Weight training is a safe activity, but it has the potential for danger because the equipment you're using weighs a lot. Drop a weight on your toe, and it will hurt! Twist the wrong way while holding a weight, and you will pull a muscle. Lift too much weight, and you'll hurt yourself so much that you won't be lifting for a while.

Stabilize your body weight and keep an erect back, not arching or swaying. Think of a cord coming out of the top of your head and pulling your entire spine erect. For most of the standing exercises, your feet should be shoulder-width apart. Rarely will an upright exercise call for your feet to be close together or touching each other. That is a sure way to lose balance.

As a general rule, you should exercise larger muscles before smaller ones. Smaller muscles help the larger muscles perform their work; if they are too exhausted from being worked out, the larger muscles will not be able to work as hard. Never weight train the same muscle group on two successive days. If you exercised your arms on Monday, do not work the arms again until Wednesday. Remember, this rest period is the time when muscle fibers repair and come back even stronger. If you want to strength train six days a week, then split up your routine so that rest and recovery can occur on different muscle groups.

Lift and Lower with Strength

There are two phases of exercise: the concentric and the eccentric. Those are technical terms for shortening and lengthening of muscles. When you bend your elbow to perform a biceps curl, you can see the muscle balling up or shortening; that is the concentric phase. When you slowly release the arm to your starting position, you are lengthening the muscle; that is the eccentric phase. Both phases work the muscles. During exercise, you want to exhibit control during both phases of the exercise, moving smoothly and slowly.

Take approximately four seconds to complete each phase of exercise. A common error is to work hard while performing the concentric, shortening phase of strength training, and then relaxing and letting gravity return the weight to the starting position. This is a waste of a strength-gaining opportunity, and it sets you up for injury by not balancing the strength gain.

When you lift weights, contract the muscles you're working, rather than passively allowing gravity to do the work for you. This actively stresses the muscle fibers, and your muscles will work more efficiently and respond more favorably.

Finally, make sure you exercise all of your muscle groups, with a few exercises per group. The groups you want to include are the back, chest, shoulders, triceps, biceps, abdominals, gluteals, hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves. But if that list overwhelms you and you find it impossible to fit all the groups into your life right now, then select one or two areas to get started; as you become familiar and comfortable with them, you can add others to your routine. Again, make sure that you don't exercise the same muscle group on two successive days.

When You're Sore

You should feel something in your muscles after you work out; typically, you will notice it most the morning after you exercise. Muscle soreness is actually a good sign. You want to get those sore muscles moving; when you do, you stimulate blood flow to the muscles, which facilitates recovery and growth. Think of the activity as massaging the muscle. But use your head. You don't want to work out sore muscles as hard as you can. Ease up on them a bit, and you will notice how, even after a few minutes of exercise, your sore muscles will actually feel better. Muscle soreness is also a healthy reminder to do some stretching and flexibility exercises.