Building Strength

Building Strength
Strength, size, and endurance of muscles are built by the overload principle.3 This entails lifting
increasingly heavy weights or increasing the volume of work overtime.
Strength, as distinguished from increased muscle size (called hypertrophy), is built by training
the neuromuscular system and the interaction between the nerves and muscle, rather than
muscle anatomy, the size, and the constitution of muscle fibers. Heavier weights with fewer
repetitions and longer rest periods are employed to prioritize strength.
As a general rule, larger muscles will make you stronger, but probably not stronger than
someone who trains for strength, all else being equal.
Strength training can involve loads in the range 3-6RM with higher loads of 1-3RM for more
experienced lifters and a variable number of sets according to the program.
Beginner's Guide to Strength Training & Building Muscle Size
Hypertrophy training usually emphasizes more repetitions with a lighter weight than strength
training, often with shorter rest intervals between sets. This training enhances the metabolic
factors that result in size increases.
You can get stronger training for hypertrophy, but your goals should be quite clear if you are
interested in competition for bodybuilding or powerlifting. If you want a combination of
strength and hypertrophy, then you need to identify a weight training program that will provide
a compromise, which is what most non-competition weight trainers are looking for.
One way muscle gets bigger is a process of damage and repair at the micro-level. Small tears,
sometimes called microtrauma, occur in muscle fibers under load and are repaired and rebuilt
stronger when the trainer recovers .It’s a bit like one step back and two steps forward at the
cellular level.
There exists some disagreement over whether muscles get bigger by increased muscle fiber
(cell) size or by splitting off and creating new cells as well. At the least, hypertrophy results from
an increase in the contractile units called myofibrils and also from increased fluid in the cell
called the sarcoplasm.
Hypertrophy training usually employs repetitions of 8-12RM with a variable number of sets but
often in the range 2-5.
Strength and Muscle Building Program & Building Muscle Endurance

Muscle endurance is trained at the higher end of the repetition spectrum.5 For example, doing
15-20 repetitions per set targets local muscle endurance rather than strength or hypertrophy.
Again, doing this sort of muscle endurance training will provide some strength and hypertrophy
compared to not training, and it can result in larger increases in aerobic conditioning than
higher-intensity programs.
Muscle endurance training can use repetitions in the range 15-20 with a variable number of
sets, but 3 is common. However, you have to ask yourself if training in a skill activity like
running or swimming or biking is not a more productive use of your time.
Building Muscle Power
Power is the rate at which work is done, so power involves time. If you can lift the same weight
faster than your friend then you have more power. Training for power involves increasing the
speed of the lifts. The concept of power is useful in weight training for sports such as football
where strength, bulk, and speed are desirable.
Power training involves building strength first, then progressing to light loads performed at very
fast or even explosive contraction velocity. Loads as light as 30-60% 1RM with rests of 2-3
minutes between sets are recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine.
Weight training, strength training or resistance training, whatever you like to call it, builds the
foundation for strength, power, bulk and muscle endurance for the following activities and
sports. Bodybuilding, which specializes in body shaping and muscular definition, particularly
for competition purposes. Hypertrophy programs predominate here.
Sports-specific programs utilize exercises that support and enhance, as far as possible, the
muscular actions of the sport. An example might be training swimmers with exercises that
simulate the pull through the water, targeting shoulders, arms and back muscles. Strength-
endurance and bulk and power programs are useful yet highly variable for particular sports and
need to be designed so that they do not interfere with the skill set required for the sport.
Weight loss and fitness include exercises that provide an all-around exercise program for
adding muscle and losing body fat. Bodybuilders just wanting to look good at the beach are
included in the category.
Olympic weightlifting is a specialty weightlifting sport that utilizes only two exercises, the clean
and jerk, and the snatch, although there are many training exercises. Each lift is highly
specialized and technical, requiring much training and practice.
Powerlifting competition requires only three lifts, the squat, bench press, and deadlift. Again,
strength and technique programs are the basis of Powerlifting.
Weight Training for Power & Types of Exercises
Let’s say you want to build strength and muscle mass. There is general agreement that the "big
three" powerlifting lifts — the squat, bench press and deadlift — are the core lifts for building
bulk and strength.
If you’re training for a good balance of body composition and strength, you will need to add
additional back, abdomen and shoulder exercises to the big three, along with more specific
work on the front of the arms. This basic strength and muscle program gives you a suggested
set of exercises. Most gyms will have a range of equipment for doing these exercises.
In bodybuilding, where muscle definition of even the smallest muscle can be important, a wider
range of isolation exercises is usually practiced. Olympic weightlifting requires specific strength
and technique training.
Weight Training Programs
A training program is a schedule of frequency, intensity, volume, and type of exercise, whether
for weight training or any other fitness training. In weight training, various methods and
techniques are used..
Full body training. Training all major muscle groups in a session. You choose a series of lifts,
perhaps up to ten, ensuring that all major muscle groups are exercised at some level
Split system. Alternating sessions for major muscle groups. Training, say, arms, shoulders and
back one session, then legs buttocks, abdominals the next session.
Periodization could be described as progressing or cycling phases of training over a set time in
order to achieve results at a scheduled time. Dividing a yearly program into different training
modalities with different sequential goals is an example. This is common in sport-specific
programs and in competition forms of weightlifting. For example, off-season maintenance, pre-
season strength, early-season hypertrophy and power, active season maintenance, post-season
recovery.
Supersets. Supersetting is the practice of exercising two opposing muscle groups in quick
succession for the purpose of stimulating muscle growth and providing rest in either group
alternately. Leg extension and leg curl for quadriceps and hamstrings is an example.
Superslow. Superslow encompasses the idea of slow and measured concentric and eccentric
contractions. The proposed advantages of this are disputed by many. Superslow enthusiasts
recommend more or less 10 seconds for each phase of the lift.
Eccentric training. This emphasizes the return or lowering action of any lift on the basis that this
produces better hypertrophy because more muscle damage and fiber recruitment is achieved.
Arm curls are a good example. You usually need assistance to get the concentric or lifting part
completed.
Sport-specific programs are designed to enhance performance in particular sports by
strengthening muscle fitness specific to those sports, especially through periodized weight
training.
Diet, Nutrition, and Supplements
Appropriate diet and nutrition are very important in maximizing results from any athletic
training program, and weight training is certainly no exception.

Building Strength

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Strength and Muscle Building Program & Building Muscle Endurance

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