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Weight training: Improve your muscular fitness
Weight training can help you tone your muscles, improve your appearance and fight age-related muscle loss.
By Mayo Clinic staffYour friends enjoy using the weight machines and free weights at the fitness center. And you see the results of their hard work — toned muscles and an overall improved physique. You'd like to start a weight training program, but you're not sure you have the time. Think again.
Weight training 101
Weight training is a type of strength training that uses weights for resistance. Weight training provides a stress to the muscles that causes them to adapt and get stronger, similar to the way aerobic conditioning strengthens your heart. Weight training can be performed with free weights, such as barbells and dumbbells, or by using weight machines.
Weight training: How much is enough?
You don't have to be in the weight room for 90 minutes a day to see results. For most people, short weight training sessions a couple of times a week are more practical than are extended daily workouts.
You can see significant improvement in your strength with just two or three 20- or 30-minute weight training sessions a week. That frequency also meets activity recommendations for healthy adults, which call for strength training at least twice a week — in addition to at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity.
Next page(1 of 2)
- 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. http://www.health.gov/PAGUIDELINES/guidelines/default.aspx. Accessed Aug. 3, 2012.
- Physical activity and health. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/health/index.html. Accessed Aug. 3, 2012.
- Quantity and quality of exercise for developing and maintaining cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and neuromotor fitness in apparently healthy adults: Guidance for prescribing exercise. American College of Sports Medicine. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2011;43:1334.
- Laskowski ER (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Aug. 3, 2012.
- Growing stronger — Strength training for older adults. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/growingstronger/faq/index.html. Accessed Aug. 3, 3012.
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