C.

Weight Training Guidelines and Safety

Weight Training Do’s

1. Lift an appropriate amount of weight.

Start with a weight you can lift comfortably 12 to 15 times. For most
people, a single set of 12 to 15 repetitions with a weight that fatigues the muscles
can build strength efficiently and can be as effective as three sets of the same
exercise. As you get stronger, gradually increase the amount of weight.

2. Use Proper Form

Learn to do each exercise correctly. When lifting weights, move through

the full range of motion in your joints. The better your form, the better your results,
and the less likely you are to hurt yourself. If you're unable to maintain good form,
decrease the weight or the number of repetitions. Remember that proper form
matters even when you pick up and replace your weights on the weight racks.

If you're not sure whether you're doing a particular exercise correctly, ask
a personal trainer or other fitness specialist for help.

3. Breathe

You might be tempted to hold your breath while you're lifting weights.
Don't hold your breath. Instead, breathe out as you lift the weight and breathe in
as you lower the weight.

4. Seek Balance

Work all of your major muscles — including the abdomen, hips, legs, chest,
back, shoulders and arms. Strengthen the opposing muscles in a balanced way,
such as the fronts and backs of the arms.

5. Incorporate weight training into a fitness routine at least two times a week

The Department of Health and Human Services recommends

incorporating strength training exercises of all the major muscle groups into a
fitness routine at least two times a week.

6. Rest

Avoid exercising the same muscles two days in a row. You might work all
of your major muscle groups at a single session two or three times a week, or
plan daily sessions for specific muscle groups. For example, work your arms and
shoulders on Monday, your legs on Tuesday, and so on.
 Weight Training Don’ts

1. Don’t skip the warm up

Cold muscles are more prone to injury than are warm muscles. Before you lift
weights, warm up with five to 10 minutes of brisk walking or other aerobic activity.

2. Don’t rush

Move the weight in an unhurried, controlled fashion. Taking it slow helps you isolate
the muscles you want to work and keeps you from relying on momentum to lift the weight.
Rest for about one minute between each exercise.

3. Don’t overdo

For most people, completing one set of exercises to the point of fatigue is usually
enough. Additional sets may take up extra time and contribute to overload injury. However,
the number of sets that you perform may differ depending on your fitness goals.

4. Don’t ignore pain

If an exercise causes pain, stop. Try the exercise again in a few days or try it with
less weight.

5. Don’t forget your shoes

Shoes that protect your feet and provide good traction can keep you from slipping or
injuring your feet while you're lifting weights.

3. Muscular Endurance

- is the ability of muscles to work continuously for a long period of time

a. Properties of Skeletal Muscle

 Excitability
- ability to respond to a stimulus, which may be delivered from a motor neuron or
hormone
- like nerve fibers, when a muscle fiber is stimulated by an adequate stimulus, it
becomes active. That means, it generates an action potential which is
transmitted throughout the sarcolemma. Excitability as the properties of muscles
is expressed by two factors—rheobase and chronaxie. Rheobase is the threshold
of intensity of electric current capable of exciting the tissue no matter how long it
is given. Whereas Chronaxie is the threshold of duration required to excite a
tissue when the strength of stimulus is double the rheobase. Excitability of a tissue
is inversely proportional to its chronaxie. Skeletal muscles and multi-unit smooth
muscles are normally excited through nervous stimulation only. But cardiac
muscle and single unit smooth muscles are auto-excitable.
  Contractility

- ability of muscle cells to forcefully shorten

- is the ability of muscle cells to forcefully shorten. For instance, in order to flex
(decrease the angle of a joint) your elbow you need to contract (shorten) the
biceps brachii and other elbow flexor muscles in the anterior arm. Notice that in
order to extend your elbow, the posterior arm extensor muscles need to
contract. Thus, muscles can only pull, never push.
 Extensibility
- ability of a muscle to be stretched
- for instance, let's reconsider our elbow flexing motion we discussed earlier. In
order to be able to flex the elbow, the elbow extensor muscles must extend in
order to allow flexion to occur. Lack of extensibility is known as spasticity.
 Elasticity
- the ability to recoil or bounce back to the muscle’s original length after being
stretched
- When something is described as elastic, this is simply a statement that it can be
stretched or contracted by some amount above or below its resting or default
length without damaging it, and that it will return to this resting length once the
stimulus for stretching or contraction is removed. Your muscles require the
property of elastic recoil for them to be able to do their jobs. If, say, your biceps
muscles failed to recoil to their resting length after being stretched during a series
of curling exercises, they would become slack, and slack muscles with no tension
are unable to generate any force and are therefore useless as levers.

References:

Brigham Young University (2019). Muscles-Structure and Function. Properties of Muscle

Tissues. Retrieved September 5, 2019 from https://content.byui.edu/file/a236934c-3c60-4fe9-
90aa-d343b3e3a640/1/module7/readings/function_muscle_tissue.html

Crystal, M. (April 2018). The Four Properties of Muscle Cells. Retrieved September 5, 2019
from https://sciencing.com/four-properties-muscle-cells-22946.html

Mayo Clinical Stuff (2019). Weight Training: Do’s and Don’ts of Proper Technique.
Retrieved September 5, 2019 from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-
depth/weight-training/art-
20045842?fbclid=IwAR3A2VLpQ6bOeTiMjpIHeXIX16ShPFAcBfO7onpYApE7l3zc7zz-6nnH3qY