Strength Training Tips
by Dan Gable, World and Olympic Champion "You can't ever get too strong"... as an athlete who is serious about meeting and exceeding your goals for your sport. To reach your personal goals you must be willing and able to train year round. Today in athlete competition you can not expect a championship performance after only a few months of training each year. It takes commitment and dedication.
There are two main goals of a strength development program, they are to enhance your athletic performance while also lessening the chance for injuries.
A rational athlete must understand that once they have established a goal, it is crucial that you successfully achieve that goal. To achieve a goal in athletics you must also seek out the most productive, or time-saving methods to achieve the goal. Your motivation is not to look like a "body builder," but to enhance your athletic performance with a solid strength training program.
It is a fact that anyone, no matter what your genetic endowment, can expect improvements in their existing physical condition. The key is to train specifically for your sport.
Warming Up
Before starting a workout, it is important that you spend some time warming up the muscles that are to be trained.
Warming up the muscles you are working is beneficial because it not only brings extra warmth, blood and oxygen to the area, but it also activates various enzyme systems, all of which contributes to the muscles being able to contract more intensely, and with less likelihood of injury.
The Intensity Factor
Properly defined, intensity refers to the percentage of possible momentary muscular effort being exerted. It is only on the last repetition of a set carried to a point of momentary muscular failure that an individual is forced to exert 100 percent of their momentary ability.
Executing that last, almost impossible rep causes the body to dip into its reserve abilities. Since the body has only a small amount of this reserve to draw upon before depletion occurs, the body protects itself from future assaults on its reserves by enlarging upon its existing ability through the compensatory buildup of more muscle tissue.
Only high-intensity training can force the body to resort to its reserve ability sufficiently to stimulate an adaptive response. Repeating tasks that are well within your existing capacity will do nothing to spur growth. Ending a set before failure, just because of an arbitrarily chosen number of repetitions have been completed will not cause you to develop strength.
Carry a set to the point where you are forced to utilize 100 percent of your momentary muscular ability is the single most important factor in increasing strength. Working to a point of momentary muscular failure, where another rep is impossible despite your greatest effort, ensures that you pass through the "break-over point," or that point in the set below which growth will not be stimulated, and above which growth and strength will be stimulated.
Brief, high-intensity training stimulates the body in a way that no amount of lesser intensity training even closely approximates.
Perfect Form - Perfect Results
Many athletes who strength train are in the habit of sacrificing form for weight.
Use slow, strict repetitions in both the lifting and lowering portion of each exercise
When you are moving too fast through exercises, inertia - and very little of your muscle power is doing the work. So, you are not really getting much from the exercise. Plus, fast lifting is very stressful on your connective tissue. Each repetition should be performed in a slow, controlled fashion throughout a full range of motion.
Slow movement during the eccentric phase can produce extra strength benefits.
Put mental effort into every repetition.
To accomplish all of the above and then some, you must exert tremendous mental effort. The degree to which you can push yourself physically depends on your power to concentrate - the more concentrated your efforts, the closer you can get to achieving your goals.
Training to Failure
To stimulate increases in muscular strength, it is imperative that you regularly attempt the momentary impossible. For example, if you can bench press 225 pounds for 10 reps, but never attempt the 11th, your body has no reason to enlarge upon its existing capacity. It is only by regularly attempting to go beyond your existing capacity that inroads are made into your body's reserve capacity, and since reserves are limited, the body compensates with increased size and strength of the muscle tissue, so that the same workout in the future will not use up the precious, limited reserves.
Proper Weight Selection
It is suggested that you select a weight for each exercise which allows for the performance of approximately 6-10 repetitions in the manner described above. Never terminate a set, just because a prescribed number of reps has been completed. The range 6-10 reps is offered as a guideline, because fewer than six reps will not tax your reserves sufficiently, and more than 12 reps could cause you to terminate the set due to cardio respiratory insufficiency before the muscular failure is reached.
It is absolutely essential that you do not select a weight which is so light that the last rep (one that is within or close to the suggested range) requires anything less than 100 percent of your momentary ability, nor so heavy that you are forced to sacrifice proper lifting form. Since all of your skeletal muscles have greater ability in holding a weights that they do in lifting them, you should be able to hold a weight that you lifted by the force of muscular contraction alone at any given point in the range of motion. If you cannot hold the weight you selected in the contracted position, then you did not lift it, you threw it.
Final Thoughts
Keep a training journal. Record the date of each workout, the amount of weight used for each exercise, and the number of repetitions performed. You should be getting stronger - as evidenced by an increase in repetitions, weight or both on a regular basis. As long as you are getting stronger you are on the right track. Even a one rep increase is significant.
Exercises can be changed periodically as long as you continue to adhere to the basic principles. No training program can guarantee how much strength can be developed, this is a matter of genetics. Utilizing the training principles above, however will help you ensure optimal progress and the actualization of your full physical potential.
The key to success in training is intensity. It is not about how much time you spend, but the quality of the time spent in training. Don't be fooled into thinking that more is better when it comes to strength training. Our goal is to become the best athlete you can be. You do not have to sacrifice hours of time each day from your life to become strong. You just need to be disciplined, committed, consistent while training efficiently and intelligently to get the job done.
More Strength Training Tips
by Coach Doug Reese, TTNL
Get the most out of your strength workout by training the right way.
Get the most out of your strength workout by training the right way.
Stretching and Warm up
Many athletes don't stretch before lifting. They think it is just something you do before practice or running. Stretching though is very important, especially when you are lifting heavy weights week after week and putting strain on your muscles and tendons. By stretching you get oxygen to your muscles, and wake them up for all the punishment they are about to get. When lifting heavy, stretching will help you prevent aching joints and other nuisances that can put an end to your heavy lifting.
Don't Over Train
The most common mistake made by strength trainers at all levels is overtraining. When you do not give the muscle time to recuperate you stunt your progress and can in fact lose strength. It is better to take an extra day off, than lift a day early. Remember it is not how long you lift, but rather how hard and intense you lift.
Train for Strength
As many of your probably know when you do sets with high reps, 12 and up are training to get cut up, or lean. Likewise when you are trying to gain size you do sets with lower reps. If you want to increase your max lift, low reps in the range of 4-6 are not going to cut it. To build strength you have to push your muscles past the limits. Your main sets will consist of reps between 1-3. Unless you increase the weight and expose your muscle fibers to this type of lifting your max will not increase as rapidly as you would like. Before you lift a weight you need to know what your goal is; is it to be buff, or do you want to be the best in your sport?
Variation
When you do the same thing over and over your body gets used to it and it stops responding. You have to surprise your body and muscles and keep them growing. I am sure that you have seen some athletes come into the weight room day after day doing the same thing with the same weight, and then wonder why they aren't getting stronger. You need to change the exercises you are doing and the order you are doing them. You also have to surprise of shock your body with different routines.
Fatigue
The order in which you perform exercises on a certain day can effect the results of the exercises you do later in the workout. You should always perform large muscle exercises at the beginning of your workout, because that is when you are the strongest. If however, you do them in the wrong order your muscles will already have begun to fatigue and you won't do as well as you had expected. For example, if you do bicep curls, and then you head for the bench press, your weight will drop.
Mindset and Preparation
Maxing out is a very mental exercise. Lifting can be very mental, there is no doubt to that! Visualize your success.
Strategies to help you get the most out of your strength workouts!
The Basics are Best
The first reason we fail to get back to basics is because the basics seem so basic. We are always looking for some exotic, theory or program. The best is the simple, easy approach to training.
The second reason we fail to get back to basics is because the basics are so darn hard! Most people go to the path of least resistance, rather than plugging away at the result producing programs.
Let's face it, squats are tough - real tough! But if you don't learn to love heavy, basic exercises like squats, you will never reach your true potential.
Choose Compound vs. Isolation Movements
First and foremost, "back to basics" means using compound, multi-joint exercises over isolation movements. Compound movements are those that involve the largest muscles groups as well as smaller, stabilizing muscles. Because they utilize a greater muscle mass, they allow you to lift the heaviest weights possible.
There is a direct correlation between the amount of weight lifted in an exercise and the size of the muscle. Therefore, it is logical that compound exercises like squats have greater potential for building strength and mass than isolation movements like leg extension, because squats allow the utilization of much heavier poundages, resulting in much greater growth.
The Best Mass/Strength Building Exercises
Here is a list of the best basic mass/strength building exercises for each body part:
Quads - Squats, Front Squats, and Leg Presses.
Hamstrings - Stiff-legged Deadlifts, Lying Leg Curl.
Back - Pull ups, Bent Over Row, One Arm Dumbbell Row.
Chest - Barbell Bench Press, Dumbbell Bench Press, Weighted Wide Grip Dips.
Deltoids - Press behind Neck, Dumbbell Press, Military Press, Shrugs.
Triceps - Lying Tricep Extension, Close Grip Bench Press, Pushdowns, Seated Tricep Extensions.
Biceps - Standing Barbell Curl, Seated Alternating Dumbbell Curl, Preacher Curl.
Calves - Standing Calf Raise, Seated Calf Raise.
If You Don't Squat, You Ain't Squat
Why? Because barbell squats are positively the single most result producing exercise you can do. I am not suggesting that you ignore the advice of your doctor if you have an injury, but if you are physically capable of squatting and you are not doing them, you are compromising your STRENGTH, SPEED, and POWER potential. Leg presses are okay, but they just are not the same!
Do Yourself a Favor
Stop wasting your time searching for an easy way to train...it just doesn't exist. Work hard, be intense, do the basics lifts, and get plenty of rest and recuperation and you will reach your physical potential faster than you thought possible!
Train smarter, not harder
More is not better, more intense is.
Do what it takes to be the best you can possibly be as an athlete. Plug into these tips to give yourself the edge!
Rest and Recuperation
Muscles don't grow during a workout. They grow between the workouts - if you allow them to rest that is. All too often, the over enthusiast ice trainer works out longer and more often under the impression that more is better. Over training is the arch-nemesis of the strength trainer. Training by itself does not necessarily translate into growth; training plus recuperation does.
Proper recuperation includes two separate components; specific recuperation and systematic recuperation. Specific recuperation refers to how much time you allow between training a particular body part. The rage these days seems to be training every day and hitting each muscle group once per week. This is not a bad idea, but if you are training six or seven days per week, you are defeating the purpose of one body part a week training. Individual muscle groups need to rest between training sessions, but so does the entire body.
Systematic recuperation means allowing your entire body to recuperate by not training too many days in a row. If you train too frequently, this places excessive demands on your nervous system. Two or three days of weight training in a row is the most you should ever do. If you are a "hard-gainer" than every other day routine might be even better. A two on, one off schedule where you work each muscle every five to seven days is extremely effective. This allows individual muscles and your entire body sufficient recuperation for maximal growth.
Progressive Resistance the Key to Gaining Mass
There are many factors involved in building a muscular physique, but in the long run the only thing that really matters is that you progressively overload your muscles. There are many ways to overload a muscle such as:
• Decreasing rest intervals
• Increasing volume
• Slowing rep speed
• Increasing time under tension
• Doing more repetitions
• Using stricter form
• Adding more weight to the bar
The more weight you can lift with perfect form, the bigger the muscle will get, the stronger you will become, period. Constantly adding weight at every session can seem like an insurmountable task at times, but the best way to achieve this goal is to make tiny, incremental increases consistently over time. Don't attempt large jumps in weight loads too quickly. Aim for adding just 2.5 pounds to 5 pounds with every workout on the basic exercises.
You may not always be able to increase the weight, but you must make progress in some form at every single workout or you are wasting your time. Keep your workouts brief in duration and high in intensity.
The definition of intensity is the degree of momentary muscular effort that you exert during a set. In other words, intensity is how hard you workout. Most athletes simply do not train hard. Most likely this lack of intensity is due to the volume being too high.
The harder you train, the less sets you will be able to do - and need to do. As a general rule, it is most effective to keep your workouts brief and intense (under 60 minutes). More is not better, harder is better. Always train to the point of failure, or just short of failure.
Do what it takes to be the best you can possibly be as an athlete. Plug into these tips to give yourself the edge!
• Always train until failure. Do as many reps as you can with the weight you are training with.
• Take from two to three minutes break between sets. Take the time to recover so that you are recharged before you do that next set!
• Inhale on the negative part of the lift (the lowering segment), and exhale on the positive part of the lift (the exertion).
• Drink plenty of water. During your break time between sets be sure to take plenty of fluids.
• Flexibility is key! As you are adding muscular strength or mass be sure to increase your flexibility as well. Strength lightly after each set and after every workout. Flexibility will help to prevent injury.
• Never sacrifice form for weight! It is more important to do the exercise properly than how much you can lift.
• Keep your workout fairly short - 60 minutes or less. You don't have to live in the weight room to have great results. You should be able to keep your total sets per body part at six or less. Remember you are not a bodybuilder, but an athlete training in a specific sport. Strength training is just part of your sport - spend more time in specific technique training.
• Change up your routine. Your body will learn to adapt to the stress of your weight program. Every so often use alternate exercises or change up the order of your lifts.
