Weight lifting exercises are important not only because they trim your frame, but also because when you weight lift, you help your muscles to grow in strength which will in turn help them carry out their primary functions such as moving your body, allowing you to breathe properly, etc.
However, in order to best figure out how to choose the proper weight lifting exercises for your body you need to first understand the relationship between exercise and your muscles which this article will help clarify if you continue reading.
First off, you need to know that your muscles are made up of tissue that is composed of two fibers: actin and myosin. In order to create the proper muscle tone that most people strive for when they head to the gym, you need to make sure that you build both of these fibers.
Before you can learn about how to target these areas, you also need to realize that a muscle not only needs to be exercised correctly, but it also has to be allowed to contract normally which can be accomplished by stimulating your motor neurons also known as nerves.
During an exercise, when both muscle fibers and one motor neuron is stimulated together they are referred to as a motor unit which combine to form the force that your muscles can complete to allow you finish the exercise and properly complete a contraction.
The more motor units that you produce during exercise the stronger your contraction will be which means that you will be able to lift more weight and also complete more repetitions. In other words, the more motor units you actively use the stronger you will appear to be.
Heading back to the muscle fibers, your body has three known as Type I (commonly referred to as a “slow twitch”) and Type 11a and 11b (commonly referred to as a ‘fast twitch”). High reps weight training exercise for your Type I muscle fibers are vital to build muscle endurance or complete aerobic activities.
On the other hand, when you do less reps but higher weights your Type II muscle fibers receive the brunt of the exercise which are the fibers that will show the most physical growth if you are aiming to body building.
Most people have an equal amount of both fiber types in their body although a few people who always seem to build muscle regardless of their training activities may have more ‘fast twitch’ muscles.
However, since likely this is not your case you will need to incorporate both high reps and low weights and low reps and high weights into your regular workout routine if you hope to experience results that benefit your entire body.
