Of course, we all workout to get stronger. Yet, few people truly understand how to build strength properly. Then, even fewer people know how to continue building strength over time. This is because the stronger you get, the harder it becomes. That is unless you know what you are doing. This article will go over the 3 best ways to build strength for years to come!
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Getting stronger is simple, it just takes a lot of hard work.
First, building strength is very basic and, over time, can be boring. As most people are looking for a new innovative way of how to workout, because it is more exciting than the simple formula that has been around for decades. The thing is, the ways to build strength have been the same since the start of time.
Now, to clarify, what we mean by building strength is your body’s ability to do more work (training volume), or lift more weight (training intensity), than before. By increasing your work capacity, or the amount of total work you can withstand, you are stronger than before. This is the same as the ability to lift a heavier weight.
These are the 3 best ways to continuously Build Strength:
Improve Your Technique To Build Strength
First, by improving your technique you will train your body to move more efficiently. And as a result, improving your leverages will ultimately increase your strength potential; also known as, the ability for your body to get stronger.
Improving your technique includes improving your positioning throughout the lift; so that your body moves through the strongest positions. A simple way to picture this is by imagining lifting a weight off the ground. Such as during a deadlift.
During the deadlift, if you have an improper or inefficient technique, such as standing back away from the weight a foot or so, you will be out of position during the entire lift. Then you will not be able to lift as much weight, because your body will not be in the strongest position with the greatest amount of leverage. This improper positioning is often seen through back rounding and shoulder shrugging. And, of course, this would also increase your risk of injury.
However, by simply improving your technique by lifting the load closer to your center of balance you will improve your efficiency and be able to lift more weight. It is as simple as that!
The technique for every lift is specific to every individual, due to different body types. But there are proper and improper movement patterns for every body movement. And if you learn the few basic movement patterns for the human body, then you can apply them to every other movement and exercise you do.
Learn the proper technique to every lift and exercise with our Complete Exercise Guide!
Set-Up Properly
What many people fail to realize during any exercise is that how you set up for the lift is equally as important as actually performing the lift. This is because if you set up improperly, the lift has no chance at being technically efficient, as you are already out of position. So, by simply setting up properly, your body has a better chance of using the proper movement pattern throughout the entire exercise.
Repetition
Research says that it takes 300-500 repetitions to learn a new movement pattern and 3,000-5,000 repetitions to correct an improper movement pattern.
And, along with improving your set up, you can further improve your technique by improving your movement, or motor pattern. To do this you have to repetitively practice the same movement pattern over and over again. This will increase your body’s neurological signal to each muscle and further your movement efficiency.
It has been found that it takes 300-500 repetitions to learn a new movement pattern. But it takes 3,000-5,000 repetitions to correct an improper movement pattern. That may sound intimidating but, if you break it down, it is not as difficult as it seems.
To improve a movement, such as a squat, you can do as few as 10 repetitions a day for 30 days to start seeing a change.
With that in mind, it is best to learn how to move properly from the start of training by getting assistance from a trained professional. Or by training yourself with the right knowledge, as we provide here.
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Just remember, technique improvement is a never-ending task that will always be changing as your body grows over time. But, as your positioning, neurological efficiency, and overall technique improve, your strength will increase dramatically!
So, by simply improving your technique you will get stronger and build strength.
Get Bigger To Build Strength
Next, another way to increase your strength is by simply getting bigger. By gaining size and increasing your body mass you will be able to withstand heavier loads as they are lighter relative to your body weight.
By simply getting bigger, by building more muscle or increasing body fat, you will improve your mechanical leverages and allow for greater support. Of course, increasing your muscle size and density will allow for stronger contractions. But, as your muscles grow, they will also have a better angle of pull.
This is because as a muscle grows it slightly changes the angle the muscle fibers lay in and pull from, which allows for more efficient contractions. Plus, as your muscles grow, they will increase the number of myofibrils (“pulling chains”) within each muscle fiber. This will create more connections for your muscle to pull with, leading to a stronger contraction. But do not confuse this with increasing your number of muscle fibers.
You Cannot Build More Muscle Fibers
You are born with a certain number of muscle fibers within each cell, which cannot change. So the only way to grow muscle is through increased density or size. Both of these forms of growth increase the number of actin-myosin connections (the cells that go through the action of contracting each fiber) within each myofibril. And therefore the ability to create tension within a muscle.
The definition of muscular strength is the ability to create tension within a muscle. Any stress placed upon a muscle, which it initiates growth, will increase the muscle’s ability to create tension; through the addition of more myofibrils or actin-myosin connections.
However, body fat can also allow for greater strength gains. Though the addition of body fat does not directly improve the contractibility of a muscle it does also aid in improving the angle of pull; by adding mass and increases the energy storage within each muscle.
So if you do nothing else towards building strength, getting bigger alone will make you stronger.
Do More Work Than Before
Third, the most common way to increase strength is by consistently doing more work than before. This can be an increase in the total training volume or an increase in training intensity.
For example, if one week you do a certain number of repetitions with a particular weight. And then the next week you do more repetitions, you are building strength. Similarly, if one week you use a certain weight; and the next week you do the same exercise with a heavier weight you are, again, increasing your strength. These are the simplest formulas used by strength athletes to build strength.
Both of these progressive overload techniques are useful in building strength. And are commonly used together in a workout program. However, for both techniques to work, they must be done consistently over time to truly increase strength.
When building strength, your body will adapt to the stresses you place upon it. By continually increasing the stress placed upon your body, it will adapt by becoming stronger.
However, if you place too much stress upon your body without proper recovery your body will not be able to adapt fast enough. And you will see a breakdown in the form of injury or weaknesses of some kind.
So to continue a safe strength progression, do not forget to allow proper time for recovery; through proper rest, nutrition and other recovery methods.
Keep Getting Stronger
Again, building strength is simple but takes a lot of hard work over a long period of time. You must stay consistent and always progress forward by doing more work than yesterday.
You can quickly increase your strength by improving your technique or by gaining more size. But eventually, it all comes down to how much work you are willing to put in.
Strength training is something where what you put in is what you get out. If you only put in a minimal amount of work you will get a minimal amount of results. If you train hard, stay consistent and always push for progress then you will continue to get stronger.
Keep getting stronger my friends.
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