Get Stronger

Get Stronger

Is one of your goals to get stronger? The benefits to improving strength are plentiful. The stronger you are, the easier tasks become. Objects will feel lighter, sport performance will improve, you’ll have noticeably more power, injury risk is decreased, bone density and connective tissue are strengthened, body fat and body weight decline or are better maintained, and confidence builds – just to name a few.
benefits of strength trainingMaybe you’re already involved in a fitness regimen or are just starting one. The great thing about being a novice, is that you’ll see strength improvements right from the onset due to improved neuromuscular and motor control efficiencies, regardless of the program. For intermediate or advanced lifters, strength gains don’t always come as easily. Plateaus are common and can last a long time, potentially derailing your fitness desires altogether. For you, proper programming becomes more important.

Tips to getting stronger and avoiding plateaus:

  • Disclaimer-Proper Technique: Being able to achieve an exercise or movement without additional weight or with light weight, is a good indication of how you will do during the weighted version of the exercise. If you lack proper squatting technique, keep working on technique before trying to strengthen and add resistance to an already faulty movement pattern. Once movement technique and proper position can be achieved, then you can progress to strengthening that movement with load.
  • Compound Movements: These are the exercises that recruit the most muscle fibers and have the most carry-over into movement and sport. If you are physically able, focus the majority of your time and effort around compound (involving multiple joints and muscle groups) exercises. For example, variations of the following: lunges, squats, deadlifts, horizontal rows and presses, vertical rows and presses.
  • Challenge Yourself and Progress: When training for strength, the weight being lifted must present a challenge. This doesn’t mean that you should achieve complete burnout or exhaustion with every set or even lift the most absolute weight possible. It means that if you are doing 3 x 8 reps of a given exercise, the last repetition of each set should be challenging to you. However, technique and form should not be compromised. If an exercise starts to become easier to complete, then you know it is time to progress to a heavier weight, increase reps, advance the variation of that exercise, or implement some other method to increase difficulty during the next set/workout.
  • Exercise Variety: Sometimes less is more. Variety is good, but too much exercise variety can be counter-productive in terms of improving strength. Multiple sets of the same exercise during the same workout will allow your body’s neuromuscular system to become more efficient at the movement being performed. Also, performing similar compound exercises on a routine basis over a span of 6-12 weeks will allow the body to become even more proficient at the movement and yield even greater strength gains due to physiological adaptations that occur in the body over time. The key is that you have to give your body time to adapt, and if your workout program has constant change every workout, then the advantage of adaptation doesn’t happen to the full potential.
  • Rest Breaks: Many people unfortunately see a rest break as a sign of weakness or think that a rest-break will deter results. However, if you are working for strength, rest breaks should be welcomed and needed. They are your friend! They allow necessary energy recovery between sets so that you are able to give more effort on the subsequent set. If you do 10-reps of squats immediately followed by 10-reps of rows, and you don’t feel like you need a break (30-120 seconds), then you may not be giving enough effort. This however doesn’t mean that you should go have a 10-minute conversation with a friend between sets. Smartly planned rest breaks are very important to recovery and sustained energy throughout a workout, which will help boost strength.

There are numerous other factors that can be discussed when talking about strength gains. Nutrition, sleep and stress all play a critical role. Workout plans seem infinite and the complexity of workouts can be altered and tweaked in myriad of ways. With that being said, try to start by keeping it simple. Start with a program and exercises that you know how to do and that you will do. If you have the greatest workout plan in the world, but never do the workout, then it isn’t the greatest workout plan for you.

Main Takeaways:

  1. Choose your “core” compound movements and do variations of those movements consistently for 6-12 weeks.
  2. Lift heavy enough loads in a way that challenges you, while also being able to maintain proper technique. If technique begins to erode, the load may be too heavy or desired repetitions too many.
  3. Think of rest-breaks as a way for your body to refuel between sets, not as a weakness or fitness inhibitor. That short rest may be just enough for you to add 10 pounds or 3 extra reps onto the ensuing exercise set.

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