Strength

The term 'strength' can be defined as the maximum force that is developed within a group of muscles during a single contraction.

A way to improve strength is by using resistance machines. Resistance machines are designed to focus on building strength on a particular muscle, this is depending on what type of machine is used. Not only is it to build strength but it is also used to help develop co-ordination.

 As one type of muscle is being focused on the strength will be increased and will improve. When using resistance machines, technique and posture should remain correct throughout the exercise to ensure that no injuries occur. 

The only way that people are able to benefit from this is, that they must be using the correct weights, if it is too heavy it could cause straining and if it is too light it wont be doing anything for the muscles. 

A sport that would benefit from using resistance machines could be a boxer due to the strength being gained from using the different types of machines for the different muscles. Boxers require a lot of strength in order to be able to beat the opposition. The boxer would have to focus mainly on training his upper body, the reason for this is the explosive strength that he would need during a punch is vital. A well delivered punch involves nearly every muscles in the body, however the muscles that are mostly used are the biceps, the triceps, the pectorals, the trapezius and the deltoids. 

Activities that resistance machines are used to improve the power in the specific muscles that you have chosen to work on include - 

Seated Chest Press Exercise - the picture to the right shows a resistance machine being used for a seated chest press, the muscles that is being focused on in this exercise is both the pectoralis major and minor, the tricep and the deltoids. In order to increase the difficulty of this exercise more reps and sets could be completed. In order to decrease the difficulty of this exercise less reps and sets could be completed. 

Leg Press Exercise - The picture to the right shows a resistance machine being used for a leg press, the muscles that are being focused on this exercise is the group of quadriceps which includes the (rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis and the vastus intermedius), other muscles being used are the gluteals which includes the (luteus maximus, gluteus minimus and post gluteus medius) the last group of muscles being used is the hamstrings this includes the (bicep femoris, semitendinosus and the semibranosus. To make this activity harder more reps and sets could be completed or the weight being used could be made heavier. To make this activity easier less reps and sets could be completed or the weight being used could be lighter.

Seated Bicep Curl - The picture to the right shows a resistance machine being used for a seated bicep curl, the muscles that are focused on during this exercise is the bicep. In order to make this exercise harder then the weight could be increased and more reps and sets could be performed. In order to make this exercise easier then the weight could be decreased and less reps and sets could be performed.

Advantages of using resistance machines are - 

• More than one muscle can be exercised and trained due to there being different choices of training on one machine. 
• They are able to increase the strength in the muscles after training over a few weeks.

Disadvantages of using resistance machines are - 

• You have to join a gym to use one as they are expensive to buy and are a large piece of equipment which would need a lot of space for it to be used. Gyms can also often be time consuming and expensive. 
• If the wrong technique is used, muscles could be strained. 
• You have to find a training partner.