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Fluid-Loaded Exercise Equipment
Fluid-loaded exercise equipment uses a volume of fluid, usually water, as the load in place of steel or cast iron plates used as the resistance mechanism in various designs of exercise machines. Equipment designs that incorporate fluid media provide unique benefits for fitness training, weight lifting and physical therapy progams, collectively referred to as strength training programs.

Fluid-Loaded Free Weights:
The most common forms of free weights are known as the dumbbell, and the barbell. Ankle weights and wrist weights are also a form of free weights.

Fluid-Loaded dumbbells and Ankle Weights as developed by AquaBells (Spokane, WA ) www.aquabells.com use collapsible chambers that can be filled with water. The dumbbell set weighs 26 ounces when empty and up to 16 lbs each when filled with water. The ankle weights weigh less than 8 ounces when empty and up to 4 lbs each when filled with water.

Advantages of Fluid-Loaded Free Weights over conventional Free Weights include: Disadvantages of Fluid-Loaded Free Weights over conventional Free Weights include:
 * Portability and storage: for travelers who want to maintain their strength training programs while on the road or work out in the privacy of their hotel rooms, this equipment fits easily in a suitcase without excessive bulk or weight.
 * Vinyl and polystyrene construction: allows the equipment to be immersed in water for pool exercises and are also quiet unlikely to cause any serious damage if dropped as compared to metal dumbbells.
 * The maximum weights limit the effectiveness of a workout for many users.
 * Various exercises require varying amounts weights. Alternately filling and draining may become tiresome or time consuming.

Fluid-Loaded Weight Stack:
There are numerous designs of single station and multi-station exercise machines that use a weight stack (see stack machines ) and are among the most common designs found in exercise gyms and rehabilitation studios. Each of these machines provide specific exercises for target muscle groups A fluid-loaded weight-stack is one whereby some or all of the standard plates of a stack are replaced with a reservoir of water that is alternately raised and lowered at the end of a cable, exactly like a conventional weight-stack.

Equipment developed by Afterburner Fitness Inc. ( Ontario, Canada) www.afterburnerfitness.com uses 2 reservoirs; one being a “Load Tank”, which sits atop of the weight stack whereby a volume of water can be loaded or unloaded via hoses connected between it and the “Charge Tank”, which sits proximally to the weight stack on the floor.

The main difference between this and a conventional weight stack is that the amount of weight being lifted can be adjusted during the course of the exercise. For example, the weight can be increased during the warm up phase up to a heavier weight when the muscles are strongest, and then reduced proportionally as the muscles fatigue over the duration of the exercise without stopping to change the amount of weight.

Fluid-Loaded weight stacks can be integrated with automation and computer controls, allowing for precise control of the amount of weight being lifted, and help maintain muscular intensity for each repetition.

Advantages of a Fluid-Loaded Weight Stack over conventional Weight Stack include:
 * Varying the weight over the course of the exercise can maintain muscular intensity, providing a more efficient work out in less time.
 * Precision control of the weight of water can be to a fraction of a pound instead of 10 pound plates. This is beneficial for rehabilitation and the serious strength training enthusiast.

Disadvantages of a Fluid-Loaded Weight Stack over conventional Weight Stack include:
 * The foot print of a Fluid-Loaded weight stack will be larger than that of a conventional weight stack, making exercise equipment larger.
 * Automation and computer controls will be more expensive than a conventional weight stack.

Applications and Designs for Strength Training:
Successful applications and designs of exercise equipment assist the user in achieving the goals of their specific program. A common goal for any strength training program is to increase, or at least maintain the user's physical strength or muscle mass. In order to achieve results, the skeletal muscles need to be overloaded, which stimulates the natural healing processes of the human body to regenerate in order to become be bigger, stronger, or faster than it was before. Conversely, lack of muscular overload results in the loss of mass and strength - known as muscular atrophy.

The fact is that the adaptive processes of the human body will only respond if continually called upon to exert a greater magnitude of force to meet higher physiological demands. . In order to minimize injury and maximize results, exercise should begin at a comfortable level of muscular intensity and progress to overload the muscles during the course of the exercise – a practice generally referred to as Progressive Overload

The Principle of Progressive Overload
Progressive Overload is recognized as the fundamental principle in a successful strength training program and requires an increase in volume and intensity towards to meet the targeted goal of the user. In this context, volume and intensity are defined as follows:


 * Volume: is the total number of repetitions multiplied by the resistance used as performed in specific periods of time.
 * Intensity: the percent value of maximal functional capacity, or expressed as percent repetition maximum.

This technique results in greater gains in physical strength and muscular growth - but there are limits. An excess of training stimulas can lead to the problem of Overtraining.


 * Overtraining is the decline in training performance over the course of a training program, often resulting increases the risk of illness or injury or decreased desire to exercise. In order to help avoid this problem, the technique of Periodization is applied.


 * Periodization in the context of fitness or strength training programs is the scheduling of provisions for adequate recovery time between training sessions, variety in the over the course of a long-term program and motivation - avoiding the monotony when repeating identical exercise routines.

The relationships between of Intensity and Volume
Intensity is directly proportional to volume. An increase to either part of volume equation (weight or number of reps / time) will result in an increase in intensity. Most people with experience using exercise machines will have a first hand understanding that:


 * Intensity will increase instantly upon an increase in weight


 * Intensity will increase gradually with an increase in the number of repetitions as a result of muscle fatigue

Muscle fatigue is the decline in ability of a muscle as a result result of vigorous exercise.

Medical research indicates that higher levels of intensity are necessary for successful gains in strength, but there are some extreme and polarized opinions as a result. The argument seems to lie in the problem of quantifying high intensity, much like the problem of quantifying pain, as they are both a subjective experience. AT one extrem   The American College of Sports Medicine(R) takes the position that strength is maximally developed during the later high-intensity phase of the Classic (linear) model of periodization. . Research indicates that this statement does not only apply to young male atheletes:


 * For women, it is important to maintain a relatively high intensity and effort for gains in strength, muscle size, ease of being physically active, and energy expenditure as well as fat losses.


 * For postmenopausal women, high intensity training programs are an effective and feasible means to preserve bone density while improving muscle mass, strength, and balance.


 * For older men, high intensity training programs induce greater gains in strength, anaerobic power, and whole body physical function. Moreover, the may maintain the gains for more prolonged periods after training ceases.


 * Muscle contractions are complex chains of events, but are basically are generated by a electrical potential associated with muscle cells and the resulting interaction of contractile proteins cause mechanical force.
 * Muscle fatigue, the gradual decline in performance, is equally complex, and is associated with the consumption of energy source within muscle cells. While energy sources decline, by-products tend to accumulate and some of these inhibit the contractile proteins and contribute to the reduced force.

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