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Mass, Endurance or Power?

Posted June 28, 2008 at 12:00 PM by Donnell Peavy

Section: His Health, Mental Health, Physical Health, Lifestyle Health

Everyone has different fitness goals. Some have the goal of getting as big as physically possible. Others prefer to have marathon-like stamina, and some want to build raw power. Whatever your goal, there is a training method for it. Knowing how to train for your given goal is essential, as if you are training incorrectly, you goal will never be achieved.

Power
Power is the ability to move a great amount of weight in a minimal amount of time. Olympic lifters, power lifters and strong man competitors are characteristic of this. They rely on their muscles and their neuromuscular system to generate huge amounts of force. Power training consists of compound movements (dead lifts, squats, cleans, etc), with maximal weights for a low number of reps and sets.

Mass
Mass training is geared toward hypertrophy of the muscles. Body builders are a prime example of this. They consume a large amount of calories and lift heavy weight in order to induce growth in the muscles. Mass training involves lifting heavy weights for a moderate number of sets (3 – 5) and reps (5 – 8). Mass training generally involves compound and isolation movements, where the power camp tends to frown upon isolation exercises.

Endurance
Muscular endurance is the ability to perform successive contractions against resistance over an extended period of time. Endurance training usually consists of high (10 – 15) rep sets with light or no weight. As with mass training, both isolation and compound exercises are common.

Whether you want to train for mass, power, strength, endurance or speed, there is a means to that end. In a sense, I guess you can consider weight training as an art form, as it allows a means of self expression through development of the body. You are your own canvas and exercise is the brush that creates your masterpiece.

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Tags: art, donnell peavy donnellpeavy, endurance, endurance training, exercise, mass training, power, power training, self expression, speed training, strength, strength training

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