How to Get Stronger
by Tony Schwartz, Pro Strength Coach
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How to Get Strongerby Tony Schwartz, Pro Strength Coach |
Getting stronger is a complex issue that involves your nervous system and muscles working together to create as much strength (force) as possible. While genetics, nutrition, and supplementation can all play a role, the development of strength is mainly dependent on your training program.
Because of this, those serious about gaining strength need to have a training program specifically designed for that goal.
You are going to learn exactly how to develop a training program to get stronger and more muscular. If you are serious about increasing your strength and muscle mass then you are going to want to read this.
First of all, you need to be aware that there are different types of strength. For example, lifting a heavy weight is known as maximal strength. This is what most of us are interested in.
But there are also other types of strength, such as explosive strength and endurance strength. The good news is that by improving your maximal strength you can also improve these other types of strength.
For example, by improving your maximal strength with an exercise like the squat, you will also improve your ability in similar explosive movements like a vertical jump.
This phenomenon is known to sport scientists as positive transference, which is basically just a fancy term meaning that improvements in one exercise will lead to improvements in another.
Because of this phenomenon we are going to focus on methods to improve your maximal strength.
What type of training is best for getting stronger?
There are many considerations when designing a training program, but one of the most often asked is: How many reps should I do?
It's hard to give a real clear-cut answer to this question because it really depends on you and what your goals are. However, the table below is a good guideline.
So, if your main goal is strength then this means that the majority of your training should be in the 1 to 6 rep range.
This doesn't mean that you should never train with more than 6 reps. There is a place for this type of training in your program even if you aren't concerned with adding muscle mass, but that is a topic for another time.
What about looking strong?
If you're like most people you want to get stronger, but you'd also like to gain some muscle and probably lose some fat as well.
When most people hear about training with lower reps they automatically think of powerlifters and weightlifters, since these athletes typically train with lower reps.
Unfortunately, the most popular weightlifters and powerlifters are those in the superheavyweight class, since they lift the largest weights. But these guys are also fat!
So it's understandable why people jump to the conclusion that training with lower reps will make you stronger, but it will also make you fat. But this simply isn't the case.
Training Heavy Isn't What Makes You Fat The number of reps you do has almost nothing to do with how fat you are. Some people argue that you burn more calories with higher reps. While this is true, the difference is so miniscule that it isn't even worth thinking about. As a practical example, just look at weightlifters and powerlifters in the lighter weight classes. These guys are still brutally strong, yet have well defined abdominals year-round.
Think This Guy is Fat? The real key to getting lean while still being strong as an ox is to watch your diet. Training with lower reps will help you get stronger and gain muscle, but you have to eat a quality diet of lean meats, vegetables, and whole grains if you want to have a six-pack to go with your strength. How can YOU get stronger? Ok, so far we have just looked at one factor for increasing your strength. And while training with heavy weights and low reps is a huge factor in your success, there are 3 other principles you MUST use in your training in order to get stronger.
1. Money Exercises: The most bang for your buck You already know you should be using lower reps, but what exercises should you combine those low reps with? There are two main categories of exercises you have to choose from: compound and isolation. Isolation exercises involve the movement of only one joint of the body at a time. The classic example is the barbell curl, where only the elbow joint is moving. Because of this, only the muscles which move the elbow joint are working. In the case of the barbell curl this primarily means the biceps. Compound exercises are those that involve the movement of more than one joint at a time. Think of the pull-up as an example. In the pull-up both the shoulder and elbow joint are moving. What this means is that the muscles that make those joints move are having to work. In the pull-up this means the biceps help to move the elbow joint, and the deltoids (shoulders) and lats (upper back) help to move the shoulder joint. So which is better? Well, both types have their place in every program, but compound exercises should always be the foundation if your goal is to increase your strength. Just think, which sounds better:
OR Pull-ups to work your biceps AND shoulders AND upper back Sounds like a no-brainer to me. With that said, there are numerous compound exercises to choose from. So which ones should you pick? A good starting point is to choose the three lifts that powerlifters compete in: squat, bench press, and deadlift. These lifts are often called the "Big 3" since they allow you to use heavy weights and hit almost every muscle in your body. In addition to the Big 3, I also recommend adding in the pull-up, as this will help to round-out your strength development.
2. Progress, progress, progress I once had a powerlifter tell me that, "To get stronger, you have to get stronger." It's not the clearest way of saying it, but his point was that if your goal is be strong you have to continually add more weight to the bar. This is what is known as "progressive overload", and it is the main principle of training no matter what your goal is. As an example, if you just started training you might find it very difficult to lift just the bar in some exercises. However, as you continue lifting you will find that the bar soon becomes very easy. If you continue to lift with only the weight of the bar your progress will stall and you won't get any stronger. However, if you continually add weight to the bar you are giving your body the stimulus it needs to continue to get stronger.
Add Some More Weight to The Bar This is just one example of progressive overload. You can also progress by doing more reps, more sets, changing exercises, etc. Basically anything that makes your workout more difficult can be seen as a way to achieve progressive overload. 3. Proper program design So, getting stronger is easy right? Just pick some compound exercises, use lower reps, and add weight to the bar consistently. Heck, it sure sounds simple enough. Take the bench press for example. Let's say you start out doing 100 pounds for 5 reps. You plan to increase the weight by 5 pounds every week. Surely that is a very modest increase, right? So let's see... after one year you will be doing 350 pounds, then 600 pounds after two years, 850 pounds after three years... WOW, you are going to be the strongest man in the world with only a few years of training! Too bad it doesn't work like that. As a strength coach I have had the chance to work with a lot of athletes as well as regular guys. When they come to me for help one of the first things I ask them about is the training programs they have used in the past. Because of this I know which programs work and which ones don't. And the programs that work time and time again are those that are based on the scientific principles we know to be true about training. I won't bore you with all of the scientific details here, but let me just say that 90% of the programs I see out there are a complete waste of time. There are another 5% or so that are OK, and only about 5% that are great. The problem is, hardly anyone ever sees the top 5% because these programs are closely guarded by the coaches who write them. In other words, you simply won't find these programs in bodybuilding magazines. The programs in these magazines aren't made for the average guy anyway. Just ask yourself, how much do you have in common with a 280 pound bodybuilder who is using boatloads of steroids?
Your Training Program Should be Different Than His The bottomline is that these cookie-cutter programs won't do the average guy any good. Instead, you need a program that is based on science and tailored to your specific goal of getting stronger. A Step-by-Step Plan: Putting it All Together So far we have taken a look at some basic principles of getting stronger. But where do you go from here? What we have discussed so far in the "3 Keys" is a good general outline of what you need to do. But to put this information into action you really need an expert in the field. Unfortunately, this is too expensive for most of us. That's why I decided to do a little experiment...
In 2003, a select group of athletes were taught a new and experimental system of training referred to as "Athletic Muscle." In the 90-day experiment, the average strength gains were 40 pounds on the bench press and 70 pounds on the squat, not to mention an increase of 16 pounds with no increase in fat. Available only at the highest levels of athletics for the last 5 years, the Athletic Muscle Building system is now available to the general public for the first time.
Science makes the difference: The most popular training programs are based on disproven techniques involving high-volumes of ineffective work and bodybuilding magazine pseudoscience. Basic research immediately discredits these approaches, which ignore the most basic scientific fact: the muscle must get stronger to grow appreciably bigger. See our unpaid testimonials for feedback from athletes who have used these ineffective programs prior to Athletic Muscle Building. Here's the scoop: The Athletic Muscle Building system, in sharp contrast to other training systems, was developed by analyzing the training programs and methods of the top athletes from the world's most elite athletic institutions, including the NFL, NHL, NBA, and NCAA. What is the science behind these athletes' successes? Keep reading to find out. The commonalities of all these programs were isolated and combined with recently declassified sport science research from the former Soviet Union. From 1972 until its break-up in 1991, the Soviet Union and other countries of the Soviet Bloc dominated the Olympics year after year. The same top-secret Soviet research that went into these programs has now been analyzed and incorporated into Athletic Muscle Building to provide a user friendly system for giving average people the capability to build muscle at the same rate as the top athletes in the world. In 5 years and 7,300 man-hours of investigation and experimentation, the Athletic Muscle Building system has been repeatedly proven as the most effective training system in the world for increasing muscle mass and strength without increasing bodyfat.
The Athletic Muscle Building system has been tested with athletes of all ages and sports, and even the most genetically skinny athletes have been trained to pack on slabs of muscle in less than three months. By comparison, the average gym member will struggle to put on any muscle in that time, leading to extreme frustration, while the top 1% of gym members pack on huge amounts of muscle. The Athletic Muscle Building system is designed to put you in this top 1% as soon as you start the system.
A level of muscularity unattainable with a full year of conventional training can be achieved in 90 days. The Athletic Muscle Building system has produced some of the largest increases in muscle mass on record in only 90 days. The highest increase recorded is 26 lbs. Individual results will always vary, but it is guaranteed that you will increase your muscle mass by AT LEAST 10 lbs. in 90 days. How many supplements can say that? Many trainees report spending $150 a month on supplements. That is $1,800 per year. How many of these supplements have given you any real advantage, quantifiable in pounds of muscle? How many of these supplements guarantee you will increase your muscle mass? How much would you pay for guaranteed muscle mass gains? Using the Athletic Muscle Building system you get a return on your investment within a matter of days. Working with a personal trainer costs $70 per hour. If you meet 3 times per week for 3 months you would spend more than $2,500. What do you get for your $2,500? You "may" experience an increase of 5-10lbs. of muscle. In sharp contrast, the Athletic Muscle Building system has a proven track record of scientifically increasing muscle mass in just 90 days.
By participating in this comprehensive program, you will learn never-before-released secrets of muscle growth at the highest levels of athletics, including: • The science behind the world's most muscular athletes • Why 2/3 of all exercises are unnecessary • Why the optimization of muscle gain depends on the analysis of muscle recruitment • The primary and secondary factors affecting the rate of muscle gain • How analyzing the nervous system holds the key to building muscle • How to gain muscle by determining and correcting your physiological readiness • How to gain muscle by increasing anabolism and decreasing catabolism • How to turn-on the switch for muscle growth • The unbiased truth on effective supplements; specific brands, recommendations, and dosages • How a specific form of stretching can increase muscle mass by 334% in one month
• How to decrease the duration of recovery time by 33% • How to improve flexibility as it pertains to increased muscle mass and strength • The critical difference between working out and training • How to capitalize on the intrinsic "strength curve" of every exercise to maximize recruitment • How to quickly improve motor skills and muscle endurance with rhythm training • How to optimize your hormonal state for safe muscle gains that rival steroids • How to use food to achieve drug-like affects • How to use supplements to increase strength by 10% in 20 minutes • How to increase training volume and prevent over-training • How to virtually eliminate all muscle pulls • Bulgarian Olympic weightlifting principles for accelerated strength increases • The applications and misuses of creatine for muscle gain • How the brain stops your progress in its tracks before ever entering the gym; and how to fix it • How to effectively use a hormone in your body that is more anabolic than testosterone • How to lose fat and get in elite cardiovascular shape in 3 minutes • How to train more effectively by timing training with circadian rhythms and sleep cycles • How to balance strength training and cardiovascular training for increased recovery of the nervous system • The simple method to eliminate nagging shoulder pain • How to manipulate volume, intensity, and frequency to design your optimal training program • Muscle Activation Sequences, Eccentric Quasi-Isometrics, and other techniques to prevent stagnation
• How to trick your nervous system to quickly "remember" strength you never had • How to build muscle while you sleep • Using supplements to enhance the anabolic response • Why a big "pump" doesn't mean you're building muscle • How to specifically address the separate manifestations of strength (eccentric, concentric, isometric) • How to concentrate training sessions for faster muscle gains without fatigue • The keys to minimizing "garbage workouts" and accurately determine the optimal training frequency for you • How to capitalize on supercompensation following each training session • Money saving discounts on food and supplements just for Athletic Muscle Building readers • Why MOST cardiovascular training is useless for fat loss • How to continue to improve after you've completed the first four phases
The Athletic Muscle Building system was developed to eliminate all exercises and methods that do not contribute to increased strength and muscle mass. Once you properly understand the scientific principles of exercise physiology, you can eliminate exercise inefficiencies and increase muscle mass while improving strength and losing fat. Muscle building is a physical process limited primarily by factors under our direct control. Your body can be conditioned to stay in perpetual muscle building mode and produce huge improvements in both muscle mass and strength. No serious lifter should invest in any method that uses bodybuilding magazine pseudoscience or otherwise refutes the scientific facts related to the building of muscle mass. There are several definitions and objectives one must understand to optimize the muscle building process: A) You must maximize the ability of your nervous system to "turn-on" your muscles. B) You must strengthen the muscle in concentric, eccentric, and isometric actions. C) You must incorporate exercises in the correct sequence.
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