In “Workout Methods to Attain the Exercise High (Part I)” we talked about cardiovascular workout methods to yield of the positive short-term benefits of exercise. In this part, let us discuss the power of resistance training. From personal experience, as well as working with clients, resistance training can be an even more effective tool in dissipating a bad mood. Let us get right into it.
Resistance Training
Resistance training (also called weight training or weightlifting) typically refers to purposeful physical activity (traditionally by performing dynamic movement) that is designed to improve the strength, power and/or the endurance of specific muscle groups using your bodyweight, free weights, or resistance machines. It is an effective way to increase your happy hormone levels. In fact, when performed regularly, resistance training has the power to make you feel even better following your workout than running (which has earned its reputation as the feel-good method of working out due to the magical state called the runner’s high).
This is because resistance training programs that allow muscles to work at high intensity, with a high volume of total work, create a significant mood boost. Furthermore, we tend to keep our muscular gains for longer than cardiovascular gains, which often helps us stay more motivated in the long term. While we are able to keep muscular gains (e.g. increases in muscle strength and endurance) for up to three weeks without working out, cardiovascular gains often only remain for about one week without training.
A further benefit to resistance training is significant increases in confidence: You will start looking better, be proud of your progress, and become a more resilient person who is not afraid to face the obstacles in your way. Does that make it seem like I’m overselling resistance training? Trust me—I’m not! I’ve seen the tremendous good it can do, both in myself and the people I work with. Let’s examine the different methods of strength training:
Compound Strength Exercises
Can you guess what type of exercise is the most beneficial for the production of our happy hormones? It’s not as difficult as you may think. Recall how in the second chapter we talked about the early hominins millions of years ago evolved into the people we are today. What physical activity did they perform on a regular basis? Was it knee extensions? Calf raises? Bicep curls? Running on a treadmill? No. It was compound movements.
The term compound movements refers to movements that require the use of multiple muscle groups at the same time. It is the contraction of certain muscles in a manner that induces the entire body to move in a certain direction, such as a pull-up when we had to climb up a tree or scale a rocky slope, or when we had to squat down to pick up something heavy. And these activities required us to exhibit quite a lot of muscular strength. Movements of this type contributed greatly to survival, and subsequently evolved the brain circuits that produce the happy hormones responsible for the Exercise High.
Compound strength exercises can be performed either by using your bodyweight, free weights (e.g. dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, other), or by using resistance machines. All of these options are considered safe and effective, assuming that they are performed using the correct technique. For the purpose of adding further variety to your workout routine, it may be beneficial for you to incorporate multiple compound variations into your workouts.
Aim to increase your total volume of work by fatiguing the largest muscle groups first before working on the smaller muscle groups.
Isometric Exercises
A further type of exercise that has been shown to be useful in the production of happy hormones—and can even produce a pain-relieving effect on the joints—are isometric exercises. Isometric workouts include the tightening (contracting) of a single muscle or a closely related group of muscles. Common examples are planks or wall-sits. The muscle length does not alter substantially during isometric activities, meaning that these activities are static in nature. These positions are usually held for 15-30+ seconds and repeated until muscle fatigue with minimal rest periods in between contractions.
When thinking back about ancient times, we frequently had to perform isometric physical activity when hanging from objects, hiding from predators, maintaining a prolonged position as we waited for prey to pass us, and carrying resources back to our communities. It creates a significant challenge to your body that has the ability to enhance your strength, endurance, as well as cardiovascular health. It is why yoga, tai-chi, and wrestling with your siblings can make you feel amazing following your workout.
Isometric exercises are a great tool that I frequently use within my practice as it is quite effective in managing chronic pain. Chronic pain is defined as persistent pain that has been present for three months or longer and often interferes with someone’s ability to function and live happily. Isometric exercises have shown to be great at inducing the pain inhibition response (more so than other forms of exercise), as well as the endurance of muscles that have been deconditioned and are prone to cause compensatory pain elsewhere in the body.
Therefore, isometric exercises are often the preferable method of exercising if you are suffering from an injury.
High-Intensity Resistance Training
We can choose to perform compound and isometric exercises in isolation, but there is a way to combine both (well, in a way), while at the same time providing an amazing workout for your cardiovascular system. This method of training is called high-intensity resistance training (HIRT). HIRT is a great way to create efficient and effective workouts that will save you precious time and add some intensity to your exercise routine. Following my undergraduate degree, I had the amazing opportunity to work as a high-intensity resistance training trainer, pushing people (typically busy professionals) through effective 20 to 30-minute workouts. The results on body and mind after only a few weeks of training were astonishing to me, as well as my clients.
HIRT workouts typically include resistance training exercises performed at a much slower speed and with greater levels of control than traditional resistance training workouts. The Inroad process is the physiological process that underlies high-intensity resistance training. In simple terms, the inroad process refers to the temporary weakening of your musculature. It is the point where even though you try everything in your power to move the resistance, you are unable to do so. Important terms to familiarize ourselves with here are: time under load and momentary muscular failure.
Time Under Load
The term time under load (also called time under muscular tension) refers to the amount of time that your muscles are performing work without being given the opportunity to rest. For traditional strength training workouts, this is quantified in the amount of repetitions that are performed. However, during a HIRT workout we are moving at a much slower speed, so counting repetitions becomes a less reliable measurement. Adopting the technique of timing our muscle group’s “time under load”, starting at the point where you initially lift the load and ending at the point when you drop the load, allows us to measure our exercise volume more reliably, and recognise smaller gradations of performance improvement.
Momentary Muscular Failure
Momentary muscular failure (MMF) is defined as the point where you cannot lift the weight actively through the active joint’s full available motion. Ideally, you want MMF to occur about 100 – 120 seconds into your set (so try to adjust your weight accordingly), to allow sufficient time to fatigue your muscles. It is the point that lets you know that you are getting close to finishing your set and that you are close to successfully inroading your active musculature. At this point in your set you may experience moderate-severe sensations of mental panic and the urge to escape the pain, while you are pushing your muscles capabilities to near maximum.
The important thing to remember is that you are not causing harm to your body by pushing through this point as long as your exercise technique is correct. It is a unique sensation that I recommend everyone to try out at some point in their lives, and is rewarded with an often overwhelming mood-boosting rush. You may have difficulty with this at the start, but you will become better at this after you have performed a few workouts. Be careful not to overexert yourself during your workout as a whole, or you may negatively affect your ability to create the Exercise High.
HIRT Example
Now, this type of exercising may sound very new to you. The good news is that it is not that complicated to implement into your routine. You can perform HIRT through bodyweight or weight lifting exercises. Let me give you an example. Let us say you are performing a squat. You choose to hold a dumbbell close to your chest throughout this exercise to increase the exercise intensity.
First, you want to get into your starting position and start descending your body very slowly as low as you feel comfortable going for a count of five seconds. Once you reach the bottom, stop for a second and move back up at the same speed. Remember to breathe continuously and that the goal of HIRT with the dumbbell squat is to inroad (i.e. to fully fatigue) your leg musculature, so minimize the break when standing. If you choose the weight of your dumbbell properly, you should be able to last about 100-120 seconds until you reach MMF.
HIRT is a great way to add greater levels of intensity to simple exercises. I do not recommend that you start out with this type of exercising if you are a beginner. Rather use it as a tool for progressing your exercises once you become more experienced. I recommend that you start out with a knowledgeable personal trainer next to you, as your technique should be proper to optimize your safety.