What type of exercise?

Az1up

Hello to anyone reading this!
I came on here to ask what types of exercise should I be doing to build muscle, strength and endurance/explosiveness? Either at the same time or progressing. I’ve been confused on what exercises to do and how to execute it for the body parts I want to hit! Any advice would be grateful, thank you.

AnnPT77

To build muscle/strength, anything that challenges current strength will trigger some progress. Progressive weight lifting programs or progressive bodyweight programs are the most time-efficient route to that . . . time efficient generally in both workout length/frequency and calendar time to reach some objective level of improvement.

If new to strength exercise, strength improvement will tend to happen faster than muscle gain at first, from better recruiting and using already-existing muscle fibers (neuromuscular adaptation, NMA). Loosely speaking, it's when that strength increase is getting close to tapped out that the body decides it's time to start adding muscle mass. (Which will be quite gradual in the best of circumstances, but worthwhile.)

Look for a well-designed progressive strength program suited to your current level (rather than just doing lift-y stuff ). There are beginner programs, ones more suited for intermediate levels after maybe a year or two of regular lifting, etc. Your progress will be best if you combine that with good overall nutrition, especially adequate protein. Fast weight loss will tend to make muscle/strength gain slower, but if weight loss is necessary, strength work will at minimum help keep existing muscle, which is worthwhile in itself . . . and there might be gains.

Many MFP-ers share and discuss their lifting programs in this thread:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1

These are also good threads here IMO:

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10920257/how-to-set-up-a-weightlifting-routine
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10877279/30-tips-to-increase-strength-training-intensity

There are a few people here on MFP who are quite knowledgeable/experienced with strength training. They may be more likely to reply to questions if you post them in the Fitness and Exercise or Gaining Weight and Body Building topic areas. However, exercise caution: There are also people who will speak beyond their own knowledge/experience.

I try not to do that, and try to be clear about my context. I have a general understanding of strength training from some experience plus coaching education in my strength-y cardio sport (on water and machine rowing). But I wouldn't give you detailed answers about lifting programs, because that's not my wheelhouse.

As far as how to develop explosiveness, generally things in the plyometrics training domain are intended to help with that. Again, I won't give specific suggestions, because I don't have enough expertise.

Endurance is a little different question. It depends somewhat on whether you mean muscular endurance or cardiovascular endurance. (I know more about the latter.)

Very generally, in either of those realms, endurance comes from challenging current endurance, that is, using a lower level of power (per minute, say) but repeating that for increasingly longer periods of time as endurance improves. In my sport, and many other sports requiring cardiovascular endurance, that means including a relatively large fraction of low-ish intensity workouts in the mix. In rowing, we sometimes call that LSD (long, slow distance ).

Among serious cardiovascular sport athletes, it's common to have training plans that suggest a mix of intensities over time to achieve the sport's goals. Those are usually called "periodized plans". IMU, at least some lifting programs are also periodized, with planned doses of heavier lifts of less weight or more lifts of lighter weight at different points in the process to achieve best results.

If your goals related to a specific sport or activity, I'd encourage you to look for training plans for that sport/activity. In some cases, the overall training plan will include pieces to develop strength, explosiveness, and cardiovascular capabilities, if all of those are useful to the sport.

I know this is very general, but I hope it helps you get oriented.

Best wishes!