Physical Education

Unit - 3

3.2.11.1.What Is Resistance Training?
Resistance training is any exercise that causes the muscles to contract against an external resistance with the expectation of increases in strength, tone, mass, and/or endurance. The external resistance can be dumbbells, rubber exercise tubing, your own body weight, bricks, bottles of water, or any other object that causes the muscles to contract.

There are several styles of resistance exercise. There is

• Olympic lifting (where athletes lift the weight overhead like you see in the Olympics),
• Power lifting (a competition where athletes perform the squat, dead lift, and bench press), and
• Weight lifting (a sport where athletes lift heavy weights—typically fewer than six reps).

When you lift weights at the gym to get stronger or bigger or more toned, you are performing resistance exercise. Occasionally you will hear the term "strength training" associated with lifting weights. Technically, it's incorrect to refer to resistance exercise as strength training. Instead, strength training would more accurately be described as resistance exercise that builds strength. In this article, the term resistance exercise will refer to the general type of weight lifting that you do in the gym to get bigger, stronger, more toned, or to increase your muscular endurance.