Anatomy for Strength and Fitness Training for Women E-Book

Mark Vella

• Herausgeber: IMM Lifestyle Books
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Seitenzahl: 224

Beschreibung

Scientific research has made it clear that a woman's body should be exercised differently from a man's, and that her training program should be adjusted to suit her body type and transformations as she moves through the various life stages.Anatomy for Strength and Fitness Training for Women is a unique guide, reference work, and graphic education tool suitable for any woman interested in understanding her own body, how it functions during exercise, and how to formulate a personal exercise program.Over 90 exercises are provided to help you sculpt your entire body with gym weights, free weights, aerobics, and stretching, including:- Swimming- Transverse activation in four-point kneeling- Barbell bench press- Cable cross-over- Freestanding barbell squats- Hip abductor machine- Seesaw with ball- Seated low cable pulley rows- Machine shoulder press- Dumbbell standing lateral raise- Rear deltoid machine- French curl- Cable tricep push-down- Supine hip flexion stretch- Plank to downward-facing dog- Child stretch- And much more!The exercises are featured in clear anatomical detail and are grouped by aerobic training, abdominals, chest, legs and hips, back and shoulders, arms, and stretches and flexibility. Each exercise incorporates a full-body illustration plus instructions on proper execution and technique. Start and finish positions are shown, and supplementary information is included by way of hints and tips.Inside this informative 144-page guide, you'll also find a method of assessing your own fitness which you can use to help you choose the correct type of program for your life stage and fitness level. Sample programs illustrate how you can choose a program based on the needs you have established in the assessment.Build a better you by understanding how your body performs when exercising, with Anatomy for Strength and Fitness Training for Women!

Leseprobe

Dedication

To my late parents, I wish you could have seen this one too. This book is dedicated to you and your legacy. Time has not faded the memories, but has made them stronger.

Author’s Acknowledgments

Over the past 19 years, my journey through the health sciences has been paved with brilliant teachers and students along the way. Thank you to my colleagues Sally Lee and Tanya Wyatt, two of the best health and fitness professionals I am likely to ever know, for raising the bar. This book is a creative collaboration. To artist James Berrangé, for your enthusiasm, insight and commitment to this project – without you, this book would just be a good idea. To the team at New Holland and McGraw-Hill, thank you, thank you, thank you.

A book like this requires a lot of help. Abundant thanks are due to the following:

•   For his mentorship, Professor Graham Louw, Department of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town

•   For her generosity, Caroline Powrie, curator of the Anatomy Museum at Groote Schuur

•   For making our lives simpler, Virgin Active Gym, Long Street, Cape Town

•   Our fantastic models, Lara Turk and Terri Bruning of Cape Town City Ballet

•   For her reliability, Glennis Harris of the ETA

•   For their expediency and kind permission, David Brewer and Christa Dickey of the ACSM, David O’Brien and Gill Watson of Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins

Disclaimer Many of the exercises have a degree of risk of injury if done without adequate instruction and supervision. It is recommended that you get a proper fitness assessment before undertaking any of the exercises, and that you seek qualified instruction if you are a total beginner. The book does not constitute medical advice, and the author and publisher cannot be held liable for any loss, injury, or inconvenience sustained by anyone using the information in it.

CONTENTS

PART 1

ANATOMY AND EXERCISE PROGRAMMES

Building a better you

Anatomical definitions and terminology

Exercise analyses and principles

Devising a programme

Exercise programmes

PART 2

THE EXERCISES

1. Aerobic Training

Walking

Jogging and running

Aerobics

Swimming and aqua-aerobics

Aerobic machines

2. Abdominals, Stabilization and Balance

Posture basics

Seated ball balance

Transverse activation in four-point kneeling

Plank pose stabilization on ball

Shell prone ball roll-up

Abdominal stabilization programme

Two-stage crunch

Reverse incline bench sit-up

Body-weight oblique crunch – ball between legs

Combination crunch

Hip flexor apparatus

Mid-back scapular stabilization on bench

Kneeling heel touch

3. Chest

Body-weight modified push-ups

Wall push-ups on bar

Bench press machine

Incline dumb-bell bench press

Barbell bench press

Body-weight dips

Incline pec deck machine

Dumb-bell flat bench flyes

Cable cross-over

4. Legs and Hips

Squats with ball between legs

Freestanding barbell plié squats

Freestanding barbell squats

Machine incline leg press

Barbell reverse lunge

Freestanding lateral lunge

Bench step

Modified barbell bent leg deadlift

Double leg bridge with shoulder flexion

Ball bridge

Side-lying ball lift

Hip abductor machine

Hip adductor machine

Supine adductor stabilization with ball

Cable hip abductions

Prone hip extensions

Machine lying leg curl

Seesaw with ball

Yoga quad stretch with forward lean

Freestanding calf raise

Seated calf raise machine

5. Back and Shoulders

Machine cable front lateral pull-down

Chin-up assist machine

Standing cable pull-over

Standing reverse grip cable rows

Seated low cable pulley rows

Supported bent-over row machine

Dumb-bell bent-over rows

Prone back extension on ball

Back extension apparatus

Alternate arm and leg raises on ball

Machine shoulder press

Dumb-bell seated shoulder press

Dumb-bell standing lateral raise

Rear deltoid machine

Seated bent-over dumb-bell raises on ball

Rotator cuff stabilization with theraband

6. Arms

Seated overhead tricep extension on ball with theraband

Supine barbell French curl

Tricep machine

Cable tricep push-down

Tricep rope pull-down

Standing barbell curl

Seated incline dumb-bell curl with supination

Dumb-bell concentration curl

7. Stretches and Flexibility

Neck and shoulder stretch

Standing chest and anterior shoulder stretch

Ball shoulder stretch

Seated side stretch on ball

Full-body stretch

Supine hip flexion stretch

Spine roll

Side-to-side hip rolls

Supine lying gluteus stretch

Supine lying single leg hamstring stretch

Seated stride into saw stretch

Supine lying deep external rotators stretch

Standing iliopsoas stretch

Gastrocnemius stretch

Plank to downward-facing dog

Child stretch

Glossary

Index

Resources

BUILDING A BETTER YOU

Research in the last ten years has made it clear that a woman’s body should be exercised differently from a man’s. Additionally, due to the physiological differences and the distinct cycles of a woman’s life, her training programme should be adjusted to suit her body type and transformations as she moves through the various life stages. Anatomy for Strength and Fitness Training for Women combines valuable training information, exercise illustration and analysis of female-specific exercises, as well as guides on how to do each exercise properly. It is a unique guide, reference and education tool for any woman interested in understanding her own body and formulating a personal exercise programme, as well as for practitioners involved in exercise science and anatomy such as trainers, teachers and students.

How to use this book

Anatomy for Strength and Fitness Training for Women is both a visual and textual analysis of common exercises, and a guide to how to do various exercises properly.

The introductory section offers an explanation of basic anatomical movement terminology and exercise analysis, as well as a self-assessment of fitness and body types that can be used in choosing a personal exercise programme. The sample programmes that follow illustrate how to choose a routine based on the needs you have established in the assessment.

The core of the book is the exercise section. It covers aerobic training, the development of the postural stabilizers, exercises for the chest, legs and hips, back and shoulders, and arms, as well as static stretches. Each part begins with a basic introduction focused on the body part or type of training covered. Every exercise is covered independently, and defined and given some background. There is a ‘how-to’ guide to doing the exercise, as well as a visual and technical exercise analysis describing which muscles are being used as mobilizers and postural stabilizers. The start position is usually depicted in line drawings.

The adult human body has more than 600 muscles and 206 bones. In this book, emphasis is placed on the 70 or so main muscles involved in movement and stabilization. Many of the smaller muscles, as well as the deep small muscles of the spine and muscles of the hands and feet, are not given specific attention – if they were, it could take several pages to analyse just one exercise and movement.

Schematic diagram of how the exercise pages are structured

ANATOMICAL DEFINITIONS AND TERMINOLOGY

Anatomy has its own language and, although technical, it is quite logical, originating mostly from Latin and Greek root words that make it easier to learn and understand the names of muscles, bones and other anatomy parts.

The musculoskeletal system

The body comprises an integration of approximately twelve distinct systems that continuously interact to control the multitude of complex bodily functions. This book specifically illustrates and analyses the systems that control movement and posture, namely the muscular and skeletal system, which is often jointly referred to as the musculoskeletal system.

The skeletal system consists of bones, ligaments (which join bone to bone) and joints (technically known as articulations). Adults have 206 bones in a skeleton weighing about 8–9 kg (18–20 lb). The skeletal system acts as a movement framework. Muscles attach to bone and cross joints. Where they cross free-moving joints, contraction of the muscles causes joint movement.

The muscular system is made up of three types of muscle tissue, namely cardiac, smooth and skeletal.

Cardiac muscle forms the heart walls, and smooth muscle tissue is found in the walls of internal organs such as the stomach and blood vessels. Both types of muscle are activated involuntarily through the autonomic nervous system and hormonal action. Of the 700 or so muscles in a woman’s body, approximately 650 are skeletal muscles. On average, half of the body’s weight is muscle, and three-quarters of this is water.

Muscles attach to bone via tendons. These attachment points are referred to as the origin and the insertion. The origin is the point of attachment that is proximal (closest to the root of a limb), or closest to the mid-line or centre of the body. It is usually the least moveable tendon, and acts as the anchor point in muscle contraction. The insertion is the point of attachment that is distal (furthest from the root of a limb), or furthest from the mid-line or centre of the body. It is usually the most moveable part and can be drawn towards the origin.

Knowing the origin and insertion points of a muscle, which joint or joints the muscle crosses and what movement it effects at that joint or joints is a key element of exercise analysis.

Anatomical terms

The anatomical position

When learning anatomy and analysing movement we refer to the standard reference position of the human body, known as the ‘anatomical position’. All movements and the location of the anatomical structures are named as if the person was standing in this standard position.

The anatomical position is described as follows: the body is in a standing position and facing forwards, the legs and feet are together, and the arms hang loosely at the sides with the palms facing forwards.

Anatomical terms of position and direction

There are standard terms of position and direction that describe the position of body structures, or their relationship to other body parts. The human body is a complex, three-dimensional structure, and knowing the proper anatomical terms of position and direction will help you to compare one point on the body to another, and to understand where it is in relation to other anatomical structures. The terms are standard whether the person is sitting, standing or lying down.

Anatomical terms of position and direction

Position

Definition

Example of usage

Anterior

Towards the front, pertaining to the front

The abdominal muscles are found on the anterior aspect of the body

Posterior

Towards the back, pertaining to the rear

The hamstring muscles are situated on the posterior aspect of the leg

Superior

Above another structure, towards the head

The shoulder is superior to the hip

Inferior

Below another structure, towards the feet

The hip is inferior to the shoulder

Lateral

Away from the mid-line, on or towards the outside

The outside of the knee joint is its lateral aspect

Medial

Towards the mid-line of the body, pertaining to the middle or centre

The inside of the knee joint is its medial aspect

Proximal

Closest to the trunk or root of a limb. Also sometimes used to refer to the origin of a muscle.

The hip joint is proximal to the knee

Distal

Situated away from the mid-line or centre of the body, or root of a limb. Also sometimes used to refer to a point away from the origin of a muscle.

The toes are the most distal part of the leg

Superficial

Closer to the surface of the body, more towards the surface of the body than another structure

The Rectus femoris is the most superficial of the quadricep muscles

Deep

Further from the surface, relatively deeper into the body than another structure

The heart is deep to the ribs that protect it

Prone

Lying face downwards

Prone back extensions are done, as the name suggests, from a prone lying starting position

Supine

Lying on the back, face upwards

Abdominal crunches are performed from a supine lying starting position

Joint movements

Knowing and understanding the body’s movements, and at which joints they occur, is essential for analysing an exercise.

Types of joint

Some joints in the body are fixed or semi-fixed, allowing very little or no movement. For example, the bones of the skull join together in joint structures known as sutures to form fixed joints; but where the spine joins the pelvis, the sacroilliac joint is semi-fixed and allows minimal movement (‘sacro’ from sacrum, ‘iliac’ pertaining to the pelvic crest). A third category, synovial joints, comprises free-moving joints that move in different ways determined by their particular shapes, sizes and structures.

Synovial joints are the most common joints in the body. They are characterized by a joint capsule that surrounds the articulation, the inner membrane of which secretes lubricating synovial fluid, stimulated by movement. Typical synovial joints include the shoulders, knees, hips and ankles, and the joints of the hands, feet and vertebrae. Of all the joints, the knee joint is the largest, the hip joint is the strongest and the shoulder joint is potentially the most unstable.

Joint action

When performing an activity such as lifting weights or running, a combination of nerve stimulation and muscular contraction facilitates the movement that occurs at the synovial joints. When doing a bicep curl, for example, the weight rises because the angle of the elbow joint closes as the bicep muscles, which attach from the upper arm bones to the forearm (radius and ulna), shorten in contraction, thereby lifting the forearm.

Joint movement pointers

Most joint movements have common names that apply to most major joints, but there are some specific movements that only occur at one specific joint. The common joint movements occur in similar anatomical planes of motion. For example, shoulder, hip and knee flexion all occur in the same plane. This makes it more logical and easier to learn about joint movements and movement analysis. In the table on the next page, common movements are listed first, followed by specific movements that only occur at one joint.

In general, movement is paired with the joint moved, for example shoulder flexion, knee extension, spinal rotation, scapular depression and so on. Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to name the movement and a limb or body part. For example, ‘leg extension’ does not clarify where in the leg the movement occurs – at the knees, hips or ankles.

Movements generally occur in pairs. For a ‘forwards’ movement there must be a ‘backwards’ movement to return to the original starting position. Typical pairs of movements are flexion and extension, abduction and adduction, internal rotation and external rotation, and protraction and retraction. You will notice these pairs of movements when you look at the analyses in the exercise section.

All movements are named as if the person is standing in the anatomical position as described on page 9 so, for example, ‘elbow flexion’ is the same whether the person is standing, lying supine or sitting.

How a woman’s body differs from a man’s

Skeletal differences

A woman’s skeleton is usually smaller and smoother than that of a man. Overall she is 7 per cent shorter and 8 per cent smaller. However, skeletal proportions vary, so that a woman’s torso is usually longer, and proportionately longer from waist to feet. With different somatotypes (see page 14) this shifts, with ectomorphs typically having longer legs than men of the same height. This increases leverage and injury risk on the knees. A woman also has a lower centre of gravity than a man, giving her better balance.

Muscle and connective tissues

Basic measures of body strength show that females generally have 30–50 per cent less strength than males. This is mainly in the upper body, where men are about 40 per cent stronger. Women typically have less muscle mass and more body fat. Additionally, a man’s taller and wider skeletal frame provides a leverage advantage. However, ‘female muscle’ and ‘male muscle’ are exactly the same. There are no inherent gender differences in muscle quality or capacity, and women can generally generate the same force per unit of muscle as men. Furthermore, with training they make the same relative strength improvements.

In certain sports, such as climbing, dance and aspects of gymnastics, the lower centre of gravity, flexibility, strength-to-weight ratio, and shorter levers give a woman a better relative strength ratio.

Fat tissue

Two types of body fat make up total body fat, namely fat stored mainly within the organs and muscles essential for the various body processes, and adipose tissue stored more underneath the skin of the body. Excess fat is stored in adipose tissue.

High testosterone and growth hormone in men creates greater muscle mass with higher basal metabolism-consuming energy. Men can therefore eat relatively more and expend more energy than women. Oestrogen in women, on the other hand, increases fat storage in a woman’s body.

Women have more essential body fat than men (3 per cent as opposed to 12 per cent), as well as greater body fat percentages. For a woman in her twenties a healthy body fat percentage would be 23–27 per cent. The equivalent in a man would be 16 per cent. After the age of 45, a healthy woman would have 32 per cent body fat compared with 25 per cent in a man.

In men, adipose fat deposition occurs mainly around the stomach. In women it is distributed between the hips and buttocks, in the inner thighs and in small sites at the backs of the upper arms and around the navel and medial knee. The breasts are also filled with fat, which encloses the mammary glands.

Women are more likely to experience weight shifts than men, particularly if they experience early menopause, or are sedentary or overweight to begin with.

Elevated fat levels are therefore a normal part of a woman’s physiology. Exercise consultation should define excess versus healthy fat levels, and programming should set realistic goals and expectations of what is possible and healthy to strive for.

Major joint movements

GENERAL MOVEMENTS

Plane

Description

Example

Abduction

Coronal

Movement away from the mid-line

Hip abduction

Adduction

Coronal

Movement towards the mid-line

Hip adduction

Flexion

Sagittal

Decreasing the angle between two structures

Moving the forearm towards the upper arm. Standing Barbell Curl

Extension

Sagittal

Increasing the angle between two structures

Moving the forearm away from the upper arm. As above, downward phase.

Medial rotation (internal rotation)

Transverse

Turning around the vertical axis of a bone towards the mid-line

Cable Cross-over

Lateral rotation (external/outward rotation)

Transverse

Turning around the vertical axis of a bone away from the mid-line

Turning at the waist

Circumduction

All planes

Complete circular movement at shoulder or hip joints

Swinging the arms in circles

SPECIFIC MOVEMENTS

1. Ankle movements

Plantarflexion

Sagittal

Moving the foot downwards

Freestanding Calf Raise (upward phase)

Dorsiflexion (Dorsal flexion)

Sagittal

Moving the foot towards the shin

Freestanding Standing Calf Raise (downward phase)

2. Forearm movements (the radioulnar joint)

Pronation

Transverse

Rotating the wrist and hand medially from the elbow

Standing Dumb-bell Curl

Supination

Transverse

Rotating the wrist and hand laterally from the elbow

Making circular movements with your hand

3. Scapula movements

Depression

Coronal

Movement of the scapulae inferiorly, e.g. squeezing scapulae downwards

To stabilize the shoulder girdle, e.g. Hip Flexor Apparatus

Elevation

Coronal

Movement of the scapulae superiorly, e.g. hunching the shoulders

Dumb-bell Seated Shoulder Press (up)

Abduction (protraction)

Transverse

Movement of the scapulae away from the spine

Seated Low Cable Pulley Rows

Adduction (retraction)

Transverse

Movement of the scapulae towards the spine

As above

Downward rotation (medial rotation)

Coronal

Scapulae rotate downwards, in the return from upward rotation

Machine Cable Front Lateral Pull-down

Upward rotation (lateral rotation)

Coronal

Scapulae rotate upwards. The inferior borders of the scapulae move laterally and upwards.

As above

4. Shoulder movements

Horizontal abduction/extension (transverse abduction)

Transverse

Movement of the humerus across the body away from the mid-line

Dumb-bell Flat Bench Flyes

Horizontal adduction/flexion (transverse adduction)

Transverse

Movement of the humerus across the body towards the mid-line

As above

5. Spine/trunk movements

Lateral flexion

Coronal

Movement of the trunk away from the mid-line in the coronal plane

Seated Side Stretch on Ball

EXERCISE ANALYSES AND PRINCIPLES

Purpose of exercise analysis

Analysing an exercise enables you to understand what joints and muscles are being used in a certain movement and how they are moving. Changing the movement, or doing the movement incorrectly, affects both the muscles used to perform the exercise and how they are used. Exercise analysis can also help you to determine if the muscles you intend to train are in fact being utilized in the specific exercise being done, as well as whether you are doing the exercise correctly.

Somatotyping

The word ‘somatotyping’ literally means ‘body typing’. The term is used in a system of classification of human physical types, according to which human beings can be grouped in terms of three extreme body types. Endomorphs tend to relative fatness, mesomorphs to relative musculoskeletal robustness or muscularity, and ectomorphs to relative linearity or slenderness. Assessing your somatotype will indicate what your particular mix of these three types is. In turn, the somatotype will suggest certain traits – for example, ectomorphs often show better aerobic ability than endomorphs, who show better power and strength capacity.

Endomorphs

Female endomorphs tend to be pear shaped (which means that they carry weight mainly around the hips), and convert to more of an apple shape after the menopause. This is due to increased intra-abdominal fat being laid down in the abdomen at this time. Male endomorphs tend to be apple shaped, that is abdominally obese. Overall, endomorphs struggle to lose weight and tend to gain it more easily than the other somatotypes. Women are more likely to be endomorphic than men.

Mesomorphs

Female mesomorphs tend to be hourglass shaped, with smaller waists compared with the bust and hips, which are the same size. This shape, although popular, is less common in women than in men.

Ectomorphs

Ectomorphic women struggle to gain weight and have less curvature and shape than the other somatypes. While they recover relatively quickly from exercise, their longer levers and reduced muscle mass increase their need for postural and strength conditioning.

Starting out

As you kindle the exercise habit, expect to go through three distinct phases. Knowing these will help put your feelings in each phase into perspective. It is quite normal for progress to seldom be smooth from one phase to another. It is common to have lapses and relapses, but with consistent perseverance you will move through them. If you get bored easily, introduce some variation to your programme. It may also be an idea to initially train with an exercise partner.

The three phases of motivation

Resistance phase

In this initial phase, which lasts 6–12 weeks, expect your motivation to be relatively low and your resistance to exercise to be high. The key is to be consistent. Keep your workout appointments. The programme should be fairly uncomplicated and err on the conservative side, but challenging enough to feel worthwhile. This phase often reveals what the assessment did not, and may lead to you reconsidering your goals or choice of programme. While you are probably not seeing much physical change, you should be feeling improvements by the third week. Most people report better sleep as the first change.

Transition phase

In the second phase, which lasts some 3–6 months, physical results should have started to show. You may start to over-train because you are tempted to try for more changes. Instead, keep trying to get maximum results from minimum effort. Use your three-month fitness reassessment to make necessary adjustments in your programme based on how your test scores have changed. You should also begin to become more aware of the subtler aspects of your fitness and health. Training frequency usually reaches its peak by this stage.

Intrinsic phase

This point is reached when your motivation to exercise comes from the inside and is an established lifestyle habit. You may by now have homed in on some aspect of training you enjoy, such as aerobics or swimming, and be including exercise as an established part of your diary. To offset a training plateau and getting into a complete rut, try to keep varying the programme every three months or so. This may also be a good time to consult a specialist trainer to further individuate your training or acquire more technical information and skills.

Principles you should know

Functional training involves using your body in a way that is similar to day-today movement. Most functional training employs compound exercises, namely those that use more than one muscle group and joint at a time, and that are generally close chain and weight bearing. Functional training is a part of health-related fitness, which is a part of everyday health, ensuring optimum quality of life for everyday demands. It is usually defined by the variables of cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, strength, strength endurance and flexibility, with cardiovascular fitness being regarded as the most important because it has the greatest influence on our health. The definition has begun to also consider and include aspects such as postural strength.

The principles of exercise are based on the laws of nature. Understanding them will help you exercise in a safe and effective manner, and ensure the best results.

SAID principle

According to the principle of Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands (SAID), your body will predictably change, through an adaptive process, in response to the exercise demands that are placed on it. This means that if you stretch regularly (stimulus) it can improve your flexibility (response) as your body becomes more supple (adaptation) to handle the increased range of movement demands placed upon it. Each component of physical fitness can be developed and trained. The adaptation is also specific to the response. If you run regularly, you will become a better runner. If you cycle regularly, you will become a better cyclist. Your training programme should thus be specific to the desired response.

This principle also illustrates why it is important to train in postures and functional positions, and in a manner that is closest to the demands of your life. For example, exercising in standing positions contributes to strengthening the spine and trunk and leg stabilizers, contributing to their fitness for everyday activities. How fast adaptation will occur varies in individuals, but those just beginning to exercise or in the lowest ranges of functional capacity are likely to improve the quickest.

Overload principle

In order to gain improvement in fitness, the body must be stimulated beyond its current capacity. Therefore if you wish to gain strength, you must train with a weight stimulus that is higher than your current capacity. This amount of stimulus is called the overload. Too great an overload can, however, cause injury.

FITT principle

There are four major variables of overload to any training plan or exercise prescription. These are frequency, intensity, type and time or duration. Your training programme will be incomplete if these are not incorporated into your plan. To maximize overload you can increase training in any of the four major variables.

Progression principle

Over time, adaptation to the initial training stimulus occurs. To overcome this plateau, the overload must further increase.

Reversibility principle

It is often said, ‘Use it or lose it.’ This is a simple illustration of the reversibility principle. Adaptation made through training stimulus may be lost if the stimulus is discontinued.

Rest/effort balance principle

Rest and recovery periods are as much a part of training as is training itself, and must be balanced with training. Resting too much results in regression, whereas training too much results in overtraining.