My gym has been inundated with fresh faces this week. It is this post-New Year’s frenzy that drives everyone to the gyms in an attempt to achieve the elusive but always main New Year’s resolution: lose weight and get in shape. Last night, I observed as a new member navigated her way through the jungle of strength training equipment. She alternated between machines, doing one set here and two sets there, five repetitions here and twenty repetitions there. There was no rhyme or sense to it; there was no paper and pencil in hand; it just seemed to be another haphazard effort at a workout. What if there was a clear method for analyzing an exercise and determining precisely what should be included? There is something known as the 5 Rs concept.
The 5 Rs Principle may assist new exercisers in determining what constitutes a successful workout. Each ‘R’ emphasizes a different aspect of a fitness program, compelling the newcomer to see their exercises holistically.
VELOCITY OF MOTION
Range of motion is a term that relates to a joint’s capacity to move through a specified range of motions. To ensure that a novice sees results, each exercise should be done from a completely extended to a fully contracted state of the muscle. For instance, I see a lot of novices (and some who have been in the gym long enough to know better) load up the EZ-curl bar for preacher curls and do the exercise with the bar barely halfway down during the eccentric part of the exercise. Not only may this result in damage to the bicep muscle, but it also does not train the muscle optimally, limiting the exercise’s benefits.
The phrase ‘range of motion’ is often used in conjunction with joint health and mobility. This is true at the gym as well. Your joints are supported by a variety of muscles, both big and tiny. To maintain optimal joint health, the surrounding muscles must be exercised as well.
RESISTANCE
When you first begin lifting weights, determining how much weight to use is critical. Unfortunately, many personal trainers advise ladies to lift lower weights in order to “tone up” and avoid becoming bulky. This is perhaps the most pervasive misconception in the history of weightlifting. Women who lift big weights do not develop bulkiness. Never trust a single person who tells you this! Select a weight that enables you to finish the exercise without compromising correct form but is not so heavy that you are unable to do another repeat at the conclusion of your allotted set of repetitions.
REPETITIONS
Another significant element for new exercisers is the number of repetitions to do. Certain repetitions will provide very specific results. In general, low repetitions (3-8) result in increased absolute strength, whereas medium repeats (10-20) result in increased anaerobic strength endurance and high repetitions (20-40) result in increased aerobic strength endurance.
Now, an ideal beginning program will almost certainly contain sets of medium repetitions to teach the exerciser how to execute the exercise properly, with appropriate form and technique, and to explore with feeling muscle exhaustion at 12-15 repetitions. As she improves, she may experiment with various set/rep schemes that are tailored to her specific objectives.
A critical point to remember is that in order to get the desired effects from a particular number of repetitions, muscle failure must occur within the repetition limits mentioned. Muscular failure occurs when you are unable to push out another repeat, regardless of how hard you try.
REST
Between sets, your body needs between two and four minutes of rest to ready itself to execute another set at full capability. Your muscle cells utilize adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and phosphocreatine (PC) to contract during a weight lifting activity. Before your body is ready to function again, it must rebuild these two chemicals.
Unless you’re attempting to build all-out absolute strength by doing few repetitions with a very heavy weight, you’re unlikely to need that much time between sets. The majority of novices will be working within a medium repetition range and therefore will not need that much time between sessions. A minute or two is plenty.
RECOVERY
Working the same muscle groups day after day will not result in quicker or greater results. While hard effort is important, recuperation between exercises is even more critical. Beginners should exercise the same muscle groups no more than twice per week, with a minimum of 48 hours between sessions. As an exerciser progresses, she will likely reduce her workouts to once every seven days or so.
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