You can work your muscles with a personal trainer’s assistance, or you can lift weights independently. It really just depends on what you prefer and how comfortable you feel with your strength training program.
You can work your muscles with a personal trainer’s assistance, or you can lift weights independently. It really just depends on what you prefer and how comfortable you feel with your strength training program.
A new strength-training routine is hard enough. You may also feel discouraged if you don’t see your muscles growing, even after weeks of dedicated exercise. But it’s completely normal not to notice more definition until six weeks or more. The good news: You’ll realize you’re getting stronger before you see bigger muscles!
Both techniques have their positives and negatives and you should consider these points alongside your primary strength aims. Benefits of using machine weights include: they are easy and quick to use, prevent injury and are useful to work on isolated muscles. However some disadvantages are: they are not practical to everyday movements which could limit stability and smaller muscles are often ignored. Advantages of free weights include: they are cheaper, exercises can be done anywhere and training with them is useful for strengthening functional, everyday movements. Drawbacks include: it can take time to learn the correct techniques, and free weights do present a bigger injury risk.
It is important that you practice the lifting technique without a weight first, to ensure you are completing the movement correctly and therefore prevent injury. This will also help you to build confidence and prepare your body. Remember that you need to aim to lift a weight which allows you to complete only your planned number of reps. There is no point trying to lift a weight that is too heavy to do more than one rep, likewise a weight which you find too easy to lift, should not be used. As a guide, you should find it harder towards the end of your set, however should still be able to finish your desired number of reps in form.
You can work your muscles with a personal trainer’s assistance, or you can lift weights independently. It really just depends on what you prefer and how comfortable you feel with your strength training program.
A new strength-training routine is hard enough. You may also feel discouraged if you don’t see your muscles growing, even after weeks of dedicated exercise. But it’s completely normal not to notice more definition until six weeks or more. The good news: You’ll realize you’re getting stronger before you see bigger muscles!
Both techniques have their positives and negatives and you should consider these points alongside your primary strength aims. Benefits of using machine weights include: they are easy and quick to use, prevent injury and are useful to work on isolated muscles. However some disadvantages are: they are not practical to everyday movements which could limit stability and smaller muscles are often ignored. Advantages of free weights include: they are cheaper, exercises can be done anywhere and training with them is useful for strengthening functional, everyday movements. Drawbacks include: it can take time to learn the correct techniques, and free weights do present a bigger injury risk.