Warm Up Before you even lift a weight, the most crucial element of a strength workout occurs. Warming up is exactly what it sounds like: it raises your core body temperature and sends more oxygen and blood to your muscles, giving you more energy and range of motion for your workout. The longer your warm-up, the more difficult your workout will be. However, five to 15 minutes of a few sets of dynamic exercises, such as walking planks with a push-up, walking lunges with a rotation, and a minute of jumping rope, is a good starting point. Sweaty? You ought to be. Before each lift, perform a few warm-up sets, gradually increasing the weight, to ensure that your muscles are ready for the load.
Prioritize Technique When your technique is sound, you'll be safer and achieve better results. Keep your knees aligned over the middle toe of each foot when doing any lower-body activity. Keep your chest elevated and your shoulders back and down when performing upper-body motions. And, no matter what you're doing, draw your belly button into your spine to activate your core. Aside from these fundamental rules, there are approaches for every activity. When you have questions, turn to a reputable professional or source for guidance.
Program for Progress If you're new to lifting or a certain movement, start with three sets of ten reps for the first week. Keep in mind that whenever a movement feels effortless, it's time to increase the intensity. You'll want to boost the difficulty as you gain strength to match your abilities. You can gain muscle by adding weight, increasing volume (by increasing reps and/or sets), or changing your tempo (more on this later).
Start With Tempo Focus on tempo initially when you're ready to take it to the next level. Slowing down your movement increases time under tension (TUT), which is the amount of time a muscle is under strain throughout a rep. Your muscles have to work harder for longer at a slower tempo. You may even use supporting muscles to assist you to stay balanced and in control, depending on the exercise. Instead of slowing everything down uniformly, divide your lift into two pieces. Slow down the positive (lifting) portion just enough to keep good form, and the negative (lowering) portion at least twice as long. When completing a squat, for example, it may take three seconds to lower oneself and one second to return to standing.
Stay Mindful Pay attention to each breath the next time you take on a challenging set. Alternatively, label each muscle as it activates during a complicated movement like the deadlift (abdominals, lats, glutes, quads, hamstrings, etc.). During your workout, focusing on the current moment, or being attentive, has an impact on every element of it. You may be able to tell when you've warmed up enough or when you've had enough. You could have more willpower for the final rep, and your form will almost likely improve. Perhaps most importantly, you'll have a better time, which will encourage you to pick up the weights again and again.
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