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Weight Resistance and Movement |
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Muscle size and power-strength come from progressive resistance weight exercising. All exercise demands a muscular contraction strong enough to move the resistance along with your body or limb, through a full range of motion. This requires leverage. The key element in leverage is the "center of gravity." The "center of gravity" of your body is the midline point of your torso, legs, and feet. This is where your ability to balance and support weight resistance is best. The further away the weight resistance is from the midline point of your body the greater the muscular force required to move it. This area in the range of motion is called a "sticking point." As the weight resistance moves through the "sticking point" it slows down. If your musclular strength and speed of action are not powerful enough, the weight resistance can come to a stop. Trying to overcoming a "sticking point" can cause you to break form. To complete the movement you may have to alter your body's position and enlist more muscles then the exercise should be using. This action can move the weight resistance through the "sticking point," but creates a false representation of your strength. You should always strive to maintain correct form. However, it's the quality of your workout planning that ultimately produces your results and not your form.
Additional key elements in the movement of weight resistance are: 1) the size of the muscle groups involved, and 2) the distance the has to resistance travel. The more muscles used in an exercise the greater the weight resistance that can be lifted. The shorter the distance the weight resistance moves the heavier the weight that can be lifted. This is why more weight can be handled in a squat as compared to a curl; a half-squat as compared to a full squat.
The equipment for weight resistance exercise comes in two forms; machines, and free-weights. A free-weight is a bar on which iron or rubber discs can be loaded. There are many types of free weight bars. They can be made from stiff steel with inner collars, or from flexible steel with frictionless outer collars on the outside. The larger weight resistance you lift, the more critical the quality of the bar's spring and rotation becomes. However, it's the quality of your workout planning that ultimately produces your results and not so much the equipment that you use.
The term free-weight describes a barbell's ability to allow your body to have complete freedom of movement. There is a specific free-weight exercise for every muscle group. With free-weights you can do full body exercises. Free-weights exercising makes equal right/left proportion, balance, coordination and strength to develop. From this standpoint the free-weight is superior to any machine. The main drawback to free-weights is that you usually have to stand upright when using them. They are unforgiving and can be dangerous if dropped unexpectedly. It is easier to break form with free-weight since concentration is required to maintain the correct technique.
The invention and use of weight machines coincides with the world's leap into advanced technology. As people began to perceive the new mech/tech as being superior, the equipment companies designed intricate weight machines to replace the free-weights. Interestingly, these machines do the same movements that free-weights can do. Their main benefit is that you can use them while sitting down.
Weight machines are designed to isolate each muscle or muscle group, and to restrict the possibilities of breaking form. With the incorporation of a cam or hydraulics, they even limit the obstacle of the "sticking point". Cam machines (like Nautilus etc.) alter the leverage to adjust for strength variations through the full range of motion. The hydraulic machines (like Kieser etc.) use air pressure to push back and create accommodating resistance. By installing computers into these machines, they can even monitor work output making limited real-time adjustments to workload.
However, the weight machines are themselves compromises. In the real world, one size does not fit all. The short or tall person is at a disadvantage. It is not always possible to design a weight machine that follows the unique anatomical pathways of your body. There is no weight machine in the world that allows you to do full body exercise.
The BioFitness Health Club demonstrates in detail the correct way to do Body Building, Powerlifting, and Weightlifting exercises. The exercises are demonstrated in the free-weight movements that most machines copy. Because of this you can apply the techniques to any machines you encounter. All the demonstrations use sequenced graphics so that you can analyize the proper form of the movement. They also include discriptive text to understand them better. However, it's the quality of your workout planning that ultimately produces your results.
