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Basic
Safety
Weight
exercises
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Weight training is a common type of strength training for developing the
strength and size of skeletal muscles. It uses the force of gravity (in the form
of weighted bars, dumbbells or weight stacks) to oppose the force generated by
muscle through concentric or eccentric contraction. Weight training uses a
variety of specialized equipment to target specific muscle groups and types of
movement.
Weight training differs from bodybuilding, weightlifting, powerlifting and
strongman, which are sports rather than forms of exercise. Weight training,
however, is often part of the athlete's training regimen.
Weight training versus strength training
Strength training is an inclusive term for all types of exercise devoted towards
increasing muscular strength and size (as opposed to muscular endurance,
associated with aerobic exercise, or flexibility, associated with stretching
exercise like yoga or pilates, though endurance and flexibility can improve as a
byproduct of training). Weight training is one type of strength training and the
most common, seen by all but specialists as synonymous with strength training.
The difference between weight training and other types of strength training is
how the opposition to muscular contraction is generated. Resistance training
uses elastic or hydraulic forces to oppose muscular contraction and isometric
exercise uses structural or intramuscular forces (e.g. doorways or the body's
own muscles).
History
History of strength training
An early plate-loading barbell and kettlebellHippocrates explained the principle
behind weight training when he wrote "that which is used develops, and that
which is not used wastes away." Progressive resistance training dates back at
least to Ancient Greece, when legend has it that wrestler Milo of Croton trained
by carrying a newborn calf on his back every day until it was fully grown.
Another Greek, the physician Galen, described strength training exercises using
the halteres (an early form of dumbbell) in the 2nd century.
Another early device was the Indian club, which came from ancient Persia where
it was called the "meels." It subsequently became popular during the 19th
century, and has recently made a comeback in the form of the clubbell.
The dumbbell was joined by the barbell in the latter half of the 19th century.
Early barbells had hollow globes that could be filled with sand or lead shot,
but by the end of the century these were replaced by the plate-loading barbell
commonly used today.
The 1960s saw the gradual introduction of exercise machines into the still-rare
strength training gyms of the time. Weight training became increasingly popular
in the 1980s, following the release of the bodybuilding movie Pumping Iron and
the subsequent popularity of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Since the late 1990s
increasing numbers of women have taken up weight training, influenced by
programs like Body for Life; currently nearly one in five U.S. women engages in
weight training on a regular basis.
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