Some underlying Principles - I

All fingers are not the same!
Not every person needs the same type of workout. People may simply have different expectations from pumping iron. A lean thin fellow may want to pile on bulk and weight. An overweight person may try to shed some kilos. The neighborhood aunty may want to tone up her sagging muscles. The college girl might like to smoothen out the dimples of cellulite.

Also, body type, the speed with which a person can make muscle or lose weight, a person’s inherent metabolic rate (genetic capacity to burn calories), specific areas of weakness and the time taken for a person to recover from the exhaustion of a workout are only few of the several variables that can generate to tailor a workout program for a particular person.

But there are some general principles which might help you in getting your desired results.

Rev up before you throw the gear!
Warming up before the day’s workout is very very essential!

Why?
Warming up wakes up our circulation and prepares our heart and blood vessels for the coming onslaught. Warming up also increases the blood supply and oxygen delivery to our muscles so that we get the maximum from our training. It also makes our ligaments and tendons suppler so that they become less prone to injuries like strains and sprains.

How do I warm up? I do 10 minutes of jogging, either outdoors or on a treadmill, followed by some stretching exercises. Then one set with light weights for the particular muscle group that I plan to train that day finishes off my warm up!

As you sow, so you reap!
Our muscles grow only when they are stressed more than what they can easily take. When we lift, say, 20 kg to start with, the stress on our muscles stimulates them to grow. But after some days, our muscles grow stronger and used to the weight we have been lifting till now. 20 kg is no longer enough stress to stimulate further growth!

To keep growing our muscles more and more, we have to keep increasing the weight that we lift every few days. Of course, this increase should be undertaken gradually. If we try lifting too heavy weights too soon, it becomes impossible to maintain perfect technique. Also, too heavy weights can overwhelm our muscles and tendons, causing injury and keeping us out of training till the injury heals. This defeats the very purpose why we wanted to lift heavy weights in the first place!

Breathe, if you want to live!
Many people hold their breath when they exercise hard. This can be quite harmful!

Why?
Holding our breath closes our body compartments (the chest cavity and the abdominal cavity) completely. And when we make a great effort against a weight, the pressure inside our body compartments increases quite a lot. The pressure tries to relieve itself by finding some way out. This may result in a damaged epiglottis and hernias!!

The best way to deal with this increased pressure is to let it out! And the easiest way to do it is breathe out.

So my breathing is regulated in such a way that I breathe out when I am making an effort (like lifting a weight) and breathe in when I relax the effort (like releasing the weight).