Why Strength Training? Why Bodymass Gym?
Did you say yes to any of the three?
If you did, then you said yes to strength training. You said yes to lifting weight. You said yes to Bodymass Gym.
It’s 2018 and slowly but surely, we’re starting to see more people squatting, more people bench pressing, more people deadlifting, and most importantly, more people moving and feeling better.
So, let’s look at why these people are “doing it right” and why strength training is the most optimal approach to achieving the aforementioned goals.
First of all, in my opinion, strength training is NOT synonymous with resistance training. The difference is very small, but yet so large. Once again, in my opinion, resistance training sounds like and implies a random assortment of exercises done to appease someone’s orders. A doctor’s order, a news article, or a commercial telling you that you should “incorporate resistance training in your exercise regimen”. What does that even mean…?
When I read, “resistance training”, I read bands, cables, and machines. I read a lack of supervision, a lack of coaching, and a lack of progress. I read a lack of direction. I read “I’m doing it just to do it”.
On the other hand, in my opinion, strength training is the pursuit of gaining strength (obviously…? goes without saying…?), and implies progress. But most importantly, it implies using free weights (be it dumbbells or barbells) to improve functional movement. It implies proper coaching, proper form, and proper programming and exercise selection.
With Bodymass Build, you get just that: a strength training program that is specifically designed to improve functional movement patterns, to improve body composition, and to build self-confidence. It will challenge you, but it will also empower you.
More specifically, Bodymass Build is a strength training program that runs in four-week cycles, focuses on multi-joint, compound movements, and utilizes fundamental principles of progressive overload and periodization to produce optimal results. Each cycle provides a breath of fresh air and an opportunity to learn new movements, while maintaining the ultimate goal of full-body strength.
That said, with full-body strength as the goal, Bodymass Gym members can expect to build muscle and to burn fat as a byproduct. This is mainly due to two reasons: getting stronger will require building more muscle and getting stronger will require more work, work that will burn plenty of calories. And the best way to build muscle is to get stronger at using movements that utilize most the amounts of muscle: multi-joint, compound movements. And you guessed it… the best way to burn fat is to do movements that require the most amount of work: multi-joint, compound movements.
This, alone, is why strength training trumps yoga, spin, pilates, boot camp, HIIT, and the like. That is not to say these training methods (I don’t know if I’d really call them training methods, more so classes, but that’s besides the point) do not hold merit, that they should not be done, or that they are not fun, but they just are not the most optimal options when building muscle and losing fat is the goal. They also do not provide the same level of incremental and “trackable” progress that strength training provides, which makes it difficult to continue doing over a long period of time.
Ultimately, there is no magic bullet and there is no secret. Building muscle and losing fat, or getting “toned” (because that is what getting toned means), is a byproduct of training properly and consistently over a long period of time. And our goal at Bodymass Gym is to provide you with the tools to do just that: train properly and consistently over a long period of time.
More often than not, many think that you need to do a lot of repetitions of an exercise or to spend hours upon hours in the gym in order to benefit or see results. At Bodymass Gym, we stress Quality over Quantity. Performing an excessive amount of repetitions or using a weight that does not suit you can increase the risk of injury due to form breakdown and overuse of the specific muscle group being used. There is a difference between doing as little as you can and doing as much as you need to. The minimum effective dose is all that you need to see results. For example, if you have an infection, and 100mg would help the infection, your doctor would not prescribe you 300mg of that medication.
Total Body, 2-3 Days per Week OR Two Days of Upper Body and Two Days of Lower Body: Your workout should consist of 8-10 exercises, with a repetition range of 6-10 reps, and complete at least 2-3 sets. Be sure to perform a total body warm-up that includes mobility work specific to the focus of the workout.
Agonist & Antagonist Muscle Groups: Incorporate supersets to cut down your rest time between exercises. If you are performing a lower body exercise, pair it with an upper body exercise; or if you are performing a pushing movement, pair it with a pulling movement. For example, barbell bench press followed by a bent-over dumbbell row.
Contrast Training: Immediately follow a strength exercise with a power exercise of the same muscle group. For example, goblet squat followed by squat jumps.
Unilateral and Bilateral Movements: Everyone has a stronger side. Incorporate the use of both dumbbells and barbell exercises. For example, barbell push press followed by a single arm lat pulldown.
In addition to the tips listed above, remember it’s important to ensure that your training plan and strategy is aligned with your training goals, in terms of both quality and quantity.