Enhance your Fitness Level with Resistance Training

The Pietra Fitness online studio is thrilled to start offering resistance training! We have always had it in our classes using our own body weight, but now we are adding weights and other different types of resistance equipment. In the series, you’ll learn how to safely and effectively use weight to enhance your fitness and increase your fitness level. However, you can participate by simply using your body weight and being intentional about the contraction and engagement of your muscles in the targeted muscle group.

If you use weights, it may be a process of trial and error to find the appropriate weight size for you. We will give some suggestions, but it is up to you to adjust considering your age, sex, and fitness level. Make sure you can always keep proper form and listen to your body.

As you increase your body awareness through resistance training, you will come to see that this type of exercise will provide a stress that will lead to adaptation. Our program will follow a simple set of rules that will prevent overtraining but continuously allow the stress to accumulate, which will result in the desired change. Ultimately, this is what exercise is designed to do with our bodies.

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In resistance classes that use lighter weight, the changes that we are striving for are things like: muscle tone, muscle length, and muscle endurance - just to name a few of the benefits of this exercise modality. When talking about muscle tone and muscle length, please know that we refer to the shape and length of the muscle that already exists in your body. As we use repetition and light weights, then over time, we will see a greater range of movement along with more definition in the targeted muscle group. Another excellent bonus from resistance-type exercise is that this type of exercise creates an environment in the body where you are burning fat around the muscle for a more extended period of time, lasting well beyond the duration of the actual class. We can think of it as an “after burn."

The resistance exercise we will be doing in the studio shows us that the quality of the exercise outweighs the quantity of the exercise. As you move through the various resistance training classes and their progressive levels, remember to listen to your own body, recover well, and strive for consistency. The instructors that take you through these classes will focus on form and technique to help you move well. Through good form and technique, you will begin to see the improvement in your movement and muscle tone, whereby achieving your fitness goals.

Recovering well means taking the appropriate time off between resistance exercise sessions and, of course, using Pietra Fitness classes to increase the quality of your recovery. As your body adapts to the weight and movements which these classes provide, you might feel fatigue, soreness, and weakness as your body seeks to adapt to the demands of this type of exercise. This is temporary as you continue to use resistance exercise in your fitness plan in a consistent manner. We could liken this to an alarm clock - just as an alarm clock wakes us up to alert us to the new day ahead, resistance training wakes up our body and alerts the kinetic chain to the new stimulus - which is your resistance training!

The resistance training classes are designed to be short bursts of exercise. If you desire to increase your training volume, feel free to repeat the class one, two, or maybe three times, depending on how long the video is. Again, we recommend taking a break from resistance training or weightlifting the following day of the session. For example, if you work the arms on Monday, you would work the legs on Tuesday. However, when taking a full-body resistance training class, it is important to take an entire day off from resistance training the following day.

It is important to stretch after resistance training, so it is recommended to add on a Pietra Fitness class. Be sure to choose a  video that stretches the area you worked, or better yet, one that stretches the whole body so your body may begin to move through the recovery process well.

We at Pietra Fitness would like to thank you and congratulate you on adding this modality to your fitness program. Resistance exercise is good for everyone, but specifically as we age. It is not only good for cardiovascular health but bone health as well!

We are excited to be on this journey with you! If you would like to see other types of workouts added to our studio, don't hesitate to contact us. We love hearing from our Pietra Fitness Community!

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