5 Types of Fitness Training

Flexibility Training

Flexibility training is one of the most important types of fitness training because it provides a foundation for all your other exercise types. Staying flexible can dramatically reduce your risk of injury, improves your range of motion, and works as a great warm up for more strenuous exercise.

Some great examples of this style of training is yoga, which can strengthen and relax your muscles, or Tai Chi, which can reduce stress and improve balance.

Dynamic Strength Training

This style of training simply works on building your muscular strength over a full range of motion. The most common examples of this training style is weightlifting, which this blog has been based on so far, as well as calisthenics, which uses lighter exercises, usually in the form of resistance training, that is designed to promote general fitness and develop muscle tone.

Static Strength Training

Static strength training is defined by contracting or flexing a muscle without any joint movement and is best used to help you maintain muscle strength and tone. There are two types of static strength training, which include submaximal exercises and maximal exercises.

Submaximal – these exercises involve contracting your muscles with less than your maximum strength. An example of this would be to do a half way bicep curl and hold the dumbbell steady.

Maximal – these exercises involve contracting your muscles with all your strength. An example of this would be to use all your strength to push against an immovable object.

Aerobic exercises

Aerobic exercising has previously been talked about on this blog as cardio training. This style of training strengthens the cardiovascular system by increasing your heart rate and breathing. These exercises use large muscle groups to perform rhythmic actions for sustained periods of time.

It is typical to perform this style of exercise for longer than 15 minutes with a maintained heart rate between 60% and 80% of your maximal heart rate. Some examples of this training style include fast walking, jogging, running, stair steppers, elliptical machines, and swimming.

Circuit Training

This style of training is best described as a hybrid of strength training and aerobic exercise. It is most common to perform a series of strength training exercises with little to no rest in between stations or to perform some sort of cardio training between each station to keep your heart rate elevated. You typically perform each station for 30 to 60 seconds and continue the circuit for 30 to 60 minutes and it is a very effective way to mix up your routine.

An example of this style of training could be CrossFit: Workout of the Day (WOD) or even creating your very own circuit routine.

Don't Make These Mistakes With Your Diet

These two follow the same style as my previous post and talk about food and diet crimes. You will get a good understanding of what not to do with your eating habits when trying to gain muscle or lose body fat.

Don't Get Caught Doing This in The Gym

Over the past 9 weeks I have talked about the basics of weight training, cardio training, eating right, and how to workout almost every muscle group on the human body. Now that we have established a base of knowledge I am in the process of planning new content for the weeks to come and I would like to start going more in depth about fitness topics. I have not yet finalized the content for the upcoming weeks so I decided to share some very funny and insightful videos from one of my favorite YouTube channels, Buff Dudes.

These three videos are all about gym crimes and things that nobody likes to see or experience in the gym.

Training Your Legs For Strength and Size

Now that you have a good understanding for proper form and technique for the major leg movements, here are some example exercise routines to get you started on your strength, size, and toning gains.

Strength

Barbell Squat                                                 5 sets x 5 reps

Deadlift                                                          5 sets x 5 reps

Romanian Deadlift (RDL)                             5 sets x 5 reps

Leg Extensions                                              5 sets x 6-8 reps

Leg Curls                                                        5 sets x 6-8 reps

Size

Barbell Front Squat                                      5 sets x 12-15 reps

Romanian Deadlift (RDL)                            5 sets x 12-15 reps

Leg Press                                                      3 sets x 12-15 reps

Leg Extensions                                             3 sets x 10 reps

Leg Curls                                                      3 sets x 10 reps

Exercises to Build Your Legs

With this week being all about building some bigger and stronger legs I want to put some emphasis on a few exercises that will really drive some impressive results. The main lifts that I am highlight are the barbell squat, leg extensions, barbell front squat, deadlift, and Romanian deadlift.

These lifts are known as compound lifts with the exception of the leg extensions, which are actually an isolation movement. Compound lifts use multiple joint movements in the body in order to move the weight that you are working with and provide great overall body results.

Larger compound movement lifts can be quite difficult to describe in writing, especially when considering a beginners level of weight lifting experience. That being said, I have linked several informational videos that demonstrate proper form and technique for the barbell squat, leg extension, front squat, deadlift, and Romanian deadlift.

Barbell Squats

Quad Size and Extensions

Barbell Front Squat

Deadlift

Romanian Deadlift (RDL)

Training Routines For Building Your Arms

If you have not yet watched Alex Savva’s arm training video that I posted earlier this week, I highly recommend watching it before jumping into these exercise routines. It demonstrates a lot of well-known exercises with a few tweaks that will keep your arms growing and gaining more muscle definition.

It is also important to note that arms do not respond to strength training (5 sets of 5 reps) in the same way that other muscle groups do. So for this weeks strength routine I will be using the 6-8 rep ranges instead of 5 sets of 5 reps.

You can also superset these routines for added intensity

Strength

Close Grip Bench Press                                 5 sets x 6-8 reps

In / Out Barbell Curls                                    5 sets x 6-8 reps for each hand position

V-Dips                                                           5 sets x 6-8 reps

Cross Body Hammer Curls                           5 sets x 6-8 reps

Underhand Grip Triceps Extension               5 sets x 6-8 reps

Zottman Curls                                                5 sets x 6-8 reps

Size

Tricep dumbbell kick back                           3 sets x 10-12 reps

Preacher Curl – 21’s                                     3 sets x 10-12 reps

Skullcrusher – 21’s                                       3 sets x 10-12 reps

Overhead Kettlebell Triceps Extension        3 sets x 10-12 reps
Zottman Curls                                               3 sets x 10-12 reps

Exercises ForBuilding Your Arms

Here is a great video on arm training by gym owner, entrepreneur, and Bodybuilding.com writer, Alex Savva. Alex goes through many exercises that will really add an edge to your arm training and help you get that size, strength, or definition that you have been working so hard for.

As a guy I know that we are always looking for a great arm blaster, but ladies, please don’t be discouraged by Alex’s size or the exercises that he demonstrates. These movements can be done by anyone and will yield great results as long as proper form and weight are used.

Later this week I will layout some exercise routines for size and strength that incorporate the exercises that Alex talked about in his video.

Build Your Arms with Alex Savva

Building Your Shoulders

Below you will find a few simple but effective workout plans to build strength in size in your shoulders depending on what your fitness goals are.

I myself have had multiple shoulder injuries, so I am extra careful when it comes to working this muscle group.

Like I mentioned early this week, your shoulders are the most mobile joint in the body and therefore can be at a higher risk of injury than other joints. It is always important to use a comfortable weight that doesn’t put too much stress on the joint or require jumpy movements in the body to create momentum to move the weight.

Size Building

• Smith Machine Military Press                     3 sets x 12 reps
• Cable Front Raises                                       3 sets x 12 reps
• Cable Lateral Raises                                    3 sets x 12 reps
• Rear Delt Cable Extensions                         3 sets x 10 reps
• Face Pulls                                                     3 sets x 10 reps

Strength Building

• Standing Military Press                               5 sets x 5 reps
• Dumbbell Front Raises                                5 sets x 5 reps
• Dumbbell Lateral Raises                             5 sets x 5 reps
• Dumbbell Rear Delt Fly’s                           5 sets x 5 reps
• Rear Delt Cable Extensions                        5 sets x 5 reps

Combination of Size & Strength

• Seated Dumbbell Military Press                 3 sets x 6-8 reps
•  Cable Front Raises                                     3 sets x 6-8 reps
• Dumbbell Up-right Rows                           3 sets x 6-8 reps
• Dumbbell Lateral Raises                     3 sets x 6-8 reps
• Dumbbell Rear Delt Fly’s                   3 sets x 6-8 reps