Body strength workouts are essential for everyone. Whatever your level of fitness, strong legs, back, shoulders and arms will help keep you active and injury-free. Building the core muscles at the center of the body provides power for walking, running, bending, standing and pumping iron. Try for at least two or three strength workouts per week to stay in peak performance shape.
Upper Body
Upper body strength training builds muscles, improves flexibility, increases cardiovascular health, and helps to strengthen the shoulders, upper back and arms. Whether you play tennis, practice yoga or haul toddlers and groceries, upper body strength should be a focus of your workouts. Schedule upper body work on alternate days to allow the muscles to recover between workouts. Harvard Medical School advises that to achieve maximum strengthening, use weights heavy enough to make the final few repetitions difficult. Free-weight and weight machine workouts for upper body strength include bench press, lat pulldowns, incline press and cable rows. Target biceps specifically with dumbbell curls and hammer curls. For triceps, add triceps presses and cable extensions. You can work your back muscles with pull-ups and back extensions as well as push-ups.
Lower Body
Cardiovascular strength is important, but so are good balance and the increased mobility that comes with strong legs. An ankle or a hamstring injury can be debilitating, and lifting without muscle strength in the legs puts an unhealthy amount of strain on the lower back. So, lower body strength work matters, and you can tackle it in the gym or at home using machines and the body's own weight for resistance. Squats and lunges strengthen the quads, the large muscles on the upper front of the legs, and the hamstrings, the large muscles on the back, as well as the calves. The bonus is that squats and lunges work the glutes, too. You get stronger and firmer at the same time. Leg extensions isolate the quads and hamstring curls work the back of the leg. Calf raises use the body weight to raise and lower on the edge of a step. Adductor and abductor machines can strengthen the hip flexors.
Isometrics and the Core
Isometrics are resistance exercises to train muscles at a specific angle of use. They are important in building overall strength and in rehabilitation after injury. Isometrics improve the static strength required to stabilize the body in sports such as skiing and horseback riding. Many of the exercises target the core, the abdominal and pelvic areas that are the power center for the body. You can perform the plank, for example, on a mat by stretching out with your weight resting on your elbows and forearms. Curl your toes under and straighten your body so that your midsection does not sag. Tighten your abs and hold the position for as long as possible -- try for 10 to 30 seconds -- before release. The Hundred Breaths is a version of a Pilates exercise in which you lie flat and raise your head and shoulders. Take five short breaths in and five short breaths out 10 times to a count of 100. Pump your arms straight up and down on each breath.
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