High-quality equipment for your strength training

A well-shaped body with broad shoulders, strong arms, and a defined stomach isn’t just an ideal of beauty. It’s also a symbol of vitality. With the right strength training exercises, a balanced diet, and plenty of recovery, you’ll get one step closer to your goal of a toned beach body.

Anyone who thinks muscle-building training is only about extreme bodybuilding is mistaken. Targeted muscle training has long been a staple of mainstream fitness. And there are several good reasons for that. After all, muscle tissue serves more than just an aesthetic purpose; it also performs numerous functions that are important to our health. The positive effects of strength training include:

• Resistance training with machines, dumbbells or your own body weight increases bone density. This also reduces the risk of fractures. At the same time, regular strength workouts help prevent osteoporosis.
• The passive musculoskeletal system (that is, ligaments, tendons and joints) is strengthened and therefore becomes more resilient through regular training.
• Muscle-building training strengthens the heart and blood vesselstoo. Like endurance training, it also helps lower blood pressure.
• Strength training also burns a lot of caloriesbecause muscles use energy with every movement. This makes dumbbell and machine workouts a valuable part of sustainable body fat loss.
• Muscles help keep you slim. Every gram of muscle burns energy even at rest. So if you train regularly and build muscle, you’ll burn extra calories even while enjoying a relaxing evening on the couch watching TV.
• Well-developed muscles improve your posture. This not only boosts your confidence, but also prevents back pain and counteracts the poor posture associated with our modern lifestyles.

Hundreds of books cover strength training for building muscle, increasing maximum strength, and improving muscular endurance. So we want to focus on the most important points to help you achieve impressive results:

Training intensity: Scientific studies show that muscle growth is greatest when you train with weights you can lift with proper form 8-12 times per set. Training with weights that are too light, on the other hand, gives your body no reason to build muscle tissue.

Proper technique: Every exercise must be performed with proper technique. This helps prevent injuries and overloading your joints. Proper form also ensures optimal recruitment of muscle fibers, creating a stronger stimulus for growth.

Training frequency: Each muscle needs to be worked regularly to grow. Beginners in particular, who are still training at a low intensity, can work each muscle group 2-3 times per week.

Progressive overload: Your muscles adapt only when you regularly challenge them with new demands. In strength training, this is achieved by increasing the weight, performing additional repetitions, and using intensity techniques.

Variety: Our muscles quickly adapt to familiar training patterns. So every six to eight weeks, you should swap out a few exercises in your training plan. This gives your muscle tissue an unfamiliar training stimulus.

Breathing: Only by breathing properly during your workout can you reach your full potential. Breathe in as you lower a weight (eccentric phase) and breathe out as you push it up (concentric phase). Holding your breath or bearing down is counterproductive, as it impairs the oxygen supply to your muscles and can cause you to faint.

Recovery: Muscles don't grow during your workout, but during the rest period between two sessions. You should wait 48-72 hours before training the same muscle group again. Getting enough sleep (at least 6-8 hours) is also ideal for muscle growth.

There are many training plans for strength training. At the beginning, however, it makes little sense to use a specialized split plan that divides muscle groups across different training days. As a beginner, the goal is to learn the movements, improve coordination, and build a basic level of strength. A so-called full-body plan is ideal for this, with the entire body trained in one day.

This is usually done three times a week. Following the guidelines mentioned above, this will set you up perfectly for the first six months. Later, you can switch to a split plan. Probably the best-known split plan is the two-day split, which can be done as either an upper-body/lower-body plan or a push/pull plan. Further dividing the body, as with a three-day or four-day split, is only useful for highly advanced athletes.

The question "Is strength training useful for women?" can be answered with a clear "Yes." Many women make the mistake of wanting to burn only fat on their way to their dream body. To do that, they spend endless hours sweating on cardio machines. The reason the results are usually suboptimal despite fat loss is that they're not doing strength training to build muscle. Muscle tissue gives the body its shape and is therefore also responsible for an athletic figure.

So if you want your dream body, you also need to build muscle. Don't panic, ladies. You don't need to worry about bulking up like the Incredible Hulk - that's not possible even with the toughest training, unless you use illegal substances.

And as an added bonus: Muscles burn calories - and therefore fat - every second.

Muscle growth (also known as hypertrophy) only occurs when you expose your muscle tissue to a training stimulus, for example, while working out on a strength training machine. This stimulus must be strong enough for your body to decide that it needs to build more muscle so it can better handle the challenge next time you train. During your workout, microscopic tears occur within the muscle fibers. Your body repairs these muscle fibers during the post-workout rest period using amino acids, the building blocks of protein. If the training stimulus isn’t strong enough or you don’t have enough protein available, your muscles can’t grow sustainably.

Both fat loss and muscle building depend primarily on nutrition. Around 70 percent of your success depends on it. Anyone who wants to build muscle tissue must first provide their body with a calorie surplus. To avoid gaining too much body fat, this should be between 200 and 500 kilocalories per day. The next most important factor is getting the right balance of macronutrients:

Protein: Protein, or the amino acids it contains, is key to building muscle. For optimal muscle growth, you need a higher protein intake of around 1.5 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. Ideal sources include lean meat, fish, legumes, oats, eggs, dairy products, and vegetarian or vegan meat alternatives.

Carbohydrates: High-quality carbohydrates from potatoes, rice, whole-grain pasta, oats, and legumes provide the energy you need for training and replenishing your muscle glycogen stores.

Fats: Contrary to what many people still think, fats are not bad for your body. In sufficient quantities, they are even essential for survival. Your body also needs high-quality fats to build muscle, as a source of energy and as building blocks for important hormones and enzymes. Unsaturated fatty acids are particularly valuable and are found in oily fish such as salmon, nuts, olive oil, flaxseeds, and sunflower seeds.

Are you looking to get some dumbbells or a home gym for strength training? Before you get started with enthusiasm, there are a few things you should keep in mind. After all, there are some rules to follow when building muscle, too. If you follow them and stick to your strength training plans, you’ll soon see results.

Combining cardio and strength training is ideal for a healthy body. If you want to lose body fat, you can combine the two effectively. After all, your glycogen stores are already partially depleted after strength training, so your body taps into stored fat more quickly during cardio. But there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to the question, “How long should you do cardio after strength training?” It depends on how much energy you have left and how much you enjoy cardio training it. Aim for at least 20-30 minutes.

Strength training is incredibly varied. Just as varied as the strength training exercises is SPORTSTECH's range of equipment for an effective strength training routine. From pull-up bars and dip stations for bodyweight exercises to inversion trainers, back trainers and ab trainers, all the way up to full-fledged strength training stations you'll find everything you need here.

Purists and particularly ambitious athletes can pick up SPORTSTECH dumbbells and weight benches and train just as effectively at home as at the gym. Do you have questions about our equipment or want to know which training option is best for building muscle? Then get free, no-obligation advice from our fitness experts. And best of all: Shipping to your home is free!

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