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Weight Training: Most Popular Articles

These articles are the most popular over the last month.
Fat Burning Know-How
How to burn more fat for weight loss. Weight training, muscle building, high-intensity, low-intensity, fasting before breakfast, aerobics, cardio and various methods describing how to burn more fat.
Basic Weight Training Program
This is an eighteen session weight training program designed for beginners or weight trainers who have never used a formal program before. Basic Strength and Muscle is is an all-round weight training program designed to build strength and muscle size by targeting all major muscle groups.
Protein for Weight Training
Protein is one of the three main nutrients for the body. Because muscle is formed from protein, bodybuilders and weight lifters sometimes believe they require protein in large amounts in order to maintain that muscle mass; in fact, in amounts well in excess of what dietitians and nutritionists say they need. So who's right?
Bodybuilding Diet
Knowing how to maximize your bodybuilding diet is one of the key ingredients in adding muscle to your body in conjunction with a weight training program.
Circuit Training Program
The circuit program is a high-intensity weights and cardio combined circuit training program designed to be used at home, the gym or the local park. It emphasizes strength and muscle development, aerobic fitness and fat loss.
Cardio and Weights
When to do cardio in a weights session. The sequence of cardio in a weights session is controversial. Should cardio be done before or after a weights session?
Dumbbell Exercise Program
This dumbbell exercise program can be used used at the gym or at home.
My Top 10 Foods
When you exercise hard or when you juggle calorie counting with exercise and weight training, you need to ensure you eat well enough to supply essential nutrients. Here are 10 foods you cannot do without out and why.
Arm Workouts
Build strength and muscle with this selection of arm exercises with weights.
How Much Muscle in a Month
With the right diet and training, how much muscle is it possible to build in one month and then one year? It will be different for age, gender, body composition and type and factors such as training type and nu triton.
Maximize Your Muscle
Although the amount of muscle you naturally carry is determined by genetics, you can improve on this substantially by knowing how to train and how to eat to support muscle growth and minimize fat. Here are 15 tips to get you going in the right direction.
Top Ten Exercises
Check out these top ten exercises for beginners in weight training: squat, bench press, deadlift, leg press, bicep curl, cable row, triceps pushdown, upright rows, pulldown and crunch
7 Home Gym Top Picks
Seven home gym reviews and multi gym reviews based on a range of function and affordability for weight loss and fitness to serious weight training and bodybuilding.
The Leg Press
The leg press is performed by pushing against a movable platform under weighted pressure. The exercise develops the legs, back and gluteal muscles.
Home Dumbbell Training
Dumbbells provide excellent variety for your weight training programs. If you can't afford an ongoing
Butt and Thigh Training
Your butt, your glutes, your bottom, the buns -- whatever you call it, enhancing the shape and strength of the backside is worth doing for body shaping and athletic purposes. Here are some exercises to work on for a better butt.
Basic Strength Program
This strength training program emphasizes building strength rather than muscle size or endurance. Lift heavy, rest more, do fewer repetitions, get strong.
Dumbbell Arm Curl
How to do the dumbbell arm curl. Guidelines and instruction on how to perform the arm curl weight training exercise with dumbbells.
The Chest Press
The chest press weight and strength training exercise takes many forms including with dumbbells, barbells, bar and plates, a Smith machine, or even with exercise bands. Here are the basic movements required for safety and proficiency and some pointers to mistakes to avoid.
Your First Weights Session
Weight training for beginners requires some preparation, so here's what you should do to ensure a smooth introduction to weights and the confidence to keep on pumpin' that iron.
The Lat Pulldown
The pulldown or lat pulldown is an exercise mainly for the back although the shoulders and arms get some workout as well. The latissimus dorsi on either side of the middle to upper back is the muscle group from which the exercise gets its name.
Fat Loss and Exercise
How to burn fat and lose weight is one of the most asked questions in fitness and weight loss exercise forums. Do we make it too complicated? Review these facts and fallacies of exercise for weight loss.
Best Exercise for Your Bones
Exercise and nutrition can help women and men avoid the bone condition called osteoporosis or brittle bones. Some exercises work and some are not so good. Find out the best exercises for osteoporosis.
Weight Training Success Tips
Success in weight training in building more muscle, losing fat or just getting fitter for health requires that you move beyond training plateaus. Learn how to get beyond the plateau and get that success in weight training.
Train for Muscle Building
The Basic Muscle Program is for anyone who wants to get muscled up for bodybuilding, personal development, and body shaping purposes. The program includes exercises for the legs, buttocks, chest, back, shoulders, arms, and abdominals.
Training for Special Forces
The entry testing for admission to the various military special forces like the SAS, SEALS and Deltas is rigorous and demanding -- and that's just to get accepted -- then the real fun begins. Getting fit for these special forces requires strength and endurance.
The Deadlift
The deadlift is often called 'the king of lifts' because it is an exceptional strength and bulk building exercise. You can do it with barbell, dumbbells and bar and plates.
Hamstring Training
Tears to the hamstring muscles at the back of the thigh are common injuries in active people. The best way to rehabilitate this injury or train muscles for prevention is controversial. Weight training programs which strengthen the hamstrings and the core muscles may offer a solution.
Dumbbell Overhead Press
How to Do the Dumbbell Overhead Press. The overhead press can be performed with dumbbells or barbell. This exercise features the dumbbell overhead press. The dumbbell overhead press can be done sitting on a bench or chair or standing.
Dumbbell Shoulder Squat
The dumbbell shoulder squat is an alternative to the dumbbell squat with weights hanging at the sides. This requires you to balance the dumbbells on the shoulders with a hammer grip.
Seniors Strength
Dumbbells are a convenient and flexible tool in strength training. This program for seniors uses eight exercises for upper and lower body strength and conditioning.
The Squat
The squat weight and strength training exercise takes many forms including with dumbbells, barbells, bar and plates, a Smith machine, or even without equipment at all using your own body weight. Here are the basic movements required for safety and proficiency and some pointers to mistakes to avoid.
Weight Training Primer
Weight training is organized exercise in which muscles of the body are made to contract with weights, body exercises or other devices in order to stimulate growth and strength. Weight training is also called ‘resistance training’ and ‘strength training’.
Weight Training for Golf
Golf can be played all year round, especially if you're a traveling professional. Weight training may provide a power advantage but you need to start with the basics and build strength progressively. This program shows you how.
Best Time of Day for Training
Knowing the best time for you to weight train can improve your weight training outcomes. Many things affect this decision, including your body clock, work, socializing, environment and weather, and your health and perhaps age. Also, there just could be good technical reasons to train at a certain time of day. Read on to find out more.
Weights for Wellness
Weight training and strength training provide benefits in fitness, preventive health, body image and self-esteem, injury recovery and functionality into old age, and in the treatment of chronic diseases.
The Bird Dog Exercise
The bird dog exercise strengthens your abs and lower back and butt muscles while improving balance.
The Overhead Press
The overhead press, sometimes called the military press, is performed by lifting a barbell or dumbbells straight from the chest to the overhead position with arms almost extended.
Top Books for Weight Training
Weight training and bodybuilding books. Nine of the best are reviewed for both beginners and advanced weight trainers and bodybuilders.
Triceps Pushdown
The triceps pushdown exercise uses a cable and pulley machine with loaded weights to provide an excellent exercise for the triceps muscles at the rear of the upper arm.
Fat Loss Weight Training
When you're starting out trying to lose weight and you haven't exercised for a while, it can be tough. This program show you how to get going with weights and aerobic work at home or gym.
The Dumbbell Lunge
The dumbbell lunge, which a weighted step forward with alternating legs, is a good exercise for the muscles of the butt and thighs. It works the hips and the associated muscle groups.
The Dumbbell Triceps Extension
The dumbbell triceps extension works the triceps muscle at the back of the upper arm. You can do it with two hands or one. The exercise described here uses a dumbbell held in two hands.
Power Training
Power is the combination of speed and strength. To get powerful you need to train for strength then overlay that strength with speed. Here's a general program that shows you how to do just that.
Dumbbell Bent Over Row
How to do the dumbbell bent over row. This exercise can be performed with dumbbells or a barbell. The exercise works the shoulders (deltoids) and the upper back muscles.
Advanced Circuit Workout
This is a workout program for individual trainers who have been training for more than six months regularly, who have a good level of fitness and who want something more challenging.
Abs and How to Train Them
The abdominal muscles are comprised of the rectus abdominis, the transverse abdominis and the internal and external obliques as well as a few less significant muscles. The article discusses the function of each and exercises that can be used to train these muscles.
High-Intensity Weight Training
Getting rid of the spare tire around the waist is problematic for many people. One way to tackle it is with high-intensity weight training.
The Crunch
The crunch has replaced the situp as the exercise of choice for training the abdominal muscles. The crunch requires lifting the shoulders and upper chest off the ground for a few seconds forcing the muscles of the stomach to contract. Crunches are usually done in multiple sets.
The Cable Row
The seated cable row develops the muscles of the back and the forearms. Good form for the cable row includes pulling the shoulder blades together with each stroke.
Basketball Weight Training
Basketball training can include a periodized weight training program starting at pre-season right through to the end of season. This program describes a strength and power program to benefit performance and provide protection from injury.
Weight Training 101
This guide describes weight training and strength training, the various categories of weight training, exercises, programs, and approaches and techniques.
Check Body Fatness
Knowing your body fat percentage is useful for sports purposes and to keep track of weight loss efforts. If you lose fat and increase muscle with a weights program, your total body weight may not change. Check out your options for keeping track of what happens to the fat in your body and what the various percentages mean for health and fitness.
The Biceps Arm Curl
The arm curl or biceps curl or dumbbell biceps curl utilizes dumbbells and barbells and even kettlebells to work the biceps muscles of the upper arm and the lower brachialis and brachioradialis.
Hockey Training
Weight training for ice hockey requires attention to skills specific to ice hockey. This program describes a strength and power program designed to benefit performance and provide protection from injury.
The Skullcrusher for Triceps
Extending the arms by flexing and extending the elbow joint in a rear or overhead motion while holding
Weight Training Facts
Weight training novices may not be aware of these facts about weight training -- some useful, some worthy of a trivia contest. Either way, read up and impress your friends at the gym. . .well, maybe.
Lower-Body Training
For some trainers lower-body workouts mean squats, squats and more squats. It doesn't have to be that way. Here is a program that adds strength, muscle and variety.
Dumbbells for Arms & Shoulders
Dumbbells are convenient and effective weight training tools that can be used at home or the gym. This workout targets the arms and shoulders for strength and muscle toning.
Run Fast with Weight Training
Running fast is not only for sprint sports, it's also a valuable asset for many team sports. You can improve your power and speed by incorporating weight training in your program.
The Bench Press
The bench press is a standard powerlifting exercise in which you lie flat on an exercise bench and lift a barbell above your chest until arms are fully extended. The exercise can be done with dumbbells or with a Smith machine and with varying degrees of incline of the bench.
High-Intensity Training
High-intensity training, whether with weights or cardio, means working hard at your training. While training at high intensity is very productive for fitness, you need to be careful not to get injured or burnt out. This article explains the various forms of high-intensity training.
Dumbbell Front Raise
The dumbbell front raise works the pec muscles of the chest and the shoulder muscles -- the deltoids. You can do it with two hands or one. The exercise described here uses a dumbbell held in each hand.
Leg Curl
How to do the leg curl. Guidelines and instruction on how to perform the leg curl weight training exercise with gym machine.
30-Day Quick Start Guide
Get into weight training with this 30-day quick-start guide. From your very first day to the final program goal at the end of 30 days. For absolute beginners or re-starters.
Football Weight Training
Weight training for football requires attention to skills specific to football. This program describes a strength and power program designed to benefit performance and provide protection from injury.
Mixing Weights and Running
Many people train with weights and also run or jog. What's the best way to do it?
All About Muscle
Understanding what muscle is and how it repairs and grows can help you with your weight training.
Diabetes and Exercise
Diabetes is a disease of glucose metabolism and insulin failure. Exercise can help, but what type of exercise is best and which exercises help most?
Build Muscle and Lose Fat
Increasing muscle and losing fat at the same time is the goal for many exercisers. But it's not easy because the body wants to add or lose both. So what's the answer?
Body Reshaping
Losing weight, building muscle and reshaping your body can improve the way you look. Here are 10 features to aim for in your body improvement efforts.
A to Z of Weight Training
Get knowledgeable about weight training and strength training from starting out with no experience to being an accomplished gym trainer with all the tricks of the trade.
Dumbbell Concentration Curl
The dumbbell concentration curl is an alternative to the standard dumbbell biceps curl. By stabilizing the arm on the thigh, a slightly different emphasis is placed on the biceps and lower arm muscles.
Baseball Weight Training
Baseball training can benefit from a periodized weight training program over the yearly cycle, starting at pre-season right through to the end of season and into the closed season. This program describes a strength and power program to benefit performance and provide protection from injury.
Circuit Training
Circuit training can be tough because it keeps you going with little rest in between exercises. This one distributes exercises evenly between resistance exercise and aerobics. You can make it as tough or easy as you like depending on your fitness starting out.
Hiking Workouts
Lugging a 30 to 40 pound pack on your back for many hours each day requires a good amount of fitness -- and strength in the appropriate places.
Leg Extensions
The leg extension is a standard gym exercise with a lever machine. It targets the quadricep muscles of the front of the thigh.
Hormones in Weight Training
Testosterone, growth hormone, cortisol and insulin are all important hormones in bodybuilding and weight training. Find out how you can optimize these hormones for strength and muscle building.
Bodyweight Workout
Workout without weights using bodyweight only. Exercises designed to give you a powerful weight training workout without using free weights or machine weights.
High Power Fat Loss
This weight-loss program is designed to provide a quick-start recovery from a period of indulgence when overeating and too little exercise may have caused you to pack on a few pounds. It includes a nutritional plan and aerobic and weight training programs at a moderate to high intensity.
First Weight Training Session
Going to the gym for the first time can be challenging, especially if you’ve never been particularly active or athletically inclined or motivated. But don't worry, this article provides an introduction to the process and shows you how to ease into weight training in the gym environment.
Weight Training for Sports
Weight training can improve sporting performance, especially in power sports such as football, sprinting and field sports and many others where strength, bulk and explosive speed are important for success.
Weighted Lunge
The weighted lunge is a leg movement with weights, usually forward but sometimes backward or even at various angles from the body. The exercise strengthens the leg muscles and the gluteal or butt muscles.
Children and Weights
Children can benefit from weight training but they require supervision and an experienced trainer to ensure a safe environment and program is in place.
What is Eccentric Training?
: When you curl your arm, the movement is "concentric," which means a shortening under contraction of
The Lateral Raise
How to do the dumbbell lateral or side raise. Guidelines and instruction on how to perform the lateral raise weight training exercise with dumbbells.
Bodybuilding Supplements
Bodybuilding supplements are big business but the bad news is that only a few are worth taking. This list considers ten supplements, or groups of bodybuilding supplements, that could have something to offer.
12 Pounds of Muscle in 12 Weeks
If you train hard, with the correct techniques, you could put on a pound of muscle each week
Stretching and Warm-Ups
The advice to stretch and warm-up before and after workouts to prevent injury or improve performance has taken a beating lately with some investigations showing no benefit. Get the latest tips on stretching and warm-ups in this article.
Women and Weights
When women weight train they help stabilize weight, build stronger bones, get fitter and build protection against chronic diseases like diabetes.
Home Gym
A home gym can be a place to workout at home or a single workstation that allows you to perform many exercises. These are also called multi-gyms. Either way, this article tells you how to go about setting up your own home gym.
Workouts for Kids
Controversial in the past, children and teens can do appropriate weight training and gym training without the fears of health damage and injury.
Pregnancy and Weights
It's generally safe to continue an exercise and weight training program in pregnancy. Providing you take note of a few safety precautions and modifications, you can continue to benefit from regular exercise.
Metabolism Boosters
The body converts food into energy that we use for our daily activity. From exercise to just sitting still, the body burns calories. This is called metabolism. How can we increase the rate at which we use energy in order to stay slim?
Burning Fat and Weight Training
One of the most-asked questions on fitness forums is about what type of exercise to do for burning fat. Weight training is a crucial ingredient in the fat-burning exercise mix. In this article, your most important questions are answered.
The Fat Burning Zone?
The fat burning zone is touted as a desirable training intensity. But what is it, and does it work?
Gym Health and Safety
Weight training is healthy exercise for sure, but to get the maximum advantage you need to ensure that the benefits are not offset by injuries and illness that accrue as a result of your time under the weights. Here are some tips for minimizing any adverse effects of weight training and strength training.
What is Biomechanics?
Biomechanics is the science of movement of a living body including how muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments work together to produce movement.
Weight Training at Home or Gym
This article helps you decide whether to do your weight training at home or gym. Factors to consider are time, space, convenience and accessibility.
Creatine for Sports & Fitness
Creatine is one of the most widely used performance supplements in sports and fitness training. But does it work, is it safe, and how much do you need to take?
What is a Repetition Maximum
A repetition maximum or RM is the most weight you can lift for a defined number of exercise movements. Example 1RM.
Pull Ups and Chin Ups
The pull up exercise is performed by pulling your body up off the ground with your arms to a bar above your head.
The Captain's Chair
The Captain's Chair or hanging leg raise station is a workout station used in many gyms. The two chair arms support your bodyweight while you raise the legs.
Getting in Shape
Getting in shape means to get fit. That's the easy part -- to understand the basic concept. Yet if we
Vertical Jump Training
Jumping high -- in sports terminology, the vertical jump -- is a key attribute in many sports where jumping is an essential skill. Basketball, soccer football, Australian football, volleyball, high jumping, long jumping and many more sports required the ability to jump high. But how do you train for it?
Weights Workouts
Choose a weight-training workout for a variety of aims and objectives.
Belly Fat
Learn How to Lose that Belly Fat Fast
Biceps Concentration Curl
The concentration curl is a supported dumbbell exercise for working, strengthening and building muscle in the biceps muscle of the arm.
Beijing Olympics Weightlifting
Weightlifting is a prominent Olympic sport. But, it's easy to get confused about exactly what's happening during the competition when you're watching coverage on TV. Learn more about the lifts involved in Olympic weightlifting and how the competition is conducted here.
Good Mornings
A Good Morning is a named because it looks like a bowed greeting. You place a weight on your shoulders and bend over until your hamstrings stretch, then you stand upright again.
Sets and Reps
How do you decide how many repetitions and sets of repetitions you need to do to achieve a particular weight training goal? Follow some simple rules.
Stretch Bands for Workouts
Bands and tubes that stretch with resistance are ideal workout equipment for training at home and are great items in a home gym.
Protein Secrets
Protein is essential for life processes and athletes and heavy exercisers need a little more. But don't overdo it.
Seated Machine Chest Press
How to do the seated machine chest Press. Guidelines and instruction on how to perform the Seated Chest Press weight training exercise on a Nautilus machine.
Transversus Abdominis
The recommendation to hollow in or draw in the abdominal muscles to activate the deep transversus abdominis muscles is now under question for weight trainers and strength trainers because the science does not hold up under investigation.
Weight Training for Volleyball
Weight training for a sporting discipline usually requires a periodized program. Volleyball has special requirements of power and jumping ability. A weight training program needs to focus on these outcomes.
Lift Weights Safely
Training with weights is not excessively dangerous as long as a few simple measures are followed. Good technique and the choice of an appropriate weight are the two most important factors in ensuring that you have a relatively safe weight lifting experience.
Exercises that Target Muscles
Learn which weight training exercises target the chest muscles.
Different Types of Squats
The squat is one of the most influential exercises in weight training for lower-body strength and muscle. You can utilize a variety of squats for muscle and joint variation.
Weights in Endurance Training
Can weight training help marathon runners, long-distance cyclists and other endurance athletes?
Fat Loss Foods
Eating certain foods called functional foods, refraining from eating other foods, timing various meals and building muscle are all touted as a way to lose weight. Some of these ideas have a basis in fact even though they are exaggerated and some are better ignored.
Meal Timing
When and how you eat over the 24 hours of each day can have a positive or negative effect on the results of your training.
Get in Shape
Resolve to get in shape with these six fitness programs, from weight training to running.
10 Muscles to Look Big
To get that rippling, highly muscled look, in nice proportion, you need to bulk out certain muscles. Here are the best ones to focus on.
Cable Woodchop
The cable woodchop uses a cable rack and a single cable to simulate a woodchopping action in which a loaded cable is pulled across the body, released and repeated for a number of repetitions.
What is Phosphocreatine?
Phosphocreatine is one part of the human energy production system.
Supersets
Supersets are series of exercise sets using opposing, or at least different muscle groups.
Sets and Repetitions
Sets and repetitions are a standard way to refer to the number of exercises to be performed in weight training.
Top 10 Bodyweight Exercises
You can build good strength and muscle with the help of your own body weight, no equipment required. Here are 10 of the best exercises.
The Combo Crunch
The combo crunch is a bodyweight exercise for working, strengthening and building muscle in the abdomen.
Fat Burning Interval Training
How to burn more fat with less effort describes a new study in which sprint cycling for short intervals burns more fat than steady exercise.
Zinc, Muscle and Strength
Zinc is an essential element in human nutrition. It's important in the production of the male hormone testosterone. Eating well provides sufficient zinc for normal function, but can supplements help in weight training?
Type 1 Diabetes Training
Exercise, including weight training is known to help type 2 diabetics manage their weight, blood glucose and general health. Can it do the same for type 1 diabetics?
Workout for Legs and Butt
You can work over the legs and butt with these excellent exercises for the calves, thighs and buttocks -- squats and deadlifts and lunges.
Assisted Pull-ups and Dips
A pullup (or chinup) is an exercise for working the back and arm muscles. Pull-ups require you to lift your body up by the arms so that your chin is approximately level with a bar previously above your head. The assisted pullup uses a gym machine that assists you by providing upward pressure during the lift. Dips are exercise for the triceps muscle at the back of the upper arm. Assisted dips use the same machine as for assisted pull-ups to provide upward pressure.
Leg Extension Rules
Leg extensions are weight training exercises done with a lever machine in a gym. The exercise works mainly the quadriceps muscles of the front of the thigh. Debate over the safety and utility of this exercise is long standing.
The Biceps Cable Curl
The biceps cable curl is a biceps workout with a cable machine for strengthening and building muscle in the biceps muscle of the arm.
Pyramid Sets
Pyramid sets are weight training sets in which the progression is from lighter weights with a greater number of repetitions in the first set, to heavier weights with fewer repetitions in subsequent sets.
10 Weight Loss Myths
Weight loss has a mythology that has grown up around it over the years. Weight loss myths are strategies that either don't work or are overstated beyond their importance. Here are 10 weight loss myths.
Protein Powder Supplements
Protein powder supplements for weight training, bodybuilding, weight loss and illness recovery come in many formulations, styles and for various health and fitness purposes.
Parkinson's and Weights
Parkinson's disease symptoms may improve with the application of weight training techniques. Even muscle building supplements may have a role in improving strength and quality of life.
What is Body Fat Percentage?
Body fat is a lipid (fat) produced in the body, which may be influenced by diet, exercise and genetics. Body fat percentage is that percentage of body mass that is not made up of bone, connective tissue and fluids, that is, everything else. This is referred to as fat-free mass.
What Are Slow and FastTwitch?
Muscle fibers exist in two basic forms: fast and slow twitch -- also called white and red, or type 2 and type 1. Muscle fibers are elongated muscle cells.
Muscle Building Science
Common language summary of the ACSM's Progression Models in Resistance Training for Healthy Adults
Soy Protein Supplements
Whether soy protein supplements are harmful or useful is one of the ongoing debates in the weight training sports industry.
Weight Training Answers
Advice about weight training can be confusing. This article attempts to provide answers to some of the more controversial weight training recommendations on a range of topics.
Low-Carb Diets and Weights
low-carb, low carbohydrate, bone, osteoporosis, muscle building, muscle loss
Weights and Diabetes
Weight training and strength training assist in preventing and controlling type 2 diabetes by improving glucose and insulin control.
Bosu Balance Trainer Exercises
The Bosu trainer and similar platform balance devices are designed as unstable surfaces to provide a stability challenge to muscles for rehabilitation purposes or to enhance balance in older and infirm people.
Anabolic and Catabolic
: Anabolic means "building up" and catabolic means "breaking down" -- at least those are the simplest

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