If you are trying to decide whether to start doing Pilates or weight training, how about opting for both methods?
When deciding to focus our energies and our time off to start a physical exercise program with monitoring, we must keep in mind the search for information about it, so that we can enjoy the sensations and transformations that our body will experience from the choices made. The most important thing in this new challenge will be to carry out these activities with constancy and discipline so that the results begin to appear. As we already know, we are always in a hurry so that our body undergoes changes such as, for example, weight loss, muscle mass gain, flexibility, among others and, we forget that for this to happen, we must be surrounded by professionals
The guidance of Physical Education and/or Physiotherapy professionals will be essential at this time. We should not be in a hurry, the reward will come and give us a stronger body that is at the same time elongated and balanced. We will then understand what these methods are and what they are for, so we will have more confidence and certainty of great results. Let’s start by talking about bodybuilding, a strengthening method that is very widespread in the world and that attracts many fans.
Bodybuilding
Resistance exercise or strength training with weights where you work with variations in load, contraction time, range of motion, and speed. It is possible to work with isometry (where the contraction is maintained without moving weights or devices) and isokinetic, that is, with constant angular velocity. Isotonic is a continuous or interval way where there is an alternation of concentric and eccentric contractions, light, moderate or intense, using aerobic and anaerobic resources. It uses the force of gravity and the resistance generated by equipment and free weights (bars, washers, and dumbbells) to oppose forces to muscles that, in turn, must generate opposite force through muscle contractions that can be concentric, eccentric, and isometric. The technique uses series of repetitions of the exercises and can have different methodologies. This form of physical training is used for athletic purposes by improving the performance of athletes, aesthetic in the development of muscle volume and health, assisting in the treatment of muscle, bone, metabolic diseases, improvement in mobility, posture, etc. You must also take into account whether you are a beginner, intermediate or veteran in this modality, as the training must respect the level at which the practitioner is. To better understand the use of weight training we also need to know the meaning of the word hypertrophy, but specifically muscle hypertrophy.
Muscular hypertrophy
Most bodybuilders seek this activity to promote muscle hypertrophy. It is responsible for increasing muscle mass, causing visible muscle growth through physical demands imposed by exercise. Knowing that when we perform heavy training, some muscle fibers break, and this will cause micro-injuries that happen due to the effort that we are often not used to. This causes the body to react to this stimulus, creating a healing process and increasing the synthesis of contractile proteins, and consequently the size of the muscle. As the tissue becomes hypertrophied it stops responding to the stimuli it is used to and to become even bigger and more hypertrophied it will be necessary to change the stimulus. These changes can be made through, for example, increased overload, increase in the number of seats, change in the type of exercise, and change in the training strategy. In order for hypertrophy to occur, one must also take into account the supply of oxygen and nutrients so that the body’s physiological requirements are greater.
Then the student must pay attention to breathing and also to the nutritional contribution (diet) for better muscle gain. This is just a summary of what happens because it is a much more complex process, hypertrophy is the result of several factors. We must always remember that looking for a specialized Physical Education professional will always be the solution for better monitoring of your training.
Uniting Pilates and Bodybuilding
Pilates and Bodybuilding The practitioner of weight training or Pilates can add one activity to the other when deciding his weekly exercise. It will be very important that you communicate with both the Pilates instructor and the gym teacher who is or wants to practice the activities together so that both can adapt the training routines aimed at a better quality in the training structure. One should always remember the characteristics, for example, sex, age, profession, degree of physical conditioning, goals, and others to achieve a better result. We must remember that even those who really like to exercise should not take Pilates and weight training classes on the same day. The ideal is that one day you do a type of exercise and alternate the other day of modality. Taking into account the differences and particularities between the two activities, the training structure should be divided in such a way that there is no overload of training in the muscle groups. A well-divided workout will provide excellent results. We will use as an example basic training so that this proposal can be better visualized (remembering that this training must be prescribed individually.