How To Get Into Effective Resistance Training

           Effective resistance training or as it is commonly known "weight training" isn't as simple as throwing a few plates on a barbell and moving them until you get tired. There is a very complicated science behind developing, big, strong, and effective muscles. But the way to begin your fitness journey is probably the most important.

           When getting into resistance training there is a very specific way to go about it in order to maximize your long term results. During your early training age you shouldn't be looking to go for maximal lifts, these need to be done rarely until you hit your late or mid-late training age. Otherwise you are increasing your likelihood or developing imbalances, plateauing or injury. 

           You need to think of our bodies as if we were a lightbulb. During the early 1900's lightbulbs had the capability of producing light, it was very dull but it would still glow. But it was constantly limited by its filament, they were very brittle and when too much of a load was put on them they would break. As time went on and science advanced we could increase the strength of the filament and allow for more of a load to be put on it. Allowing it to glow brighter and break less often.

            For the beginner lifter this CNS lack of development is expressed in a few different ways. Poor motor control (not being able to perform a lift with good form), poor muscular strength expression (cant efficiently recruit muscles to perform the lift), and poor CNS excitation (burning out the CNS before effective muscle tearing occurs).  In essence when proper CNS development hasn't occurred you are hamstringing yourself over a multitude of areas and will hurt your long term maximal physical potential. 

             When we look at individuals who perform near 1 rep max sets for their lifts on a consistent basis, we see that they develop an over-stimulated nervous system which has adapted to a higher excitation state without proper motor control development. This results in these individuals to more rapidly hit stagnation or plateauing of their lifts, their maximal strength expression will be weaker over a longer period of time, and they will have a significant increased risk of injury.  

          The focus should be on these movements because they cause a wide spread and effective muscular recruitment. For a similar dose response of a barbell squat it would require multiple isolation exercises just to recruit all the same muscles, but it also give us less of an ability to incorporate them all into a dynamic athletic movement. This is not efficient for time, energy output, muscular development, or for future movement growth. So especially in the beginning compound movements is where you need to put the primacy of your focus. 

           So how long do you need to have this type of lifting structure? Well everyone is different, i've had clients that need this structure for 1 year, i've had clients that needed it for 1 month. Everything is dependent on your baseline capabilities and in large part your activity levels when you were young. For the average person this lifting structure should be implemented for 4-6 months before you start seeing drastic changes in the structure of your lifts. Once your CNS is effectively firing you can get into more force generation, strength endurance, or hypertrophy work depending on what your goal is.

           Remember this isn't something to do forever, this is only for new lifters looking to find maximal physical potential over a long period of time. There are other ways to encourage large strength gains over a short period of time but these will normally result in less long term growth. Once this style of training is complete we normally transition to other styles of training and then evolve it as necessary for your progression.