IES CIUDAD DE HARO

STRENGTH
1. STRENGTH AND HEALTH

1.1. What is strength?

People need strength to carry out a large number of everyday tasks: walking, siting down,

standing up, staying in the same position; grabbing, holding or moving an object; pushing a door, etc. In

general, strength is the capacity to use our muscles to overecome resistance or offset it.

1.2. Types of strength

We can differentiate between various types of strength depending on the weight or opposition we

have to overecome: maximum strength, explosive strength and resistance strength.

Maximum strength Resistance strength Explosive strength

• Capacity to resist • Capacity to move • Capacity to

a maximum a ligth weight overcome a
weitgth in relation repeatedly over an weight by moving
to the person´s extended period with great speed.
potencial. of time. • Is used in fast
• Example: when • Example: is used movement like
pushing against a when climbed throwing a stone.
wall or lifting a stairs, skipping...
very heavy weight.
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1.3. Why work on strength? Strength and health

If strength exercises are carried out from a young age with adequate cirogression, there will be
positive repercussions on our health.

Muscle hypertrophy: this

increases the size of the
muscles and improves
their response to
contraction.

It improves our
appearance and self-
Our bones become more
esteem. We feel more
resistant to traction.
comfortable with
ourselves.

The risk of injury is

reduced by the
It improves body posture. performance of everyday
activities that require
strength.

2. STRENGTH AND THE LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEM: THE MUSCLES

The locomotive system supports the body and makes it possible for us to move. It comprises
muscles, bones, joints and connective tissue, ligaments and tendons.
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Covering the bones are the so-called skeletal or striated muscles. They can be controlled
voluntarly. Skeletal muscles are groups of muscle fibres. These are made up of millions of myofibrils,
which in turn are formed by protein filaments.

How do muscles contract?

The protein filaments slide over one another as they pull together. When this happens, there is

a muscle contraction and the muscle is shortened.

Apart from shortening, muscle fibres are also elastic. This ability is important because the

majority of the body's muscles work in pairs. Thus, a muscle cannot contract if the opposite muscle

- its antagonist - does not remain relaxed and grows longer.

When a muscle contracts, it pulls on the bones and triggers a spe- cific

movement. If that movement is repeated several times with a cer- tain amount of

intensity, it turns into a strength exercise.

MAIN MUSCLES AND THE MOVEMENTS

THEY MAKE WHEN THEY CONTRACT Trapezius: to move the
When the
Deltoids: to move the shoulder blade in towards
quadríceps
arm away from the the spine contracts, the
body
knee extends.The
Wide dorsal: to drop or muscle opposite
Pectoral: to pull
pull the arm in the quadríceps
the arm towards
must remain
the body
Tríceps: to extend the relaxed.
Bíceps: to bend elbow
the elbow
Quadratus lumborum and
Abdominals: to bend
paravertebrals: to extend the trunk
the trunk

Adductors: to draw Gluteuses: to move the leg away from the body
the leg in towards the DID you
body KNOW THAT...?
Ischiotibial muscles: to bend the knee
• The body has more
Quadríceps: to
than 640 muscles.
extend the knee
When we walk, we use
Calf muscles: to extend the ankle over 200 different
Tibialis anterior, to. muscles.
flex the ankle
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3. HAW TO IMPROVE STRENGTH?

3.1. Static and dinamic exercises

Improvement of strength comes as the result of

constant work, there being several in-between stages

before we can specialise. Normally, we have to do

gymnastic exercises, which can be static or dynamic ¡n

nature. In static exercises we adopt a posture with

our body and maintain it for a specific length of time:

from 6 to 10 seconds. Static exercise –push up-

In dynamic exercises, we move our body, or part of it, by

working on the muscles with sufficient intensity to enable them to

adapt to fatigue. These exercises are the most suitable to improve

resistance strength because they make it possible for us to repeat

them 20 to 30 times in a row without causing too much fatigue. An

example of this kind of exercises are like we did in the class of

“functional trining” with the cards: skater, climber, burpee,

jumping jack exercise…etc. Skater exercise

3.2. Body weights and additional weights

Exercises can represent a body weight if the opposition to be

overcome is solely that of our own body; or they can be an

additional weight when, along with our own body weight, we

also have to contend with a supplementary weight, such as a

partner or material object.

The additional weight exercises with a partner can be

performed as a kind of game: pushing, shifting, pulling, etc. (like in some exercises of the Scaperoom)

or in an analytic way, with counter-resistance: both partners put up controlled, constant resistance to

avoid moving, and this has to be overecome with a reasonable amount of exertion.