Developing Strength - How it Works, and What to Do to Make it Work for You
By EthanaelD Takeaways
There are different qualities of strength.
There are different ways to train each quality.
There are ways to enhance each quality while adding muscle mass, or without adding muscle mass.
Any athlete knows that there is always a constant struggle to continue
becoming stronger. An athlete must continue to surpass himself, or risk
being surpassed by his competition. Words to live by: Never think
yourself complete. There is always something that can be improved upon,
even in elite athletes--no athlete is as strong or conditioned as they
can be, as technically sound as they can be, or as experienced as they
can be. Technical soundness and experience are oftentimes mutually
exclusive--technique is developed over time. Time yields experience to
the athlete. For now, let's focus on strength, and how we become
strong.
Part 1: The Ways the Body Powers Itself
The
body powers itself through processes involving various energetic
compounds. Among them: adenosine triphosphate, creatine phosphate,
glucose, glycogen.
During the phosphagen system, when
adenosine triphosphate breaks down into adenosine diphosphate, creatine
phosphate yields a phosphate group to adenosine diphosphate, and it
becomes adenosine triphosphate again, meaning that it can be again used
for muscular exertion. Adenosine triphosphate is the nucleotide,
adenine, and ribose, bound with three phosphate groups. It is made in
the mitochondria from glucose, and is the molecule that powers the
body.
This is referred to as the ATP-CP cycle: the breakdown
of ATP and the use of CP to "refuel" ADP into ATP so your muscles can
continue to contract hard. The phosphagen system begins when the
muscles need to undergo brief, intense bouts of an exercise. The
phosphagen system usually takes effect during such activities as
sprinting or intense, low-repetition weightlifting, where it is a
sudden, all-out exertion of the muscles. The phosphagen system best
takes place over the course of about 10 seconds; beyond that, most of
the creatine phosphate available has been expended, and there is no
extra "fuel" for the muscles.
The glucose-lactic acid system
is another system that works using the components of the muscle to
generate force. It is undergone when the muscle is exerted intensely
over a moderate period of time: about a minute and a half. During this
process, glucose is converted quickly into ATP anaerobically, and
lactic acid is the result. The metabolism must be anaerobic, because at
the intensity the muscles are exerting themselves, oxidative capacity
is just not high enough in the muscle cell.
Glycogen plays a
large part for the endurance athlete, or the athlete that requires the
ability to be able to continue his activity for an extended period of
time, or exhibit muscular strength for an extended period of time. When
the activity can be performed for longer a time than would necessitate
the glucose-lactic acid system to kick in, there is enough oxygen
available for aerobic respiration. Glycogen is the usable form of
glucose and is found in the muscles and the liver. During aerobic
respiration, the muscle can acquire energy more easily and through a
wider variety of means. It can pull it from the bloodstream, as from
the intestines, from food one has eaten. It can use the remaining
glycogen in the muscle. It can also get glucose from the breakdown of
the liver's glycogen stores (this is referred to as gluconeogenesis).
Part 2: The Factors Resulting in Strength
Strength is a product of many different qualities: Physiological factors, neurological factors, and mechanical factors.
Physiological factors include the size of the muscle, physiological
cross sectional area (referred to often as PCSA or simply CSA),
availability of crossbridging, the types of muscle fibers present (Type
I, Type IIa or Type IIb), the muscle's response to training stimulus,
and more. Such physiological factors also include the moisture content
of the muscle and the muscle's ATP stores, CP stores, and available
glycogen. ATP is adenosine triphosphate. It is the body's unit of
energy. When we exert our muscles, adenosine triphosphate loses
phosphate groups, degrading into adenosine diphosphate or adenosine
phosphate. CP is creatine phosphate. More on that a little bit later.
Mitochondria is also an important factor in considering the physiology
of a muscle. Mitochondria is the "fueling station" for your muscle
cells. It is where glucose is converted into adenosine triphosphate.
Contrary to popular belief, glucose is not the body's pure fuel--it has
to be broken down first. Yes, it is the easiest sugar to break down,
but it itself does not directly fuel the cells of the body. If a lot of
mitochondria is present in a muscle fiber, it can break down glucose
into ATP rapidly and use it to contract and exert the muscle strongly.
Neurological factors are those such as the muscle-nervous system
connection that results in utilization of motor neurons and causes
synapses to fire when a force is exerted from the muscle. Some training
techniques rely on the ability of the neuromuscular link strengthening
under frequent exposure to a stimulus in an attempt to become more
efficient at firing the pattern of synapses that will allow one to
exert more force in a particular movement. In other words, "practice
makes perfect".
There is also mechanical strength, which is
essentially beyond our control--this is attributed to the genetic
configuration of one's musculature: leverage, limb length, placement of
tendons, and similar factors. If you have ever noticed how between a
taller person and a shorter person arm-wrestling the shorter person
often wins or at least presents a surprisingly difficult struggle to
the taller person, it is because of the shorter person's mechanical
strength; their limbs are shorter, therefore they have more leverage
over the taller person's longer limbs. The shorter limbs do not have to
travel as far in order to exert the same force that the taller person's
limbs do, though due to the effect of cross-sectional area on one's
strength, physiologically, the shorter limbed person will not always
win. In theory, between two people of identical cross-sectional area
and neurological strengths, of different heights, the person of lower
stature will always win due to the advantage of their leverage.
Part 3: The Different Types of Strength
So, factors affecting strength aside, what kinds of strength are there?
You have probably noticed that an individual expressing the strength to
benchpress 300 pounds may not necessarily be able to exert the strength
to complete 100 repetitions of strict-form pushups (also known as
pressups). Likewise, an individual expressing the ability to be able to
complete 100 repetitions of strict-form pushups may not necessarily be
able to benchpress 300lbs. (These numbers are completely fabricated and
used for an example--so don't get upset if you can or can't do both or
either of the aforementioned feats.)
It would appear that
there are two types of strength--the ability to exert a lot of force a
few times, and the ability to exert a smaller force many times. This is
correct...sort of. There are actually three main types of strength:
maximal, explosive, and endurance, though there debatably are some
subclasses of strength, such as speed-strength or explosive-endurance;
we won't worry about those, as they are terms to describe the actions
of an athlete, not terms to describe the mechanisms of the muscle
itself.
a) Maximal strength is the measure of the maximum
amount of force a muscle can generate. This would be what the
300lb-benchpresser was manifesting; the ability to exert a maximal
amount of force from his muscles (lifting the heavy weight
successfully). Maximal strength is sometimes referred to as "starting
strength" or "limit strength". When someone asks you, "Hey, buddy,
what's your one-rep max?" he or she is assessing your maximal strength.
There are two parts to maximal strength--two "phases"--in the
completion of a rep; concentric contraction and eccentric contraction.
Let's use the example, now, of a simple bicep curl. The concentric
phase would be contracting your bicep, generating the force to move it
up towards your shoulder. The eccentric phase would be when you lower
the weight back down to the starting position. An individuals eccentric
strength is always greater than their concentric strength, meaning that
a person will always be able to controllably lower a weight heavier
than that which they could controllably lift. Maximal strength
originates in the fast-twitch muscle fibers, Type II muscle fibers.
Type II muscle fibers are fast-twitch. They are responsible for
explosive and maximal movements. That's right, ladies and
gentlemen--those slow-grinding maximal-strength movements actually come
from fast-twitch muscle fibers, not slow-twitch, as many old-school
trainers might have you believe. The term "fast-twitch" refers to the
way the muscle breaks down ATP (adenosine triphosphate) inside the
myosin head of the contractile protein, as a result of the enzyme
myosin-ATPase. This results in a low resistance to fatigue (the fiber
reaches failure "fast"), but the ability to generate larger amounts of
force. This kind of exercise would utilize the phosphagen system. There
are two types of Type II muscle fibers; Type IIa and Type IIb. Type IIa
is most often utilized in maximal strength exercises.
b)
Explosive strength is a concentric muscular exertion in which the
initial rate of force generation is maximal or nearly maximal and is
maintained throughout the range of motion. Examples of explosive
strength include Bruce Lee's one-inch punch. It is the intense, focused
effort of pushing as hard and as fast as possible from a standstill.
Explosive strength utilizes the violent cousin of Type IIa muscle
fibers--Type IIb.
Type IIb has a contraction time of about
7.5 milliseconds, and the contraction is the strongest contraction of
all the other types of muscle fibers, and is very, very easily
fatigued. They do not have much mitochondria at all; the least of any
muscle fiber. They also have very little myoglobin. However, as you may
have guessed, their levels of myosin-ATPase are the highest of any
muscle fiber as well. Type IIb muscle fibers mostly rely on anaerobic
respiration--the phosphagen system, from earlier.
c)
Strength-endurance is the ability to exert a submaximal force many
times. The guy that was doing 100 repetitions of pushups? He was
exhibiting strength-endurance. Strength-endurance originates in Type I
muscle fibers.
Type I muscle fibers are slow-twitch; they
have high resistance to fatigue, lots of mitochondria, but they are
lacking in the way of myosin-ATPase, which would allow them to generate
a lot of force. Type I muscle fibers usually rely on aerobic
respiration, except when the activity is so rapid it exceeds the
oxidative capacity of the muscle. When that happens, depending on the
circumstances, the muscle may move to the glucose-lactic acid system
for energy. An example of that might be performing as many pushups as
you can in a minute--it's still a lot of repetitions, and what's more,
you're exerting rapidly. This would likely result in a switch to the
glucose-lactic acid system for energy.
Part 4: Types of Development
There are two ways to develop the qualities of strength; as discussed
earlier, there are three factors: physiological, mechanical, and
neurological. The mechanical factors we can not alter without
reconstructive surgery--but I'm just kidding. Do not get surgery or,
worse, perform surgery on yourself, trying to enhance your athletic
ability. The physiological and the neurological are the two things we
can control, and they can give one the advantage even over one who
might have a mechanical advantage naturally.
a)
Physiologically, there are two ways to gain strength: myofibrillar
hypertrophy, and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. These terms may be alien to
some readers, so definitions:
Myofibrillar hypertrophy is a term to describe the growth of the myofibrils of the muscle.
Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is a term to describe the growth of the sarcoplasm of the muscle.
Now, an analogy: If the muscle cell was a jelly donut, the sarcoplasm
would be the jelly, and the myofibrils would be the donut. It is the
"jelly" that can helps make your muscle stronger and more able to
contract forcefully. The sarcoplasm is more or less just the contents
of the myofibril--it allows for more capillarization, which is a good
thing. Capillarization means more oxygen getting to the muscles, which
means it is easier for them to sustain prolonged activity due to
increased oxidative capacity. However, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy will
not really increase any particular strength quality. Myofibrillar
hypertrophy is what you will want, if you are an athlete.
Capillarization will result from your cardiovascular training--more on
that later. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is what bodybuilders often train
for; the hypertrophy of the sarcoplasm results in bigger, harder
muscles. But those bigger, harder muscles might be weak and have the
contractile strength of a piece of bologna--it's mostly for show. And
it goes alright with mustard. But this isn't about mustard.
Myofibrillar hypertrophy still results in bigger, harder muscles, but
it will not cause the muscles to get as big or as hard as fast as would
sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Myofibrillar hypertrophy, however, is the
more "functional" of the two hypertrophies, and, pound for pound, you
will be stronger (overal than one who has been training for
sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Generally, however, when one is training for
hypertrophy, the hypertrophy experienced is a combination of
sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar, though several factors affect which form
of hypertrophy is dominant. More on that later.
b)
Neurologically, one can "teach" the muscles how to most efficiently
fire so as to be able to perform the greatest quantity or intensity of
whatever activity you "teach" it. This occurs in a process called
neuromuscular facilitation, also sometimes called synaptic
facilitation. This is the "practice makes perfect" application. The
more you do something, the better you get at it. This isn't just a
witty saying or a philosophical meandering. Neurologically, it's true.
If one were to be able to do 100 pushups before reaching muscular
failure (once again, using the pushups example.), and that individual
were to do 60 pushups every few hours for two weeks, and then take a
day off and re-test the maximum number of pushups they could do, they
would discover they could do more than they could before. This is a
result of neuromuscular or synaptic facilitation. When you do something
very frequently, your body will learn how to do it better. This
technique of performing your activity very frequently need not be
limited to pushups, or even high-repetitions. It can be utilized for
maximal force generation (maximal strength), explosive strength, and
other things, in a particular movement. That is, the motor "path" of
benchpressing 300 pounds once may be different than the motor path of
doing weighted pushups with 300 pounds--therefore, one who uses
neuromuscular facilitative techniques to increase their ability to
benchpress might not necessarily be increasing their ability to do
heavily weighted pushups simultaneously, even though many of the same
muscle groups are involved--because the motor path is different.
Neuromuscular facilitation is a good way to develop the ability to
perform specific movements.
5) Rep Ranges and Developing Strength
a) Physiologically, hypertrophy is the way to go. For the athlete, you
will probably want to hypertrophy myofibrillarly, as you will get the
most overall relative strength for your size. Now, we get into the
nitty-gritty of training; volume, resistance, load, reps, sets, rest
time. All these things will affect the way your muscles physiologically
adapt to your training stimulus.
Completing 1-3 reps using a
resistance of about 90%-100% of your one-rep max will facilitate the
development of maximal strength by increasing the contractile ability
of the muscle, in part due to neuromuscular adaptation (do not be
confused and think that this means that 1-3 reps at 85%-100%
constitutes "neuromuscular facilitation"; more on that later.). There
will not be very much hypertrophy, unless a large amount of volume is
included--more on that later.
Completing 4-6 reps using a
resistance of about 80%-90% of your one-rep max will facilitate the
development of maximal strength by a combination of increasing the
contractile ability of the muscle through neuromuscular adaptation and
some myofibrillar hypertrophy, though not much. More hypertrophy will
occur in the 4-6 at 75%-85% rep range than occurs at the 1-3 at
85%-100% rep range.
Completing 7-9 reps using a resistance of
75%-80% of your one-rep max will result in maximal strength
development, mostly myofibrillar hypertrophy, not very much
neuromuscular adaptation, and a little bit of sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.
It is most often thought that 7-9 reps at 75%-80% will result in the
most maximal strength development of any of the other rep ranges.
Completing 10-12 reps using a resistance of about 70%-75% of your
one-rep max will result in less maximal strength than the lower rep
ranges, but more hypertrophy. At this point, about 90% of the maximal
strength development is due to myofibrillar or sarcoplasmic
hypertrophy, and almost none of it due to neuromuscular adaptation. In
this range, you will begin to develop muscular strength-endurance.
Completing more than 13-20 reps using a resistance of 60%-70% of your
one-rep max or less will result in the development of a blend of
muscular strength-endurance and maximal strength via hypertrophy;
however, it is important to note that here, the hypertrophy is
dominantly sarcoplasmic, meaning that working in this range will cause
you to "puff up". It will also mostly increase your muscular
strength-endurance rather than maximal strength.
Completing
an upwards of 20 reps using a resistance of 60% or less will result in
strength-endurance and less and less muscular hypertrophy of any kind
as you adapt to complete more and more repetitions. At this range, most
of the changes going on inside the muscle cells will be metabolic.
b) Neurologically, as it has been explained before, some neurological
adaptations will occur when your muscles contract against a resistance.
The lower the rep range, the more the adaptations within the muscle
will be neurological in nature--neuromuscular adaptations. So what
about neuromuscular (synaptic) facilitation?
Neuromuscular facilitation is a technique popularized by Pavel Tsatsouline, and it has been applied by many powerlifters for years without knowing it. For powerlifters, it essentially works like this:
Lift a weight that is about 90% of your one-rep max once or twice; do
not go to muscular failure (not being able to complete another
repetition). Wait several minutes. Complete another set. Repeat several
times. In this way, you are incorporating volume and neuromuscular
adaptation while giving a lot of rest time. This causes the
neuromuscular connections to become stronger and stronger, due to
repeated exposure. You are easing your way into lifting heavier and
heavier weight as your nervous system becomes more geared towards
lifting that heavy weight. Talking about neuromuscular adaptations,
volume, and all that mess is best left to another section, so:
There are, however, ways to incorporate the synaptic facilitation
method into a strength-endurance program; this will be covered shortly.
c) What about sets? Rest time? And volume?
It is
important in designing your strengthening program to consider your
goals. Do you want to get big and strong? Just strong? Just big?
Depending on your answers to these questions greatly affects how you
should incorporate rest time, different numbers of sets, and other
things.
Volume is essentially just a consideration of how
many reps you are completing, total, throughout your sets. The term is
most often used with regards to maximal strength development, but can
be applied to the development of any strength quality. If one were to
complete 10 sets of 3 reps, the volume would be 30. If one were to
complete 3 sets of 10 reps, the volume would also be 30. Generally
speaking, the higher the volume, the more hypertrophy will occur.
Incorporating rest time can act as a "buffer" of sorts against gaining a lot of hypertrophy through volume.
The key to hypertrophy is a lot of volume in a short amount of time.
1-2 minutes is considered a short period of rest; 3-4 minutes is moderate; 5 or more minutes is a higher amount of rest.
If one were to complete 5 sets of 1 rep at their one-rep max, 100%,
with 5 minutes of rest time between sets, they would not hypertrophy as
much as if one were to complete 5 sets of 1 rep at their one-rep max
with 3 minutes of rest time between sets. This is because the volume is
the same, and the time it takes to complete that volume is lower.
However, the more rest time is allowed, the more maximal strength will
develop.
To go a step further, one who completes 10 sets of 1
rep at their one-rep max with 3 minutes of rest between sets will
hypertrophy more than either of the two prior mentioned examples. An
individual who completes 10 sets of 1 rep at their one-rep max with 5
minutes of rest between sets will hypertrophy less than the 10x1x1x3
minutes individual, but will experience greater strength gains.
As you can see, a lot of rest time is essential to maximal strength
development, and not as much rest time is essential for hypertrophy. It
is something of a continuum. The more rest time, the less hypertrophy,
the more strength development. The less rest time, the more
hypertrophy, the less strength development.
So, in terms of
maximal strength, more sets and more reps and less time will result in
more hypertrophy than fewer sets and fewer reps and more time, but the
latter will yield more maximal strength development than the former.
These are just the basics, however; there are many different rep
schemes and techniques for playing with reps and sets and rest time and
volume and all these things in order to result in a variety of
different effects on strength development. There are many different
theories.
But for now, a few solid things that have been established to work.
3 sets of 3 reps with 90% of your one-rep max with 6 minutes of rest
between sets is an effective way to increase maximal strength through
neuromuscular adaptation without much hypertrophy--though what
hypertrophy does occur will be almost completely myofibrillar.
5 sets of 5 reps with 85% of your one-rep max with 5 minutes of rest
between sets is an effective way to put on some muscle mass through
myofibrillar hypertrophy and a lot of maximal strength, due to the
nature of the 5-rep 85% set; it is one of the most efficient ways to
get bigger and stronger in closer proportion than many other programs.
3 sets of 10 reps with 75% of your one-rep max with 3 minutes of rest
between sets is an effective way to put on muscle mass via sarcoplasmic
hypertrophy. You will gain a little bit of maximal strength and a
little bit of strength-endurance, but nothing really to shake a stick
at--so to speak.
3 sets of 20 reps with 60% of your one-rep
max with 3 minutes of rest between sets is an effective way to put on a
good amount of strength-endurance, with a little bit of hypertrophy.
The hypertrophy will be a blend between myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic,
but there is no concern over this, as the amount of hypertrophy
generally experienced is so small it is of no consequence.
These examples do not cover all the qualities of strength, but these
exampls were not intended to; the intent of their inclusion in this
section was merely to introduce volume, sets, reps, load, and program
creation so we can address it more completely a little later on.
6) The Main Muscle Groups of the Body
If you're reading this, it's most likely you already have an interest
in the human body, or athleticism, or otherwise have at least some
knowledge of the different muscles of the body. For that reason, this
section will be short(ish) and sweet (but don't expect a love poem).
From the head to the toes, the main muscles of the body:
Neck
muscles: These are the muscles of the neck. They're used to keep your
head upright, and control the movement of the head. For combat
athletes, the neck muscles are of particular importance; when you are
struck in the head, the neck muscles stabilize the head so it doesn't
snap back--which would result in a knockout--or snap off--which would
result in death.
Pectorals: The muscles of the chest; the
muscles involved in the benchpress, pushups, and just about every
movement involving the upper body to some degree.
Upper back:
The part of the back opposite the pectorals; it, too, is involved in
almost every movement involving the upper body.
Deltoids: The
three-headed muscle at the top of your arms. Its heads are referred to
as the anterior, posterior, and the lateral. The anterior deltoid is
used when you raise your arm straight up in front of your body. The
posterior is using when you raise it to the side of your body. The
lateral is used when you bring your hand across to the side of your
body, such as when you slap someone with one hand on the opposite
cheek.
Triceps: The triceps are on the back of your arm, the
backside of the length of your arm between the deltoids and the
forearm. They are involved in many upper-body motions, such as the
benchpress, pushup, and punching. This is that "horseshoe" muscle on
the arm that some of you may be familiar with. It's infamous.
Biceps: Oh, the biceps. The muscles involved in motions such as curls,
lifting things with your palm out, pullups, chinups, and many overhead
movements to some extent. They are a two-headed muscle, and are often
thought of as a "beach-body" muscle, however they serve a very
important purpose to any athlete. If nothing else, they stabilize the
triceps; if the biceps are far underdeveloped and the triceps are well
developed, you will have an imbalance, and injury is more likely to
occur. Also, in some cases, underdeveloped biceps can actually inhibit
the triceps from generating as much force as they could, because the
nervous system naturally limits the load the triceps are allowed to
bear, because its not stabilized by the biceps.
Core: There
are way too many muscles that can be considered part of the "core" to
constitute individual namings, but the main ones are the rectus
abdominus (the "six-pack" muscle), the obliques (on the sides of the
"six-pack"; there are two types, the internal obliques and the external
obliques), the transverse abdominus (a postural muscle behind the
rectus abdominus), and the lower back (which balances with the rectus
abdominus and transverse abdominus to promote good posture). The core
is full of stabilizing muscles and is involved to some degree in every
move you make with the arms or legs. If you have a weak core, it will
show in everything you do. You will be unable to generate much force
with any other muscle of your body, and you will not be able to rotate
strongly. (This is especially important for fighters--for ground
fighters, the core enables you to throw your opponent and take side
control, or maneuver out of a mount. For a striker, the core provides
power to your kicks and punches due to rotation. "Torque", so to speak.
It has been figured that about 80% of a striker's power originates in
the core muscles.)
Quadriceps: The uppermost muscle of your
leg. When you squat down, this is the main muscle engaged. When you
run, this muscle is also engaged as you push off the ground. It's used
when you kick, run, jump, and almost every other movement in which the
legs are involved.
Hamstrings: The muscle directly behind the
quadriceps, above the knee. It's very important for stabilization of
the quadriceps, but is one of the most underappreciated muscles around.
It helps keep the knee and entire leg in proper alignment, and if that
isn't enough, it performs many of the same actions that the quadriceps
do: it helps you run, jump, kick, and more.
Calves: That
little muscle above your foot that you feel has about a dozen knives
lodged in it somewhere after you've run more than you have in a long
time. It's a muscle made mostly of slow-twitch muscle fibers--the
calves are built for endurance.
7) Training the Different Qualities of Strength
Luckily, you understand volume, load, the nature of muscles, and all
these things. This makes building a training program much easier.
Consider the three main qualities of strength: maximal strength, strength endurance, and explosive strength.
The body adapts to the given stimulus; if you want to lift heavier
things, lift heavier things. If you want to lift heavy things many
times, lift heavy things many times. But what about explosive strength?
a) Explosive strength is a rather unique quality, in that it
was not really understood very well until the past 50 years or so.
Athletes have been doing pushups and pullups and squats and lifting
heavy objects in pursuit of enhanced maximal strength or
strength-endurance (though they didn't necessarily call them by these
names at the time) for hundreds upon hundreds of years.
Recently, it came into light that when one's muscles learn how to
absorb shock via forceful, eccentric contractions, and then using the
retained force to "spring" the resistance back up, they get better at
reacting explosively--being able to generate a lot of force in a very
short period of time. Essentially training for explosive strength is
training to engage Type IIb muscle fibers. How do you do this?
Plyometrics. Things like clapping pushups, jump-squats and the like. A
plyometric is commonly defined as any exercise in which the amount of
force generated is such that the individual performing the exercise
exceeds the force of gravity. For example, pushing up so hard that you
are able to clap your hands together once, twice, or even three times,
before you land back on the ground. Generally, plyometric movements are
done in sets of 10 or so, not to failure, ever. Because plyometric
movements typically work only with bodyweight or very light weight, but
are never worked more than a handful of repetitions, they typically do
not impart mass, unless done in high volume. However, high-volume
plyometrics are a bad idea due to increased risk of injury (as
plyometrics put a larger than normal amount of strain on the joints and
tendons), as well as diminished gains.
There are other
techniques for training explosive strength, such as Dr. Yuri
Verkhoshansky's Shock Method, which is something of an extension on
conventional plyometrics. In the Shock Method, the athlete will lift a
heavy weight, around 85%-95% of their one-rep max, rest, then perform a
set of plyometric exercises that use the same or mostly the same muscle
groups. Doing this results in the ability to exceed the normal amount
of explosive (plyometric) strength one can normally exhibit, as the
heavy set "primes" the nervous system to exert a large amount of force.
For example, one might squat 300lbs for one or two reps, rest
five minutes, and then perform ten jumping squats, rest five minutes,
and repeat two to three times. This method does, in fact, take longer
to perform, but will yield much higher gains in explosive strength than
would conventional plyometric training.
b) Maximal strength
is a bit simpler. To develop purely maximal strength, lift several sets
of one to three reps at 85%-95% of your one-rep max with several
minutes of rest in between. You will want to fully recover in between
sets, and be as fresh as possible when you start. This will result in
the maximum amount of strength gain possible, and will result in very
little mass.
But that's just the physiological way to increase muscular maximal strength.
Neuromuscularly, we can use the synaptic facilitation method. This
method is not practical for just about everyone, but it can work if
applied properly. The recipe for synaptic facilitation is this:
frequency + intensity + freshness. Train as often as you can while
being as fresh as you can, and lifting heavy weight each time. You'd
only want to do one set of each movement per session when doing the
synaptic facilitation method.
You will want to train several
times a day; probably every 3-4 hours. Simply complete one heavy set
(1-3 reps, 85%-95% of your one-rep max) of each of your movements, and
then go do whatever it was you were doing before you started, and come
back a few hours later to do the same thing. Slowly, you will be able
to lift more and more weight.
c) Strength-endurance, too, is
not as diffcult to train for as explosive strength. Strength-endurance
is possibly one of the most widely used measures of physical fitness,
perhaps because one can perform a wide variety of exercises using one's
own body weight for which many repetitions may be completed.
In terms of the evolution of humankind, we are strength-endurance
creatures. Our ancestors who tried to compete hand-to-hand with the raw
power of wild animals died quickly, leaving those who could outlast the
competition to survive and reproduce. This is the reason that our
deltoids as well as our calves and a few other muscles contain mostly
Type I muscle fibers--the kind that endure. If our ancestors' calves
had been mostly Type II fibers, they wouldn't have been able to run
long distances or travel for extended periods of time without having to
rest from muscular fatigue.
To train for strength-endurance,
it is fairly easy: simply perform a lot of repetitions of an exercise
of your choosing, and cover the chosen muscle groups. One-hundred
pushups, one-hundred squats, twenty pullups, whatever your goals are.
It is possible for you to train to muscular failure when training for
strength-endurance and still see large gains. Arguably,
strength-endurance is easier to train for than maximal strength.
There is some debate over whether or not doing as many repetitions as
possible is more effective in gaining strength-endurance, or doing as
many repetitions as possible in a given time. For best results, I
recommend doing both. One day, you might do as many pushups as you can.
Another day, you might do as many pushups as you can in thirty seconds,
rest a couple of minutes, and then do another thirty-second all-out set
of pushups.
Neurologically, the synaptic facilitation method
may be applied here, too. Simply perform one set of about 3/4 as many
repetitions as you can muster for each exercise you would like to
increase your strength-endurance on several times a day. Training
strength-endurance with the synaptic facilitation method is much more
practical for a lot of people, as anyone can drop down and crank out a
set of pushups at any time during the day. It may fetch you some very
strange looks from passerby, but that is besides the point.
8) Putting it Together; Conclusion
So, what do you want to train for? Regardless, it is likely you would
like to gain functional strength. Who cares about how much you can
bicep curl if you cannot do a pullup to save your life?
You
will want to select compound-exercises that work many muscle groups at
once. Many of the compound-lifts also work the core muscles, as the
core stabilizes the heavy weight being used.
The deadlift,
dragonflag, squat, benchpress, military press, and pullup are five
examples of very effective compound exercises that work multiple muscle
groups simultaneously, resulting in better full-body strength, rather
than strength in individual muscles that can barely be considered
actual strength, as it exists only in the weight room.
If you
would like to work the core more, you might choose to substitute the
benchpress for a one-armed dumbbell bench press, and the military press
for a one-armed dumbbell clean and press or military press. The
deadlift is an awesome core exercise unto itself, and may be used as a
substitute for the squat if there is no squat rack available.
In most cases, it is best to do strength work two to three times a
week. Do not do strength workouts within 24 hours of each other; it is
best to have at least 48 hours in between each strength workout.
Work out every muscle in order to avoid creating imbalances and build a strong body and healthy physique.
Try to avoid having intense strength training sessions in which the
overall time exceeds 45 minutes. After about 45 minutes, testosterone
levels begin to drop, blood glucose begins to plummet, you're tired,
and if you continue to work much more, you will cause your body to
elevate cortisol levels. Cortisol, basically, is a hormone that is
produced as a result to stress on the body, and causes one to retain
fat. We don't like cortisol.
I hope you have gleaned some
insight and perhaps even benefited from reading this text on
strengthening. Best wishes and happy training.