Top 4 Types of Exercises for the Strength - Training Individuals
Top 4 Types of Exercises for the Strength-Training Individuals
Strength training is a way that helps increase muscle mass and strength. There are multiple ways that you can strengthen the muscles in your body. When starting at the gym, you can start by lifting weights with the machines or free weights. You can go for a walk or run, as this will help increase the muscles and stamina in the leg muscles. Another option is to stretch all of the muscles in the body, as this is a way to help your body not get tight and sore when working out, and it allows your body to get ready for the next level of strengthening. There are a lot of different exercise regimes out there, but basically there are four different types of exercises you need to be able to look into. These four types are strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. All of these will help get your body in shape and ready for a type of exercise, activity, sport, or every day motion that you do in life. With the body moving in all different types of directions everyday, all of these different types of ways to exercise will help shape up your flexibility, muscles, balance, and lung capacity. This will give your body the support it needs to any situation that you go through daily, and help deter any potential injury that could occur.
Endurance can help with your breathing and heart rate, which helps with increasing the capacity of the lungs. Below are some endurance exercises that you can do:
- Walking
- Jogging
- Sweeping
- Running
- Swimming
- Dancing
- Playing tennis / pickle ball
- Riding a bike
- Rowing machine
When thinking about endurance types of exercise, you are building up the lung capacity, which helps your body maintain a constant rate when exercising in different types of durations. With the endurance exercises that were listed above, they will all make your heart rate increase, which is a good thing for your heart and body. There are also more types of endurance style of exercises and stretches that can get you started. Here are some more examples to wrap your mind around to help you get started.
- Standing and holding your balance on 1 leg, and this can be done with or without the arms by your side.
- Walking a straight line, this can be done heel to toe and not falling one direction or another.
- Balanced walk to an object and back.
- Standing while doing leg raises backwards and forwards.
Balance is the key to helping your body be aware and increases strength in both the arms and legs. The different balancing exercises that you can do will help your overall strength, so you don’t have to worry as much about falling and causing an injury to your body. When thinking of balance, there is also another component, which is flexibility, and this helps your body be more aware of its surroundings and makes you more capable of dealing with tightness and loss of motion in your body.
Flexibility Exercises can help with your body’s ability to be more flexible, creates freedom of your physical activities that you do during the day, and creates more ability of stretching in the proper way. Below are some additional exercises that can help with flexibility that you should try yourself.
- Stretching of the neck – Turn the head left and right slowly to the end range of motion, and when you stop at that point you need to hold in this position for around 10-30 seconds, and then turn the other direction and do the same thing.
- Stretching of the shoulders – Put your back against any wall with bending your arms up like a field goal, and making sure the back of your arms are touching the wall, and then hold this around 10-30 seconds. After this time has elapsed you want to roll your arms down where the palms and forearms are against the wall, kind of like an upside down field goal, and continue to hold this for around 10-30 seconds.
- Stretching of the Upper Arm with the shoulders – This one you will need a towel, hold one part of the towel with the right arm up top behind your head, and then proceed to grab the other end of the towel with the left arm behind the back of the lower back on the left and pull down slowly. This will stretch your right shoulder and upper arm, and do this around 5-10 seconds. After you have done this, then repeat with the opposite side where you hold the top of the towel with the left arm behind the head, and grab the bottom of the towel with the right arm behind the lower back and pull down for around 5-10 seconds.
- Upper Body Stretching – This is a stretch where you are standing arm length away from the wall and then lean into the wall with both arms at the chest level. Once you are at this position then walk your fingers / hands up the wall where your hands are just above the head and hold that position for around 10-30 seconds, and then walk your hands back down the wall.
- Stretching of the chest – Think about a clock on the wall, there is the 12-6 on the right and the 6-12 on the left. Stand with your right side of the body with your shoulder against the wall and put the right arm up above the wall like it is at the 12 o’clock position. Once you are here step forward with the right leg (the one closest to the wall) and this will give you a stretch of the upper chest, and hold that for about 5 -10 seconds. Once you feel this stretch then move the right arm to the 1 o’clock position and do the same as before. Continue moving along the 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock, 5 o’clock and 6 o’clock. After you have completed the 12 – 6 o’clock moves with the right arm, turn to the left shoulder being the closest to the wall and do the exact same thing as the right side, only with the left. You will put your left arm above the head at 12 o’clock and step forward with the left leg to stretch your chest. Once that is stretching, hold it for about 5-10 seconds. After you are finished with the 12 o’clock, then move down to 11 o’clock, 10 o’clock, 9 o’clock, 8 o’clock, 7 o’clock and 6 o’clock. This will stretch both parts of your chest at every angle.
- Stretching of your Back – While sitting in the chair and feet on the ground, start to twist your body to the right as far as you can without having to move your hips, and have your head turning to the right to look over the right shoulder and hold for around 10-30 seconds. After that repeat the same position going to the left, just like you did with the right side.
- Stretching of your Legs / Thighs – You can be either standing, laying on your side, or sitting down on the ground. Start with your right hand grab your right ankle / top of foot and start to slowly pull it out and to the side, this will make your knee bend and your leg will move towards your buttocks. Hold this stretch for 10-30 seconds, and this you will feel a stretch in your thigh. After you have done the right leg, continue to do the same stretch on the left side with the left ankle and foot pulling and bending the knee to pull towards the buttocks.
- Calf Muscle Stretching – Standing toward the wall facing forward, you will put your arms forward at chest level and put your hands on the wall. After you do this you will step back with the right leg in a type of lunging stretch with making sure to keep your knees bent and feet flat against the ground. Once you do this, straighten your right leg while keeping the foot flat on the ground and push against the wall with your arms and hands. This will create a stretch in the calf muscle that you will feel. If you don’t feel it, then you need to put your foot back a little further to get a better stretch. Hold this stretch for 10-30 seconds and then repeat the same thing with the left leg.
Once you have done some of these stretching exercises, it will get you starting to feel more loose and not as tight and stiff in those regions. There are always more stretches to do that you can look up online once you master these stretches. It is always a great idea to change the stretching routine up, as this will make your body continue to guess what you are doing and work harder for you.
When looking into Strengthening exercises, you will be looking to build up your small and large muscles, as this will help increase your overall muscle strength and can make a large impact in your overall life. Having more strength to perform some of the everyday activities that you do in life, is a huge key quality that allows your body to live pain free and improve your quality of life. Below are a handful of exercises that will get you on the right path for strengthening your overall body muscles, and this will help your body gain strength and build muscle that is needed to prevent injuries from occurring.
Here are some Upper and Lower body exercises that you can perform, and perform these at 10-15 repetitions each.
- Wrist Curls – They help with your forearms and wrist to build strength for your grip.
- Bicep Curls – Increase your bicep strength, which can help grip and carrying strength of your arms.
- Front and Side Arm Raises – Helps to improve the strength of muscles in your shoulders and arms.
- Elbow Extensions – Increase your triceps strength, which helps your overall arm strength.
- Chair Dips – This is another way to increase your triceps strength, and improve shoulder muscles as well.
- Leg Raises (Back of the leg – Hamstring) – When standing upright, hold onto a chair or anything you can grip in front of you. Then you will raise one of your legs backwards, like you are bringing your heel to your buttocks. Once your heel touches your buttocks, you put it back down on the ground and repeat.
- Leg Raises (Front of the leg – Quadriceps) – When sitting in a chair, you will then lift one leg up keeping it straight and the knee and toes will point towards the ceiling, and once it is held there around 5 seconds, put it back down and repeat.
- Calf Raises – Stand facing the wall, and then stand up on your tip toes for around 2-3 seconds, and then place the heels back on the ground. This increases the strength of your calf muscles and ankles.
These are just a few of the strengthening exercises that you can do, with more that you can look up online once you master the general idea of strengthening your muscles. If you find exercises that you enjoy doing, it is very easy to get your mind in the right space do to those exercises. You will want to perform these exercises on a daily or weekly basis, as this helps with conditioning of your muscles. It does take time and commitment to increase your bodies overall strength, but in the long run it will help keep your body into shape and ready for those situations that are unexpected where your strength will help deter your body from getting an injury.
