Whether you are a man or a woman it is important for you to be doing strength training, don’t worry ladies you won’t bulk up. It’s important for you to get stronger everyday, isn’t that why you started in the gym in the first place? But starting off can be daunting, you may feel like you are a little out of your element. It’s one of the reasons people stick to old habits that never give them the results they want.

We are going to look over what you need to know in order to get working on strength training. There is no need to focus solely on cardio. You don’t need to wander aimlessly through the gym wondering about those machines that everyone is groaning about. Bringing strength training into your life will get you healthier and fitter much faster and we are going to show you how to do it.

Body Weight Strength Training:

You need very little equipment with body weight training. As long as you have space to move you can do these exercises in a gym, at the office or even on the playground.

Exercise bands and pullup bars are great for these kinds of exercises. These may make things a bit easier but you can do them without any equipment at all.

Dumbbells

A good way to start out in strength training is by using dumbbells. Most every gym will have a good set of dumbbells in various weight sizes. If you want to work out at home there are adjustable dumbbells you can buy that don’t take up a lot of room.

Dumbbells allow you to do standard exercises you already know but making them tougher by adding small amounts of weight at a time. They also offer a stabilization challenge and will allow you to recognize muscle imbalances easily. There is a downside to dumbbells if you decide to purchase them for your home. You will probably outgrow them pretty quickly as you get stronger so they will become of no use to you. But a gym however will have dumbbells that go up to 100lbs so outgrowing them shouldn’t be a problem.

Barbells for Strength Training

If building strength is your goal then barbells are what you are going to want to use. You can progress quickly with them and you can keep adding small amounts of weight each week as you progress. Barbells are stable which allows you to go much heavier if you choose to. They are great for deadlifts and squats. It sits on a rack to allow you to load and unload heavy weights. It’s not something that is convenient to do at home as you will need to have a squat rack, so this is a time when a gym membership would be ideal.

There is no “best form” of strength training. It’s whichever one works best for you and makes you