The Impact of Strength Training

Ali Rad

Introduction

One of the main topics in the sport is the strength. “Strength is the ability to exert force against weight”(Baechle & Earle 2008). The most traditional way of measuring this, is monitoring the amount of weight each individual can lift (Baechle & Earle 2008). It describes essential abilities in terms of improvement in athlete’s performances. It could enhance physical and mental ability helping to win their competitions. A Regular strength training, particularly, has numerous benefits for people from various ages from youth to older adults.

A training which includes high resistance near maximum muscle contraction with low repetitions and full recovery for each set, generally recognized as a strength training (Stone et al. 1981; Baechle & Earle 2008). However, there are different types of strength training which includes Power Training, Strength Speed, Speed Strength, Maximum Strength and Plyometric etc (Newton & Kraemer 1994; Harris et al. 2008; Verkhoshansky 2011; Homas & Rench 2008; Markovic et al. 2007).

In this text, physical and mental aspects of the strength training and its effects on bones, skeletal muscles and connective tissues and finally its effect on different age ranges were discussed. Injury prevention and its relation to the strength training was also explained.

Impact of strength training

Strength training is an important part of an athletic development that has also an impact on youth and older adults.

Bones

Strength training has an influence on bone density. Some studies show that correct High intensity strength training can improve the bone density; and alternatively result in stronger body skeleton. Moreover, stronger bones with the right amount of mineral sources and calcium would result in better performance of the muscles and connective tissues. Additionally, it will develop muscle mass and balance (Nelson 1994; DOYLE 1970; Karlsson et al. 1995). Osteoporosis is common disease which is a result of reduction in bone minerals and bone mass with advancing age (Rachner et al. 2011). Correct structural lower strength training such as back squat, deadlift, clean and jerk and also bench press are sets of recommended exercises for increasing the muscles and bones strength (Plowman & Smith 2007; Burr 1997)(Baechle & Earle 2008).

Muscles

Muscles are mainly made up of blood vessels, nerves, fibrous connective tissues; strength training would play an important role on developing these tissues. There are two types of muscle fibres: type I and type II. They are known as slow and fast twitch muscles. Type II (fast twitch) are those that perform higher forces vs type I (slow twitch) are those that are more involved endurance aerobic exercises (MacIntosh et al. 2005; Bonen 2010). Strength training would cause and improvement in the cross-sectional area of the muscles that have been trained. However strength training would have been found to have more effect on cross- sectional area of type II muscle fibres (Jones & Rutherford 1987a; Cardinale 2010; Martini 1989; McDonagh & Davies 1984; Gollnick et al. 1973; Trappe et al. 2000). These types of training also develop the nervous system of the body. Generally, by increasing the muscle cross-sections and as the result improving the size of the muscles (hypertrophy) strength training would ultimately provide better performance of the skeletal muscles and prepare them for more challenges (the muscle will get stronger) (Jones & Rutherford 1987b; Martini 1989).

Injury prevention

There are numerous amount of evidences that show strength training could result in dropping the threat of injuries. Two types of injuries exist; preventable and unpreventable injuries. Some of the injuries could be prevented by performing variable resistance trainings that could affect individually on strengthening muscles, connective tissues and bones and also helping athletes to decrease the injury of their lumbar spine regions (Hoffman n.d.; Zatsiorsky & Kraemer 2006). During the competition in any sport e.g. while sprinting for ball in football or high jumping, the injuries of these sorts, could be either prevented or its impact reduced. There are types of strength training activities that can improve lower limb control such as plyometric trainings and these exercises would decrease knee valgus when decelerating, reduce the chance of ACL injuries etc. Unpreventable injuries are those related to the sports with high velocity and energy collisions such as wrestling, judo and so forth (Myer et al. 2005; Nishimura et al. 2008; Noyes et al. 1983; Wojtys et al. 2002). Ultimately however, whilst likelihood of injury can be reduced, it cannot be prevented.

Older adults

Generally, the amount of physical functions in older adults are affected with increasing age (Zatsiorsky & Kraemer 2006). Sarcopenia (Muscle Atrophy) occurs with age and in parallel with that, muscles start losing their strength (Hunter et al. 2004). Having said that, in contrast with general opinion, the capability of the muscular skeletal system is not severely affected with aging. For older adults, exercises like strength training would increase density of the bones, muscle mass and decrease the risk of getting injured. On the other hand, there are a wide range of exercise that could help older people to improve their strength. Periodised strength training are known as one of the best choices for this purpose (Hunter et al. 2004) (Zatsiorsky & Kraemer 2006). Furthermore, there are some exercises that could improve muscle function and balance, which are known as functional exercises (Howald 1982; DeBeliso et al. 2005). Results of several studies have indicated that suitable sets of strength training programmes would give older adults equal strength to younger individuals (Deschenes et al. 1993; Kraemer 1988; Kraemer et al. 1998; Kraemer 1983). These improvements proved in a separate studies of 8 weeks resistance strength training programme that applied on very old men and women (that they improved their muscle strength) (Fiatarone et al. 1990). There are some important points that need to be considered when a program is written for older adults like checking medical history, finding about possible physical activity restrictions that have been prescribed, nutritional needs and training development.

Youth

Despite the traditional ideas about young people involvement in strength training, there were few concerns about these sorts of activities: the danger of heavy lifting exercise, the effect on the proper growth stage of children and inappropriateness of training for children. It has been proven that the strength training is not only safe but also effective for youth growth (Faigenbaum 2000)(Cardinale 2010). They would be able to improve their performance in sport and injury prevention by doing strength training. Having said that, to deal with young athletes, a suitable program should be designed and be supervised so that the correct techniques be performed with the maximum amount of safety just like the same sort of procedure that need to be done for older adults (Bernhardt et al. 2001).

Mental

Other than physical influences of strength in all range of ages, there are some mental responses that could improve the body performance. On the other hand, strength training programme would have a very positive psychological effect on humans. Studies have demonstrated that there have been positive effects of strength programmes on anxiety, depression, fatigue symptoms, self-esteem and self-efficiency (O’Connor et al. 2010). For instance, anxiety is a short term health behaviour which could be a result of poor sleep, nervousness, worrying and fear etc. and it could be come up during interviews, driving test, exams, competition and so on and so forth. There are types of strength training that have been designed to reduce the amount of the anxiety. Recent studies that have been carried out on group of people, have revealed that the intensity of the strength training could also have different effect on the level of anxiety (Kravitz et al. 2011; O’Connor et al. 2010). Another example of the mental disorder is depression. Depression is a behaviour that due to life’s challenges and it could be one of the main reasons for lack of motivation, hopeless-ness fatigue, body weight of fluctuation, thoughts of suicides etc. Strength training could be one of the most effective ways of decreasing depression. This is a current subject study by researchers around the globe but needs further research (Morris et al. 2004; O’Connor et al. 2010).

Conclusion

In summary, the physical and mental effects of strength in sport as well as some main influences of strength training programmes on essential sections of the human body including bones, skeletal muscles in younger and older adults have been well documented. Furthermore, there is a strong relationship between strength training and injury prevention. However, regardless of the importance of strength, there are other factors that need to be considered as well. One of which, is power, which is calculated by multiplying force by speed. Being successful in many sports requires a good power base (through for example Olympic lifting) and strength training (Fatouros et al. 2005; Miszko et al. 2003), although further research on the details for specific populations is required.

The Impact of Strength Training, Prepare by: Ali M. Rad, 2014

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