system increases its capability to efficiently recruit muscle fibers and distribute oxygen and blood to the proper areas in the body. Since the body has adapted to the program, it will require increased stress or overload to produce a new response and a higher level of fitness.

This is a crucial stage in the development program of resistance training. Most trainers are good at recognizing this stage, but their next steps are often improper in handling all the acute variables for optimal adaptation while avoiding breakdown or exhaustion. The initial response from trainers is typically to manipulate only the amount of weight a client uses, and they miss out on manipulating things such as sets, reps, intensity, rest periods, exercise selection, etc. There are many factors, acute variables, that can provide greater results for clients so long as trainers better understand the resistance development stage of training.

Exhaustion and Periodization

The goal for a trainer is to create a program that continually helps a client progress forward in their training. When developing a program, there are times where some factors will cause a trainer to pull back or course correct during a training program. The ultimate goal is to prevent any set backs or injury when designing a fitness program for a client. Understanding that resistance training provides stresses on the body, where you are placing a force upon the body, by way of resisting a movement, you can overload the body. It is important for a trainer to recognize if fatigue is setting in for a client, understanding rest periods during a workout, and also how much rest certain body parts need after workouts to recover. Also, trainers need an open dialogue with their clients, they need to listen to what their clients are saying vocally, and what the clients bodies are telling them through their movements.

Overtraining syndrome is a serious thing. This is something that can commonly occur with athletes or fitness enthusiasts when they push or train their bodies beyond its ability to recover. There can be harmful side effects to performing excessive amounts of exercise without proper rest and recovery. Decreased performance, fatigue, altered hormonal states, poor sleeping patterns, decreased immunity, loss of appetite, injury, and mood disturbances, are just some of the possible side effects from overtraining.

Prolonged stress or intolerable amounts of stress can lead to exhaustion or distress. A stressor can become too much for any one of the physiologic systems to handle, it can cause a breakdown or injury such as stress fractures, muscle strains, joint pain, and emotional fatigue. If not handled correctly, many of these types of injuries can lead to the initiation of the cumulative injury cycle.

Having a systematic, progressive training program based on science and proven application can help in avoiding the pitfalls of the exhaustion stage. Having sufficient rest and recuperation periods during resistance training, and other forms of training, is essential when cycling through the different stages that increase the stress being placed on the human movement system. Periodization describes this approach, in which a training program is divided into smaller, progressive stages.

Training programs should provide a variety of intensities and stresses to optimize the adaptation of each tissue to ensure the best possible results. Different tissues in the body (muscle fibers versus connective tissue) each have their own adaptive potential to stresses. Training-related injuries occur more with connective tissue (ligaments and tendons) than muscles because connective tissues lack blood supply to help with healing. Adaptation can be more specifically applied to certain aspects of the human movement system depending on the training technique(s) used, which is the basis of the principle of specificity.

The Principle of Specificity: The SAID Principle

• Principle of Specificity: The SAID Principle
• Mechanical Specificity
• Neuromuscular Specificity
• Metabolic Specificity

First of all, what is the principle of specificity? It is a principle that states the body will adapt to the specific demands that are placed on it. Often, this principle is referred to as the SAID principle, specific adaptation to imposed demands. So, what this principle is stating is that, your body will adapt to what you ask of it. Think about that for a second. How many times do you look at weights and immediately think, there’s no way I can ever lift that? Or, oh man, there’s no way that I can ever do that workout? This principle, within reason and through a good training program, is stating that not only are those things possible, but that you will adapt to those specific demands. For example, if someone repeatedly lifts heavy weights, that person will produce higher levels of maximal strength, making it easier to lift those heavy weights. Conversely, if a person repeatedly lifts lighter weights for many repetitions, that person will develop higher levels of muscular endurance.

There is a lot to take into account when applying the SAID principle to any training program. According to the principle of specificity, training programs should reflect the desired outcome(s). It is important to remember that the body is made up of many types of tissues, and these tissues may respond differently to the same stimulus. The principle of specificity must be used appropriately to make it a safe and effective tool.

We should know that type I muscle fibers function differently than type II muscles fibers. Knowing and understanding this, helps a trainer better understand there are different methods to train these muscle fibers, as they have their own levels of importance in every day life. Type I or slow-twitch muscle fibers are smaller in diameter, slower to produce maximal tension, and more resistant to fatigue. These fibers are necessary for stabilization, endurance, and postural control as they produce long-term contractions. Type II or fast-twitch muscle fibers are larger, quick to produce maximal tension, and fatigue more quickly than Type I fibers. These fibers are important for muscles producing movements requiring force and power. Proper postural stabilization is required if you want to train with higher intensities. With this knowledge, we know that tissues need to be trained differently to prepare them for higher levels of training. This is the specific reason for periodization in training.

The mechanical, neuromuscular, and metabolic specificity of a training program is directly related to the degree of adaptation that occurs during training. The body only adapts if you give it reason to adapt, knowing this, personal trainers need to consistently evaluate the need to manipulate the exercise routine to meet actual training goals to effectively achieve program goals for clients.

Mechanical Specificity

Mechanical specificity refers to the weight and movements placed on the body. If you are looking to develop muscular endurance in your legs, that would require low weights and high repetitions when performing leg-related exercises. If you are looking to build your chest, and add maximal strength, you would use heavy weights with chest-related exercises.

For someone with the goal of body fat reduction, mechanically, the body burns more calories when movements are performed while standing and using moderate weights, as opposed to seated. For example, a standing cable row versus a seated cable row, standing you would burn more calories.

Neuromuscular Specificity

Neuromuscular specificity refers to the speed of contraction and exercise selection. If you want higher levels of stability while pushing, chest exercises will need to be performed with controlled, unstable exercises, at slower speeds. To develop higher levels of strength, exercises should be performed in more stable environments with heavier loads to place more of an emphasis on the prime movers. For power, you would use low-weight, high-velocity contractions to be performed in a plyometric manner.

From a neuromuscular standpoint, the body burns more calories when more muscles are being used for longer periods in controlled, unstable environments. Something like a single-leg dumbbell shoulder press versus a seated machine shoulder press would be a good exercise for someone with the goal of body fat reduction.

Metabolic Specificity

Metabolic specificity refers to the energy demand placed on the body. If you want better endurance, training will require prolonged bouts of exercise, with minimal rest periods between sets. Endurance training primarily uses aerobic pathways to supply energy for the body. If your goal is maximal strength or power, you will need longer rest periods, so the intensity of each exercise remains high. Energy is supplied mainly via anaerobic pathways.

Metabolically, the body burns more calories when rest periods are short to minimize full recuperation. So for a client with the goal of body fat reduction, it would be good for a client to perform resistance training exercises in a circuit fashion with no rests between sets.

It is important for trainers to remember that a client’s training program should be designed to meet specific demands of their daily life and health and wellness goals.

When applying the principles of specificity to a training program for weight loss, the client should perform the majority of the exercises while standing up, as opposed to seated, using moderate weights. The client should also recruit and use as many muscles as possible during each exercise and carefully monitor rest periods for greater caloric expenditure.

Progressive Adaptations from Resistance Training

• Stabilization
• Muscular Endurance
• Muscular Hypertrophy
• Strength
• Power

The concept behind adaptation is clear that when stresses are placed on the body some type of change is going to occur. Resistance training programs are designed to produce changes that result in various adaptations. No matter what your goal is, increase muscular endurance, strength, hypertrophy, or power or to reduce body fat and improve overall health, the use of resistance training is an important component of any fitness program. For the client, this ensures optimal health and longevity. Through general adaptation syndrome, as clients develop greater strength and endurance, they can train for longer periods of time before reaching the exhaustion stage, which leads to greater degrees of change and adaptation realized over time. Stabilization, muscular endurance, hypertrophy, strength, and power are the main adaptations that occur from resistance training.

Stabilization

Stabilization is the process of making something physically more secure or stable according to Oxford Dictionaries. With someone sick or injured, this is the initial process to prevent shock for that individual. Stabilization is often performed by the first person to arrive on scene, EMT’s, or nurses before or just after arrival in a hospital. Websters defines this as to make stable, steadfast, or firm. To hold steady: such as to maintain the stability of something by means of a stabilizer. What does this have to do with a training program? What does stabilization mean for the body, especially when it comes to training and program design?

Stabilization is the human movement system’s ability to provide optimal dynamic joint support to maintain correct posture during all movements. In other words, stabilization is getting the right muscles to fire, with the right amount of force, in the proper plane of motion, and at the right time. So in order for your body to perform at it’s best, stabilization is crucial for training, and designing training programs. Stabilization requires high levels of muscular endurance for optimal recruitment or prime movers to increase concentric force production and reduce eccentric force. The best way to increase the body’s ability to stabilize and balance itself is through repeatedly training with controlled, unstable exercises. Not doing so, the body will not gain the same level of stability and may even worsen. Research has shown that improper stabilization can negatively affect a muscle’s force production. The reason that stabilization is so important in the training process is because it increases the ability of the kinetic chain to stabilize the limbo-pelvic-hip complex and joints during movement to allow the arms and legs to work more efficiently.

Stabilization is the foundation of any training program. When building a house, you start with the foundation, because this is what keeps the house stable, firm, and strong. This is what keeps the house or building standing upright, and doesn’t allow for the building to come crumbling down. The best relationships have a strong foundation on which they can build from, a foundation that keeps the relationship strong, stable, and gives them the ability to endure and whether any storm. Stabilization in training does all of this, and gives you the ability to endure the stresses placed upon your body, and become stronger from those stresses. The more stable your body is, the more efficient you become, and the better your body performs, and your ability to handle the stresses placed upon your body becomes easier. Stabilization is the foundation of any and every program design.

Muscular Endurance

Muscular endurance is defined as the ability to produce and maintain force production for prolonged periods of time according to NASM. Verywell Fit defines muscular endurance as the ability of a muscle or group of muscles to sustain repeated contractions against a resistance for an extended period of time. Livestrong.com defines it as the ability of a muscle to repeatedly exert force against resistance.

Improving ones muscular endurance in an integral component of all fitness programs. Developing muscular endurance is vital in that it helps to increase core and joint stabilization, and we know that stabilization is the foundation of any program design. Stabilization is the foundation on which hypertrophy, strength, and power are built. Training for muscular endurance of the core focuses on the recruitment of muscles responsible for postural stability, namely, type 1 muscle fibers.

Research has shown that the best way to increase muscular endurance is through high repetitions during resistance training. Resistance training protocols have proven this to be the most effective way. In addition, a periodization training program can enhance local muscular endurance as well, and after an initial training effect in previously untrained individuals, multiple sets of periodized training may prove superior to single-set training for improving muscular endurance. There are many ways to make program designs around muscular endurance and to get other, amazing benefits as well. Doing workouts with higher repetitions, 2 sets of 20-28 repetitions with 1 minute rest periods for 2 days a week for example, can help increase local muscular endurance as well as increase muscular hypertrophy in untrained clients after just 8 weeks. Where as in just the initial 12 weeks of a 6 month training program of multiple sets of 15 repetitions , 4 times a week, you could experience a threefold decrease in body fat and significant increase in lean body mass in addition to increased locale muscular endurance.

Muscular Hypertrophy

Muscular hypertrophy is the enlargement of skeletal muscle fibers in response to being recruited to develop increased levels of tension, as seen in resistance training. Muscle hypertrophy is characterized by an increase in the cross-sectional area of an individual muscle fibers resulting from an increase in myofibril proteins (myofilaments). To the untrained client, hypertrophy is not easy to see, and can go unrecognized for 4-8 weeks of a training program, but the process starts in the early stages of training, regardless of the intensity of training used.

Resistance training protocols that use low to intermediate repetition ranges with progressive overload lead to muscular hypertrophy. Structured progressive resistance training programs using multiple sets help to increase muscular hypertrophy in both younger and older men and women alike. To improve muscular hypertrophy and overall body composition, it has been shown that in just 24 weeks of training 3 days a week with 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions per exercise can help achieve this. Thus, progressive resistance training programs using moderate to low repetition protocols with progressively higher loss will result in increased hypertrophy in older adults and men and women.

Strength

Strength is the ability of the neuromuscular system to produce internal tension to overcome an external load. Internal tension within the muscles is what leads to force production, no matter if the external force demands the neuromuscular system to produce stability, endurance, maximal strength, or power. The result of strength adaptations is the degree of internal tensions produced. Based on the type and intensity of training used by the client determines the specific form of strength or internal tension produced from training.

More traditionally, resistance training programs always focused on developing maximal strength in individual muscles, typically emphasizing one plane of motion (the sagittal plane). Since we have come to know that muscles function eccentrically, isometrically, and concentrically in all three planes of motion (sagittal, frontal, and transverse) at different speeds, training programs should be designed to emphasize this. You should use a progressive approach emphasizing the appropriate exercise selection, all muscle actions, and repetition tempos.

Muscle operates under the control of the central nervous system, since we know this, we need to think of strength as not a function of muscle, but as a result of activating the neuromuscular system. For beginning clients, strength gains can occur rapidly and can increase with a structured, progressive resistance training program. Early in a training program, an increase in the number of motor units recruited can be a factor in increased strength. The use of heavier loads increases the neural demand and recruitment of more muscle fibers until a recruitment plateau is reached, after which further increases in strength are a result of fiber hypertrophy.

Strength is the foundation of stabilization requiring muscles, tendons, and ligaments to be prepared for the load that will be required to increase strength beyond the initial stages of training. It should not be thought of as isolation. Stabilization training is designed with type I slow-twitch muscle fibers in mind, whereas strength training is designed to match the characteristics of type II muscle fibers. Thus, acute variables such as reps, sets, intensities, are manipulated to take advantage of specific characteristics of each muscle fiber type. During the initial 12 weeks of resistance training the majority of strength increases will occur from increased neural recruitment and muscle hypertrophy.

Power

Power is the ability of the neuromuscular system to produce the greatest possible force in the shortest possible time. The simple equation of force multiplied by velocity will represent this. Power adaptations not only build on stabilization and strength adaptations, but also apply them at more realistic speeds and forces as seen in everyday life and sporting activities. The focus of power-resistance training is getting the neuromuscular system to generate force as quickly as possible defined as the rate of force production.

Training for power can be achieved either by increasing the weight, or force, or by increasing the speed with which the weight is moved, velocity. So, to produce an increase  in power, you would increase either force or velocity. By increasing the number of motor units activated, synchronization between them, and the speed at which they are activated allows for increased rate of force production in power training. According to the general adaptation syndrome and the principle of specificity, in order to maximize this adaptation, both heavy and light loads must be moved in this controlled fashion as fast as possible. Also, using both training methods in a superset fashion can create the necessary adaptations to enhance the body’s ability to recruit a large number of motor units and increase the rate of activation.

As an athlete, if you want to be more explosive, you have to train to be more explosive. Not just at the top end of your lifts, but also at the low end of your lifts. If you are a baseball player and want to have power while hitting, or explode out of the box when running to first, if you play basketball and want to jump out of the gym, or play football and want to make an impression while making a huge tackle in the crucial moments of a game, you have to work every muscle and prepare the right way. To create more power in your game, you have to train with power movements. Learn what your top end and low end lifts are through stabilized and controlled movements, and then use this movements with greater speeds and velocity to create more power and elevate your game.

For any athlete, this may be the most important information that you read to help you improve your skill set. Resistance training and it’s concepts will help any athlete elevate their game, help aid in weight loss, help create lean muscle, create stabilization, muscle endurance, hypertrophy, strength and power. If you want to function better in your everyday life, you need resistance training to be a part of the formula that gets you there.

Ryan Baker

NASM Certified Personal Trainer

Team Beachbody Coach

Athlete

My next blog will talk about Resistance Training Systems and the concepts behind them. We will talk about the different ways to work out, when and how to implement the work out styles, and who to implement these work outs with. It is important for trainers to know these systems, and to know and understand the training level of their clients/athletes. For trainers to design and implement the best program design for their clients/athletes to get their desired results, knowledge of these systems will be crucial for training. Here is a preview of what I will be covering in my next blog post:

Resistance Training Systems

• Single-Set System
• Multiple-Set System
• Pyramid System
• Superset System
• Drop-Sets
• Circuit-Training System
• Peripheral Heart Action System
• Split-Routine System
• Vertical Loading
• Horizontal Loading
• Time Under Tension

This was a National Academy of Sports Medicine sponsored post!

The majority of information used in this post comes from the National Academy of Sports Medicine and their Sixth Edition of NASM Essentials of Personal Fitness Training. You will find this information in Section 2 of the book, Assessments, Training Concepts, and Program Design, and more specifically, Chapter 13 of the book, Resistance Training Concepts. My Personal Training Certification came through NASM, and after looking into, and starting other Personal Training Certifications in the past, there is no other program quite like NASM. If you, or someone you know is looking into becoming a personal trainer, I highly recommend the National Academy of Sports Medicine. If you are already a Personal Trainer, and you are looking for great continued education courses, Corrective Exercise, Fitness Nutrition, Weight loss, Business Marketing, Sports Performance, etc., I again highly recommend NASM for furthering your career and knowledge in everything related to being a Certified Personal Trainer, and getting the best specializations out there. If you want more information, and would like to talk to an advisor from NASM, go to www.NASM.org and tell them that Ryan Baker recommended you!