Resistance Training  is the most direct way to add muscle mass and strength to your body. However, there is an unbelievable amount of science and complexity behind this seemingly simple practice. Muscles are intricate devises, and there are many cool ways to trick them into growing bigger and more powerful. This form of exercise allows you to target specific muscle groups and work them to exhaustion. Your body, in an effort to adapt, builds stronger and larger muscles in response to this activity.

When you lift weights, your body quickly uses up all of the oxygen present within the muscle cell. A bi-product of the intracellular activity following the depletion of oxygen is lactic acid. Lactic acid is what makes your muscles burn while you lift. When your muscles have too much lactic acid floating around within them, they cease to function, but it is at this point that they receive the greatest impulse to grow.

 Lifting weights causes a tremendous amount of strain on muscle fibers. This strain creates some damage to the muscle, and depletes its energy stores. Your body must now repair this tissue, and refill the stored sources of fuel. 

Your muscles become sensitive to the body’s anabolic hormones such as insulin and testosterone. They become desperate to absorb proteins to rebuild damaged tissue and both fat and carbohydrates to fuel their function/regrowth. In other words, when muscle cells burn up all of their stored energy, they become more receptive to hormones that help to stuff nutrients into them, creating growth. Your muscles work hard, and then they need to be fed. If proper nutrition exists in conjunction with resistance/weight training, your muscles grow rapidly. One of the main differences between weightlifting and other forms of exercise is that weightlifting allows you to isolate a specific muscle group, and create a massive demand for growth in that section of the body alone. When only exercising one muscle group at a time, that particular muscle fails before the heart becomes exhausted. This allows for site specific growth, and that can be pretty handy for correcting muscle imbalances, creating physical symmetry, or developing power.

Women should understand that their fists will never be their most powerful weapons. While power can be developed in female hands, you might find it more efficient to use them as distractions for some seriously powerful kicks and knees. Men need to understand how much power they truly possess in dealing attacks with their lower bodies in conjunction with their hands. When one learns how to kick and knee correctly, there is so much power in the blow that it takes some conditioning for your own body to be able to handle the impact! However, certain parts of your body seem to have been created to function as weapons. Have you ever pinched the skin on your elbow? It doesn’t even hurt no matter how hard you try. If it doesn’t hurt, then why not hit your opponent with an elbow instead of a fist? There is a seriously jagged bone underneath this hard skin. It almost seems like it was meant for this use.

Muay Thai kickboxing training helps us to use every weapon that nature intended our bodies to have, and to do so with destructive force. This is a great way to have fun, get into shape, and keep yourself safe on the street.