What is muscle strength?
You might think that muscle strength is just how strong you are: how much weight you can carry, how many kilograms you can lift in the gym, or how many push-ups you can do during a workout. But the true definition of muscle strength is a little more complicated.
Muscle strength is the ability to generate the maximum amount of muscle strength when performing a certain exercise. But there are other factors that affect how strong you are and how much strength you have to perform everyday tasks or exercises.
* Muscle endurance: the ability to create and maintain muscle strength for a certain period of time.
* Muscle strength: the ability to create enough force to move the weight in the shortest period of time.
For example, the number of push-ups that you can do in one minute depends on your muscle strength, as well as on your muscle endurance.
What happens in your body to create the effect of power depends on several factors. The size of the muscle and the ratio of rapidly and slowly contracting fibers in each muscle is one component.
Then the neural connection is key, since the motor neurons must coordinate in their excitation in order to signal the muscle fibers about simultaneous contraction. Strength also depends on the muscles that support the movement of the joint well, as well as the health of the joints, bones, ligaments and tendons.
Recommendations for exercises to strengthen the muscles
* Children and adolescents: physical activity to strengthen muscles at least three days a week.
* Adults and the elderly: exercises to strengthen the muscles of medium or high intensity involving all major muscle groups two or more days a week.
The Benefits of Muscle Strength
When you improve your muscle strength, you get a lot of different benefits, especially if you are trying to lose weight - and you don't need to be an experienced bodybuilder to take advantage of them. Strength training benefits athletes of all levels, for example:
· Increase in lean muscle mass · Increase in metabolism
* Reducing the percentage of body fat
* Easier to perform everyday tasks
· Better Athletic performance · Burning more calories even at rest
* Improvement of thought processes
· Higher self-esteem
* Protection against major diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease
* Pain reduction
* More independence with age, for example, by improving balance and flexibility
* Prevention of a number of injuries
How to measure muscle strength
The Maximum Number of Repetitions Test (MCP) is a standard test used to measure muscle strength. During the MCP test, a person performs one repetition of one exercise to see how much weight he can lift using the correct lifting technique.
In physical therapy, a therapist can measure a person's muscle strength in two ways. In manual muscle testing, the client resists the pressure exerted by the therapist to push a part of the body (for example, your arm) in a certain direction. This is evaluated on a five-point scale. It is also possible to use a dynamometer device when the customer presses it to apply force, which is then measured in pounds or kilograms.
Exercises to improve strength
The best way to build muscle strength is to take part in a weight training program. Some people call it strength training or "weightlifting". But you don't have to lift weights to improve the condition of your muscles. You can perform simple exercises with your own weight at home to build muscle and strength.
Strength training improves both the size of your muscle fibers and the ability of nerves to interact with muscles. As your muscles get bigger during weight training (muscle hypertrophy), they also become more coordinated and are able to perform movements that require more strength.
Safety precautions
Following these steps can help make your muscle building workouts safer and avoid injury:
* Use the correct technique throughout the entire exercise, from beginning to end.
· If the exercise requires the use of weights, make sure that they are heavy enough to resist, but light enough so that you can lift them without bending in the wrong technique.
* As you get stronger, increase your exercise weights gradually. * Give yourself rest days so that your muscles have enough time to recover between workouts. * Eat enough protein (lean meat, dairy products, nuts and seeds), as this is a building block for muscles.
The right start
Before you start weight training, talk to your doctor to make sure that there are no restrictions or changes that you need to follow to stay safe. If you are new to training, ask for help from experienced partners or coaches. A few sessions with a qualified trainer can help you get started on the program and achieve sustainable results.
Result
Any exercise is important for good health and maintaining a healthy body weight. Regular exercise on the muscles helps them grow in size and increases your muscle strength.
When you do strength training or weight training two or three times a week, you build strong muscles to burn more calories and improve the quality of your daily activities and movements. And you can do them both in the gym and outside it.
Include muscle-strengthening exercises in your daily routine, performing squats when you pick things up from the floor, or lunges when moving from one room to another. As a result of these exercises, you get stronger muscles.
