Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights_ - Alex Hutchinson [44]
In a quest for even higher levels of instability, some people perform their weights routine while balancing on an inflatable exercise ball. This requires greater effort from the core stability muscles of the trunk and back. But there is a downside, Behm cautions: “To get maximum strength gains, you have to lift as much weight as possible. But you can’t lift as much when you’re balancing on a ball.” As a result, a 2010 position stand that Behm wrote for the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology suggests that lifting weights while balanced on an exercise ball is appropriate only for those focused on health and fitness, while athletes seeking performance gains should stick to free weights on a stable surface.
Weight machines do have other advantages, even for experts. They allow you to address specific weaknesses by isolating certain muscle groups, and they’re designed to provide a constant resistance through the entire range of motion of each lift. In gyms that stock these machines, the biggest draw may be that they’re more time-efficient than fiddling around with free weights. Add it all up and machines are the best choice for many beginners, for both safety and ease of use. Once you’ve gained some experience, though, it pays to move on, Salem says: “Free weights are more realistic.”
Can body-weight exercises like push-ups and sit-ups be as effective as lifting weights?
Joining a health club always seems like a great idea, especially around the beginning of January. That’s why 41.5 million Americans pay a total of $18.7 billion a year for health club memberships. But by February many of those new members have discovered that going to the gym can be inconvenient, time-consuming, and sometimes a bit intimidating. On the other hand, buying exercise equipment for the home is an expensive proposition. One solution is to do your workout at home (or in a hotel room or a park or wherever you happen to be), using your own body weight instead of barbells or weight machines for resistance.
There’s little doubt that convenience can be a big factor in how well people stick to their exercise programs. A review of studies by the Cochrane Collaboration in 2005 found that patients with conditions like heart disease who were prescribed exercise were more likely to stick with home-based programs than with programs that required them to visit a nearby gym or hospital to use specialized equipment. In the highest-quality study, 68 percent of the home-based exercisers were still doing the program two years later, compared to just 36 percent of the center-based exercisers.
The effectiveness of body-weight exercises depends on your initial fitness and goals. A Japanese study in 2009 tested a body-weight exercise program on a group of volunteers with an average age of 66. The exercise program consisted of leg exercises such as squats, lunges, calf raises, and knee extensions. After 10 months of training twice a week, the volunteers had increased maximum leg force by 15 percent and maximum power by 13 percent. But a closer look at the data revealed that the largest gains were obtained by the subjects who started out weakest, since they had to work hardest to lift their own body weight.
This finding highlights the key weakness of body-weight training: as you get stronger, the weight you’re lifting stays the same (or perhaps even decreases, if you’re lucky!),