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Lifting Tip
Lifting Tip: Start at the Bottom and Work Your Way Up
When strength training, there are so many exercises, and so many muscles to work, how do you know where to begin? Start from the bottom of your body and work your way up.
Since your legs are your largest muscle group, these moves require more work than exercises that target your upper body.
Lifting Tip: Relax the Muscles That Aren't Working
When I see people strength training at the gym, and working hard to lift a heavy weight or do those last few strenuous reps, it's hard not to notice their face scrunching up. If this sounds like you, the next time you lift, remember to relax the muscles that aren't involved in the exercise. It's the muscles in the face, neck, and shoulders that are most often engaged when they don't need to be.
Lifting Tip: Keep Your Head Straight
Correct form and posture are essential when it comes to strength training. It not only helps prevent injury, but it's also necessary to ensure that you're working your muscles effectively. What you want to avoid doing is cranking your head to take a peek at the muscles being worked, because you can end up straining your neck or upper back.
Lifting Tip: Don't Be Married to Your Dumbbells
Hopefully you've been adding strength training into your cardio and stretching routines. While dumbbells are great tools to use to target your muscle groups, they're not the only tools. Try to explore other options such as weight-lifting machines at the gym, medicine balls or kettlebells, inexpensive resistance bands, different sized exercise balls, and you can also do exercises that require no equipment at all.
Lifting Tip: Change Up Your Speed
Just as it's important to challenge and confuse your muscles by using different weight-lifting equipment, you can increase the benefits of weight training even more by varying the tempo, or speed, of your reps.
While very slow repetitions challenge the endurance strength of the muscle, it's important to incorporate a variety of tempos into your workout, including medium and faster-paced speeds. Change up your speed by doing three sets: one slow, one medium, and one quick.
Lifting Tip: Work One Arm or Leg at a Time
When strength training, whether using weights, machines, resistance bands, or no equipment at all, it's common practice to work both arms or legs at the same. So next time you do your routine, try working all your reps on one arm or leg at a time.
In some exercises when you move both arms or legs together, you can cheat by letting your dominant side do the brunt of the work, so this technique allows you to concentrate on strengthening both sides equally.
Lifting Tip: Warm Up With 10 Minutes of Cardio
If you have a regular fitness routine, you may prefer alternating between days of cardio and days of strength training. On your strength training days, don't just jump right into your squats and lateral raises. Do a little cardio before you lift.
Lifting Tip: Don't Just Use Momentum
Most of us don't have a ton of time to spend working out, so we try to cut corners and save time whenever we can. One way may be to zip through your reps when strength training. The problem is, when you do your exercises quickly, momentum becomes the driving force to move you through your reps.
Lifting Tip From Lacey Chabert
I don't think Lacey Chabert strong arms anyone in the movie Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, but the actress believes in staying strong. She has a great trick for remembering to strength train: keeping free weights visible at home. She explains her rationale for not putting away her dumbbells like this,
If you just have them around the house, I've noticed you walk by, you do a little bit.
Lifting Tip: Form Is More Important Than Weight
When strength training, it may seem that if you use a heavier set of dumbbells, you can save time on your sessions. More weight means fewer reps, right? Well, not exactly.
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