This article originally appeared in MindBodyGreen.
Ready to begin your journey to a stronger, even healthier you? Whether you're brand-new to strength training or only have a little bit of experience from group fitness classes, I've created a four-week, easy-to-follow strength training guide for mbg. The goal: I want to help you feel stronger and more confident working with weights.
What is strength training?
Strength training is the practice of using resistance to train your skeletal muscles to get stronger by enhancing their endurance, strength, or size (or all three).
There are many ways to strength train and various types of strength goals. For example, one can train for muscular explosiveness with plyometrics movements or muscular endurance with higher repetitions and lower weights. You can train for hypertrophy (muscle size increase) or ultimate strength (like a powerlifter). All are phenomenal ways to strengthen the body, and depending on your personal goals, you might decide to train more in one or two different ways.