Resistance Training Exercises

"The resistance training exercises you choose can determine your results."

When choosing exercises, there are so many different one’s and so many books it can seem overwhelming.

I want to break all the resistance exercises down to some very basic categories so you can see what exercises causes the greatest fat loss and which does not.

Before choosing a workout or what exercise to do, you must first understand why you are doing it. So the first thing you should know is that resistance exercises should be done to create hormone restoration. If you have not read it, you can read about it here. Learn about hormone restoration.

I have seen so many resistance exercises that are put together that will not result in increasing fat burning hormones. They were put together for some other reason. Like to improve a sport, recover from injury, to fill an hour of time for a home video, etc.

So after reading about hormone restoration, you will see that when you are trying to lose weight the only reason you will be doing resistance exercises is to increase fat burning hormones and reduce fat storing hormones. That’s it!

Having said that, I want to go over different categories of resistance exercises:

Types of Resistance Training Exercises

• Compound
• Isolation
• Isometric/static
• Plyometric
• Concentric/Positive Rep
• Eccentric/Negative Rep
  

Compound Resistance Training Exercises

This is a an exercise that involves several major muscle groups and joints.

Let’s take the bench press or a push-up. These are both compound exercises that are resistance exercises as well. Here are the things that make them a compound exercise.

Multiple Muscle Groups

The main focus is on the pectoral muscles. BUT the triceps are used, and so are the deltoids (shoulder muscles), the latissimus dorsi (one of the major back muscles), the lower back and the abdominals. Both exercises use many major muscle groups at the same time.

Multiple Joints

Also there are the shoulder joints that move as well as the elbows. So there are multiple joints involved.

This is a compound movement.

Other examples such as the squat, dead lift and lat pull down are also examples of compound movements.

The Squat

Of all the exercises, when done correctly, the squat is more of a compound exercise than all others. When done correctly, you will flex the entire body during the rep. It also stimulates the most muscle fiber than any other exercise per unit of time.

Muscle Fiber Stimulation

The reason why compound movements are the highest priority is because they stimulate the greatest muscle fiber in the same unit of time. A biceps curl and a squat will take the same amount of time to do one rep. However, the squat will stimulate so much more muscle fiber than the biceps curl.

Getting more muscle fiber stimulation per unit of time is what causes greater anabolic hormonal response.

Below, I will go over other resistance exercises. They should be used to support compound resistance training exercises. There are a lot of exercise routines that only use one of the resistance exercises listed below. This is good for the short-term but it will soon be out-lived and results will stop.

Isolation Resistance Training Exercises

Isolation resistance exercises are the opposite of the compound.

The isolation involves one joint and isolates one muscle or muscle group.

The biceps curl is an example. The one joint is the elbow and the one muscle group isolated is the biceps muscle.

This produces so much less muscle fiber stimulation than compound resistance exercises. Yet, it take the same amount of time. In the 45 minutes you have to work out, you want to stimulate the greatest amount of muscle fiber as possible.

Isometric Resistance Training Exercises

These are resistance exercises that involve exerting force against an immovable object and holding the resistance in place for a period of time.

Let’s say you put your palms together and push. You will be flexing your chest muscles. There is no movement, but there is muscle flexion.

Another example is doing a chin-up and stopping halfway and holding it still for a period of time.

Done alone, however, it will not create a hormonal response.

However, doing it immediately after a set of repetition to muscle failure is very helpful in getting the burn. When I am personally training someone, I will have them do an isometric “move” after every set to intensify the burn and the pump.

This is not necessary for your workouts but I wanted to give you the information. If you do want to use it, contact me and I’ll show you how to do the isometric resistance exercises.

Plyometric Resistance Training Exercises

These are compound resistance training exercises movement that is done as a burst or explosion.

So an example is doing a pushup but pushing with enough of a burst that you can take your hands and clap them together before doing it again.

Instead of doing a squat, you will do a squat and then jump instead of just moving up.

It is very anabolic. It just takes time to learn how to do it well without causing injury. It is definitely something to work towards.

Keep It Simple

If you are a beginner, keep it simple and focus on one thing and master it. That one thing should be compound resistance training exercises.

If you are wondering what to do, don’t worry, I will show you specific resistance training exercises to do and also specific sources you can go to so you can get instruction on all your exercises. The solutions are simple. This section is here to give you an overview of different types of exercise so you can determine, “Yes, that is good for me.” or, “No, that is not good for me.”

Use Videos!

Feel overwhelmed? Not to worry. The simplest thing for you to do is to get a video that you follow along to. On the page “Exercise Programs,” I list reviews of exercise programs based on what I teach. Out of over a hundred I found a few that have all the criteria I look for.

One of the main criteria is the use of compound resistance training exercises as the main type for most of the workouts. The correct schedule is laid out to provide adequate rest and there is a lot of explanation on how to perform the resistance training exercises with correct form.

Click here to learn about my recommended "Exercise Programs.”

Metabolism Makeover

You can learn how to use resistance training exercises as part of a comprehensive weight loss program that focuses of restoring health first to lose weight. Know how to use it will save you time, money and hassle because you don't have anymore guess work. I lay it out for you. If you are interested check out Metabolism Makeover.

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