For many people, the idea of strength training and building muscle can be daunting! What they don’t realise, is building strength is a great, supportive way to help you feel better in all areas of your life.
Strength conditioning with Fluidform
Strength conditioning and specifically the functional movements we teach at Fluidform, are designed to support your everyday life, in particular the health and function of your spine and joints. They are functional in that they support the body to ensure your day to day movements can be performed with ease and no pain.
Functional movement is imperative at each stage in your lifecycle, as you age and through different life events such as pregnancy. At Fluidform, we work all the smaller muscles that support our joints and create stability for our body to move with you, as you change.
Will strength conditioning create bulk?
Strength conditioning is a broad term – so there are some forms of strength training that will create bulk. Functional movements or specific Pilates methods work your slow twitch, stabilising muscle fibres. These are all the small muscles that support your joints, stability, balance and posture. At Fluidform, we work them in slow, controlled movements that effectively balances your body, creating long, lean and toned muscles across your entire body – avoiding the unwanted ‘bulk’ that is achieved by working your larger, global muscles.
Does strength training require weights?
Strength training isn’t always about lifting weights, but using a combination of isometric and isotonic holds, to build strength without causing stress on the joints and body.
A combination of isotonic and isometric holds, and small equipment can be used to help support or challenge your workouts, whether you are using weights, balls, resistance bands or your own body weight. The heavier the weight does make the movements harder, but rather how you use the equipment to challenge or support your muscles. Controlled, functional movements using your own body weight can be just as effective as using weights – this comes down to how you layer movements and work them continuously to fatigue, burn and strengthen.
Now you know the benefits of strength training, and know there is nothing to be afraid of. So, where do you start?
CONSISTENCY is the key to building strength and creating change in the body. Change doesn’t happen overnight – listen to your body, progress at your own pace and trust the process of functional movement.
We know that 20 minutes a day, everyday will see better results than 2 hours, just a few days a week. The muscles in your body require effective, repetitive movements to strengthen and tone. The key is consistency and repetition.
Controlled, functional movements should be practiced a minimum of 20 minutes a day, five days a week. If you are working with just 20 minutes a day, you should structure your workouts so particular groups of muscles have continual and consistent focus.
This can be combined with other forms of exercise, our favourites are boxing, skipping and walking. Integrating cardio effectively increase your heart rate, which promotes a healthy heart and helps to release endorphins in the body to improve your mood and energy.
Most importantly, we recommend integrating movement that makes you feel good, whether that be meditation, yoga, high intensity training or running – Fluidform helps to improve your performance and minimise the risk of injuries across all forms of movement.
Are you ready?
Start with this 20-minute lower body boxing and speed workout. This is an advanced workout that will challenge your stability, strength and fitness. Trust me, you will be feeling the burn tomorrow. This is when the change happens.
