Fundamentals of resistance training and motivation stage change
Resistance training (or referred to as weight training) plays a crucial role in any health and fitness goal you have in mind. For weight loss, it helps our body burn more calories. For increased fitness, it synchronises and builds strength in our muscles. For quality of life, resistance training helps us maintain stable and mobile movement.
When resistance training (no matter the goal you have) some fundamental elements need to be kept in mind to make it safe, effective, and manageable.
Control
Control of the exercise has two components. Firstly, a person should maintain the speed of the movement consistently through the entire exercise, enabling sufficient muscle activation.
The second is the coordination of your breathing and the speed of the movement. On any resistance exercise, we should breathe out on the hardest (exertion) phase. Breathing enables smoother movement patterns by ensuring good oxygen delivery and reducing the uncontrolled, shaky feeling.
Range of movement
Exercises will have a range of movement in which a person will progress. An example is completing a push-up. We should lower our body down (staying straight from ankle to shoulder) until our chest touches the ground, then returning to the start while maintaining a slight bend in our elbows at the top before completing another. By doing the correct range with all exercises, you are more likely to maintain strength and mobility around all our joints involved in that movement. Reducing the movement range reduces the effectiveness and these possible benefits.
For those who have had injuries or other anomalies with our body, using the exercise through the range our body tolerates is always the best option.
Technique
Technique also consists of two main areas. The first is the fundamental movement of the exercise. Every exercise will have a standard way to move based on muscles and connective tissues stimulated. There can be multiple variations to these based on hand or foot position, equipment used, and the body areas targeted. Maintaining the ideal technique is essential before progressing onto variations.
The second part of the technique is stability during the exercise, initiated by pelvic floor and torso control/bracing techniques. Learning the correct way to create these actions will significantly contribute to correct practices and a safe resistance training session.
Practical resistance training for most people should include regular, challenging (but not overwhelming) exercise, using techniques based on how our body moves daily.
From Pre-contemplation to contemplation
Last week I looked at the transtheoretical model of behavior change. The first two stages were pre-contemplation (not considering any changes) and contemplation (thinking about making changes but have not made plans). If you were discussing an exercise behavior change with a friend and wanted to progress them to contemplating exercise, how would you achieve this?
Most of us will take a forward, robust approach, talking about the health consequences of not changing, how they could incur a reduced quality of life, and bombard them with information. Miller and Rollnick (2002) discussed how this would not work and the possible ramifications. If you want to help people progress, you will more likely succeed if you take an approach where you provide information from health professionals or reputable organisations and answer questions without pushing.
Next week I will discuss exercise intensity, measuring this, and contemplation to preparation for behavior change.
Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2002). Motivational interviewing : preparing people for change (2nd ed. ed.). New York: Guilford Press.