How to improve your strength and flexibility & 10 Ways to Build Strength Without the Size

 

How to improve your strength and flexibility

Strength and flexibility exercises will help you increase muscle strength, maintain bone density, improve balance and reduce joint pain.

What are strength exercises?

A strength exercise is any activity that makes your muscles work harder than usual.

This increases your muscles' strength, size, power and endurance.

The activities involve using your body weight or working against a resistance.

You should try to do 2 sessions or more of muscle strengthening exercises a week.

Examples of muscle-strengthening activities include:

• lifting weights
• working with resistance bands
• heavy gardening, such as digging and shovelling
• climbing stairs
• hill walking
• cycling
• dance
• push-ups, sit-ups and squats
• yoga

What exercises are good for preventing falls?

Exercises that improve leg strength, balance and co-ordination can help people maintain and improve their muscle strength and avoid falls as they get older.

Examples of leg-strengthening exercises include:

• tai chi
• yoga
• dance
• walking up stairs
• hiking
• lifting weights

How can I tell if I'm doing enough?

For an activity to be muscle strengthening, it needs to work your muscles to the point where you may need a short rest before continuing.

For example, if you're lifting weights, you'd have to put the weight down after doing a number of lifts before carrying on.

What are flexibility exercises?

Flexibility exercises are activities that improve the ability of a joint to maintain the movement necessary for carrying out daily tasks and physical activity.

Examples of flexibility activities include:

• stretching
• yoga
• tai chi
• pilates

What are the benefits of strength and flexibility activities?

Muscle-strengthening activities help maintain the ability to perform everyday tasks and slow down the rate of bone and muscle loss associated with ageing. 

Such exercises can also help reduce your chances of falling.

Health professionals believe that improving your flexibility can improve your posture, reduce aches and pains, and lower your risk of injury.

Good flexibility can also help you to continue carrying out everyday tasks.

How often should I do strength and flexibility exercises?

It's a good idea to do muscle-strengthening activities that work all the major muscle groups (legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms) on 2 or more days a week.

No specific amount of time is recommended, but a typical training session could take less than 20 minutes.

Exercises should be performed to the point at which it would be difficult to do another repetition without help.

A repetition is 1 complete movement of an activity, like lifting a weight or doing 1 push-up or 1 sit-up.

Try to do 8 to 12 repetitions for each activity, which counts as 1 set.

Try to do at least 2 sets of muscle-strengthening activities, but to gain even more benefits, do 3 sets.

Remember to start gradually and build up over a period of weeks.

There are no specific recommendations for how much time you should spend on flexibility exercises.

How much aerobic exercise should I do?

For general health, try to do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity a week, as well as muscle-strengthening activities on 2 days a week.

But if you're doing vigorous-intensity aerobic activity, you should be able to get all your week's aerobic and muscle-strengthening requirements from 75 minutes of activity.

Do strength exercises count towards my 150 minutes?

No, time spent doing strength exercises does not count towards moderate aerobic activities.

Aerobic activities like walking or cycling do count towards your 150-minute weekly target.

But don't some aerobic exercises include an element of strength?

Yes, some aerobic exercises, if performed at a vigorous intensity, will also strengthen your muscles.

Examples include:

• circuit training
• dancing
• martial arts
• football
• hockey
• rugby

10 Ways to Build Strength Without the Size

Sure, lots of guys at your local gym want to get as unbelievably jacked as possible. But believe it or not, not every athlete wants to build massive muscles.

Consider gymnasts, who use their own body weight as their primary resistance. They need to build strength, but additional bulk can be more of a hindrance than a help. Likewise, athletes who compete in weight classes—like wrestlers, MMA fighters, boxers, and competitive Olympic weightlifters—want to be as strong as possible while trimming away any unnecessary weight.

So: How to gain strength without the size?

First, remember that strength isn’t solely a property of muscle, but rather a property of the neuromuscular system. So going for the “pump”—total muscle exhaustion and complete muscle annihilation—is not the name of the game here. Your body increases its strength by a) recruiting more muscle fibers in a particular muscle group and b) increasing the firing frequency of your motor neurons (neurons and muscle fibers). Apply these ten methods to increase your strength without inflating yourself.

1. Lift heavy

Lifting heavy (greater than 90% of your one-rep max 1RM) will improve strength by recruiting what are called high-threshold motor units. The muscle fibers associated with these motor units have the most potential for increasing strength. However, they fatigue quickly. Maximal lifting is best applied to multijoint exercises (e.g., squats, deadlifts, presses, and pulls). Even though the weight is heavy, your intent should be to move the weight as fast as possible.