Whether you're accustomed to attending gym-offered group fitness classes or working out to videos in the privacy of your own home, you are probably well aware that resistance training or weight training has been the "it" thing in fitness the past few years. There's a plethora of equipment- resistance tubing, bands, weights, medicine balls, Body bars, Coreboards, Bowflex machines, and everything else under the sun you can lift or pull. Then there is a vast array of classes, including Body Pump, Power Pump, Pilates, Yoga, Body Sculpting. The list is endless. But with all the variety offered comes some confusion. What one mode of toning exercise is the best? Is there a "best" way to tone the muscles of the body?
I am personally a big believer in cross-training and variety. Your muscles get efficient with one format; by switching modalities of resistance or weight training, you can keep your muscles always guessing and working hard. However, the best answer is to do the format that you enjoy the most. If you're doing a workout that you do not enjoy, you will not stick with it and you will never achieve the optimum results. That said, let's discuss the pros and cons of the most popular forms of weight and resistance training.
Machines If you're known as a "gym-rat", you're probably familiar with every weight machine in the gym, but they can be very intimidating to first-timers. If you have never used the weight machines before, it's advisable to have a personal trainer or an experienced friend show you how to use each machine and explain to you what muscles you're working. Each machine isolates a specific muscle, and you can adjust the amount of weight accordingly. The bonus is that you can easily mark your progress by performing a set number of reps and seeing your weight increase every few weeks.
However, machines limit your range of motion, and it does take time to figure out exactly how much weight you can lift on each machine. Also, in many gyms, you will spend a lot of time waiting for a machine, so you do not get to work the muscles in a desired order. Many people also find the machines boring and find that it takes too much self-motivation to count all your reps and encourage yourself to continue your sets.
Body Pump or Power Pump These group fitness class formats use a bar that you can add weighted plates to the ends. The class typically focuses on all the major muscles, spending about five minutes on each muscle group--quadriceps, chest, triceps, biceps, hamstrings and calves, shoulders, back, and abdominals. Body Pump, a trademarked Body Training Systems program, is choreographed to set music, and the routine is repeated for a few weeks before incorporating other songs/choreography. This is a fun workout but is only offered at facilities that pay fees to Body Training Systems.
Power Pump is similar to Body Pump, except that it is not choreographed to set music and is therefore instructor-based. Having an excellent instructor can make this class exciting and motivating. This class also lends itself to a bit more variety than Body Pump, as it often adds the use of tubing, balls, and hand weights.
Body Sculpting This group fitness class can have a variety of other names, but it basically involves working the muscles of the body in any order by any mode--from hand weights to tubing to your body, as in push-ups. This class is great to teach participants how to use a variety of tools to strengthen and sculpt the body. On the downside, it is very instructor-based. If the instructor lacks certain teaching skills, the class may feel choppy. Participants may feel like they took out every toy but didn't really play with them. In other words, they got variety, but didn't work any muscles to the point of true fatigue. As a participant, make sure you select heavier weights or greater-resistance tubing to optimize your own workout.
Pilates/Yoga While Pilates and Yoga typically do not use weights, there are some classes/videos that incorporate the use of very light weights. Because most of the exercises are designed to strengthen without weights, it is often unnecessary to use them. Never use weights heavier than 5 pounds in a yoga or Pilates class. Both yoga and Pilates often use the weight of your own body for resistance, which is why both are so effective. They can also use the Swiss ball for additional stability challenge. They also incorporate a lot of isometric contraction, that is, holding a muscle contraction. Both also focus on core strength and balance, strengthening a variety of muscles at one time rather than isolating muscles. This makes both yoga and Pilates more "functional" (translating to everyday activities better) because we usually use multiple muscles at a time. We hardly ever isolate one muscle in our everyday activity.
Some people believe that weight machines are for men; yoga and Pilates is for women. But this is completely untrue. Men can benefit from yoga and Pilates in so many ways, and both yoga and Pilates were actually originated by men. The other benefit of yoga and Pilates is that they do not lead to as much as injury as Pump and Sculpting classes can incur. This is due to the principles of control, breathing, fluidity of movement, and body awareness that is key to both yoga and Pilates.
After "weighing" the pros and cons, your best bet is always yoga and Pilates. But don't be afraid to try other formats to vary your routine. Above all, find one you enjoy and keeps you motivated to come back for more!
Christy Stevenson, FiTOUR ProTrainer and author of Get on the Ball?A Swiss Ball Workout, has been teaching group fitness classes for several years, earning her AFAA certification in 1999 and her Fitour certification in 2000. Visit her website at swiss-ball-workout.com swiss-ball-workout.com.
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