Is it safe is it to strength train?

Certainly. Most injuries happen because the person working out is either 1.) using too much weight or 2.) using improper form or 3.) all the above. If the weight is too heavy, you’re going to be struggling just to move the weight and there is a possibility that you’re going to overload the tendons, ligaments, or muscle and cause an injury because the soft tissue can’t handle the amount of weight. It’s commonplace to see someone using too much weight and then because of that, their form gets very bad very quick. Because they’re struggling to accomplish the rep, their instinct is to squirm or move around in any way possible so that they can finish the repetition. Doing this can quickly put force on the body’s joints that it’s not ready for. When that happens injuries usually follow. If you use good form and the proper amount of resistance, injuries almost never happen, in my experience. What is good form? Good form is just referring to how the body’s musculo-skeletal system works. In other words, what is the proper, safe range-of-motion for the shoulder joint, the knee, or the spine? What is the function of the muscles being trained? What are they meant or not meant to do? This is where having personal supervision can make a profound difference. Things like arm-length, femur length, hip-socket flexibility, shoulder flexibitily all determine how you - specifically - should best perform certain exercises.

While you can never guarantee you’ll never get tweak or a pulled muscle, if you use a reasonable amount of weight, yet still train hard, you will likely never see any sort of major injury. On the contrary, once you become stronger, you’re less likely to become hurt or injured. When you become stronger, not only do the muscles get stronger but so do the tendons, ligaments, and bones. You’ll be less likely to have any sort of muscle pulls or joint injuries simply because you’ve built the body up and fortified it. It now takes more force to harm you than it would otherwise.

Strength training is just for guys, right? Women will get too big and muscular if they lift weights. Women are better off doing cardio.

Not at all! Women have as much to gain from strength training as men…and sometimes more. Testosterone is the master hormone in regards to how big and muscular someone can get and women have anywhere from 1/10 to 1/20 the amount that men do. Almost all men will say that they had to train hard and smart to gain a good bit of muscle, so it’s just not possible for a female to gain a lot of muscle or become masculine. You may point to the women who are large and muscular and say that I’m wrong. Two things in regards to this: there are genetic anomalies who do have the ability to gain unusual strength and muscle. They exist in both men and women but keep in mind that they are rarities. For every large, muscular female that you find, you’ll find thousands who work as hard but aren’t nearly as muscular or bulky. Chalk that up to unusual genetics: it’s a rare thing.

While traditional cardiovascular exercise can play a role in one’s fitness routine, if done exclusively, it will do nothing to stave off age-related muscle loss or bone density. In fact, if too much cardio is performed, it will accelerate muscle loss and make you weaker, which is the last thing that you want.

While I’m a little biased, I truly believe that strength training should be the pillar of your health and fitness lifestyle, regardless of age.

What kind of results will I see training with you?

While everyone’s results can vary, you should expect an overall increase in strength, muscle, and improved cardiovascular performance. With strength training, you’re going to see a gradual improvement in bone mineral density and increased strength of soft tissue including tendons and ligaments. Proper strength training and high-intensity cardio (HIIT) has been shown to elevate your metabolic rate anywhere from 24 to 48 after the session has ended. This doesn’t happen with traditional, steady-state cardio or low-intensity strength training. Because of this, you’re going to find that it’s easier to get leaner because of your elevated metabolic rate. Additionally, gaining muscle places a greater demand on your metabolism (adding and keeping new muscle requires additional calories) which also helps rev up your metabolic rate and helps you to lose fat and stay lean. Let’s not forget the research showing that strength training improves depression, but also improves blood sugar levels, lowers LDL cholesterol while improving HDL cholesterol, lowers blood pressure, lowers risk of dying of cancer, risk of heart disease, but many more things.

I hear the term “HIT” used a lot. What is it?

HIT is a confusing term because it can mean different things based upon one’s interpretation. When someone says “HIT” they usually mean High-Intensity Interval Training (H.I.I.T) or High-Intensity Training (H.I.T.). These are two very different modes of training and the exercise community has done itself a disservice by referring to them both as HIT. Or said another way, if I say, “Hey, let’s do some HIT training today,” you’ll have no idea what I mean until I say the entire abbreviated word. The fitness community should stop saying “HIT” and instead say either high-intensity training or high-intensity interval training.

Now let’s talk about what they are and the differences. The term high-intensity training came long, long before the term high-intensity interval training. The concept was largely founded by Arthur Jones, the founder of Nautilus and MedX exercise equipment. Fundamentally, high-intensity training refers to strength training and the manner in which you perform it. One should strive to take each set to a point of momentary muscular failure, i.e., exert as much effort as possible until you can no longer complete a safe and full-range repetition. There are other components of this philosophy as well: doing very few sets and incorporating advanced techniques like forced-reps, negative-only training, drop-sets, pre-exhaustion, etc. While Arthur Jones may have popularized the concept, others have taken it and formed their own version of it. IFBB Pro Mike Mentzer is another famous proponent. Just so we’re clear: high-intensity training refers to strength training done to the very highest level of exertion. If you can do a set of squats for ten reps but you stop at rep number seven, you have not pushed yourself to your maximum capacity; you have not worked to your highest level of intensity yet.

Now onto high-intensity interval training. This term was first popularized for runners back in the 1930’s (Fartlek training) by Gosta Holmer and made popular by the researcher Dr. Izumi Tabata around 1996. This type of training is more cardiovascular oriented. The now-famous Tabata protocol is twenty seconds of HARD work followed by ten seconds of either complete rest or VERY EASY work. You should repeat this sequence for a total of eight times (twenty-on/ten-off, twenty-on/ten-off, etc.) for a grand total of nearly four minutes. What kind of exercises or equipment do you need to have an effective Tabata workout? Whatever the exercise is, it absolutely must be difficult and involve as much of the body as possible. One could use an AirDyne, Assault Bike, Concept 2 Rower, Versa Climber, indoor or outdoor sprints, burpees, or skip rope as just a few examples. Most of these exercises involve a large amount of muscle, which is exactly what you want. Why? You want your heart rate to get to around ninety percent or higher. Obviously, getting your heart rate maxed out (or close to it) requires tremendous will and effort. I can’t stress this enough: doing a Tabata Protocol properly is no joke. In the original study, high-level athletes were left gasping for air on the floor when they completed their four-minute Tabata Protocol.

High-intensity interval training is also a blanket term for any form of exercise that incorporates really hard work followed by a brief period of rest. The amount of rounds or sequences differs based on which variation you’re using.

Even though I’ve laid out a quick summary of HIT and HIIT training, that doesn’t mean that I believe everyone should be doing that style of training. Remember: there is no one-size-fits-all in the exercise world. Everyone has different goals, abilities, and health histories. Because of this, everyone requires a different plan of attack so that they can best reach their fitness goals.