tell me more about strength trianing

M_lifts

i would like to have toned arms. i have skinny arms that need a bit of muscle. i managed 2 sets bicep curls of 20 reps 6lbs,
is 6lbs enough? do i need higher weights? what else can i do? help a novice

doh i mean training!

End6ame

There is no such thing as toning. There is stronger/weaker and more fat/less fat. I will post here what I just recently posted on another topic.

Here are a couple of excerpts from a beginner strength training eBook I am working on writing.


Weight Training:
Weight training aims to build muscle by prompting two different types of hypertrophy: sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and myofibrillar hypertrophy. During myofibrillar hypertrophy, actin and myosin contractile proteins increase in number and add to muscular strength as well as a small increase in the size of the muscle. During sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, the volume of sarcoplasmic fluid in the muscle cell increases with little accompanying increase in muscular strength.

Weight training exercises are broken up into groupings of the number of times the movement is performed; these are called sets and repetitions (reps), respectively. The reason for this is to tailor the weight training towards a specific goal, such as strength, power, size, or endurance. Generally, the rep range breakdown is as follows:

1 to 5 reps = Strength & Power (Myofibrillar Hypertrophy)
6 to 12 reps = Size (Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy)
13 to 20 reps = Muscular Endurance

To put this in more understandable terms; generally bodybuilders that are concerned with the size and appearance of their muscles will work in the 6-12 rep range while power lifters and Olympic lifters that are concerned with lifting heavier weights will work in the 1-5 rep range. It is also important to note that any rep range will build strength, power, and muscular endurance, but some rep ranges will develop more than others.

5x5 Training:
The concepts and principles behind the 5x5 method are fairly straight forward. The focus is on compound muscle movements through barbell exercises using progressive loading; all things we have talked about already. But why specifically 5 sets of 5 reps? Because you can lift heavier weight using the 5x5 method than you can using a 3x8 approach, for example.

Here is this example in greater detail; let’s say that John and Joe can both squat 285lbs for one rep (their one rep max or 1RM), which means that their 5RM would be approximately 255lbs and their 8RM would be approximately 230lbs. (There is a formula behind these calculations but it is not important for this illustration.) So their lifts would look like this.

John: 255lbs x 25 reps = 6375lbs
James: 230lbs x 24 reps = 5520lbs
Difference: 855lbs

So even though there is only a difference of one rep between a 5x5 and 3x8 routine, there is a total difference of 855lbs over all sets because of the heavier weight that can be used for five reps. Since we are in the realm of “strength” training here, we want to lift as much weight as possible by finding a happy medium between intensity (% of 1RM) and the number of reps performed, and 5x5 is that happy medium.


If this sounds interesting to you I can send you all of what I have written so far, as it will wrap a little more context around these exerpts.

M_lifts

oh very interesting. thanks