Strength training aims to increase the size, strength and endurance of your muscles.  There are certain principles that are used to achieve this.  This article will discuss some of those principles and how to correctly apply them.

The first principle in strength training is overload.  For strength gain the muscle must always be asked to perform more than it is used to doing.  This can be accomplished by a weight increase or by more reps.  It might also be accomplished by changing hand position on the weight or the angle at which the exercise is performed.

Another principle is progression.  The muscle must continue to encounter an increasing resistance to meet overload.  This means that rep increases aren’t enough to consistently meet overload.  The weight, or resistance, must be slowly increased.  To achieve results, the strength training program must continuously change.

Specificity of the exercise is another principle of strength training.  The gains you achieve will depend on the muscle groups used and the pattern of movement.  Specificity says that if you want gains in strength you will need to train closer to you RM1.  If you want gains in endurance you will need to use lower weight with more reps.

The arrangement of activity is another factor in strength training.  For maximum effect, you must use a focused warm-up to warm the specific muscle about to be used.  The next activity is stretching.  Stretching increases the blood flow to the muscle and increases the flexibility of the muscle and lessens the risk of injury.  Then we go to the actual workout.  Experts suggest working the larger muscle groups first, then moving on to the smaller muscle groups.  This is because the smaller muscles are included in the larger group, so you get more benefit before you tire.

The final principle of effective weight training that I will mention is also a safety factor.  Breathing is a very important part of training.  Proper breathing assures that the blood flowing through the muscles is properly oxygenated.  You should time your breathing to exhale through your mouth while as you are performing the work.  This becomes very important as the weight you are moving increases.  Failure to breathe properly can cause blood pressure to become dangerously high.