What is the difference between training for strength and muscle size?
In general, training for strength and muscle size is similar: both regimes involve lifting weights to fatigue the muscles and resting them to recover.
The difference is that to achieve a beautiful relief, it is enough to tire the body. You can do this with heavy, medium, or even light weights—if the muscle fibers are challenged enough, they will grow. In strength training, fatigue also plays an important role, but factors such as:
- The work of the nervous system. The more muscle fibers the nervous system can excite, the more force they will produce. Therefore, it is not enough to increase muscle volume - you also need to force the central nervous system to activate them to the fullest.
- Tendon stiffness. The faster a muscle contracts, the less force it produces. In response to strength training, the tendons become stiffer, Effects of resistance and stretching training programs on the viscoelastic properties of human tendon structures in vivo, Habitual loading results in tendon hypertrophy and increased stiffness of the human patellar tendon, and limit the rate of contraction, allowing the muscles to release more force.
- Intermuscular coordination. There are muscles in our body that perform opposite functions - antagonists. For example, the shoulder flexes the biceps, and the triceps extends (and is its antagonist). The quadriceps extends the knee, and the muscles on the back of the thigh flex. In order for all the force produced by the muscle to go to a good cause, its antagonist must relax and not interfere. The better coordination between muscle groups, the more weight you can lift.
To pump up all the qualities necessary to develop strength, you need to train in a certain way.
Damage to muscles
We've all experienced DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) a day or two after a workout. This is a common condition that occurs after exercise as a result of microcracks in the muscles. Many experience it during the recovery and adaptation phase.
Keep in mind that not everyone who gains hypertrophy and strength will experience delayed onset muscle soreness, but it is a significant indicator of muscle growth.
It should be noted that the severity of DOMS experienced does not correlate with the amount of hypertrophy.
Someone who has just started exercising or has introduced new stimuli to the muscles (load, volume, choice of exercises, etc.) may experience delayed pain syndrome to a greater extent until they get used to the load.
Eccentric movements, or stretching the target muscle, cause the most damage - keep this in mind when choosing movements.
When training at home, focusing on slowing down the stretch phase will help achieve even greater hypertrophy. Try incorporating a count into your stretching phase, say counting from five to zero or ten to zero.
It is also worth separating movements aimed at damaging muscles and increasing metabolic stress. Combining such movements can lead to violations in the exercise technique and increase the risk of injury.
How to exercise to increase strength
Follow the specification principle
You can pump your quadriceps equally well in different movements, but to develop strength, it is important to concentrate on the specific exercise in which you want to improve your performance.
So, if you're looking to increase your one-rep max (1RM) on the back squat, do the back squat; if your goal is to bench press 200 kg, do bench presses in training.
This does not mean that your entire program should consist of one or two exercises.
You can and even need to involve additional work, focusing on your weak points. For example, the bench press requires not only the pecs and triceps, but also the shoulders and latissimus dorsi, so you can add a variety of rows, pull-ups, and flyes to your workout to get the benefit.
But your primary movements—the ones where you want to increase your 1RM—should be primary. Include them in every workout and do them at the very beginning, while the central nervous system and muscles are still fresh.
Work with heavy weights for a small number of repetitions
Training intensity is very important for developing strength. In power loads, it will depend on the working weight - the higher it is, the greater the intensity.
Compared to using medium and light weights, working with heavy equipment (80–90% of 1RM) trains Greater Neural Adaptations following High- vs. Low-Load Resistance Training nervous system recruits more muscle fibers, increases Region specific patellar tendon hypertrophy in humans following resistance training tendon stiffness and the number of Early-phase muscular adaptations in response to slow-speed versus traditional resistance-training regimens type IIA fast muscle fibers required to produce maximum force.
Perform three sets of two to five repetitions with 80–85% of 1RM and rest 3–5 minutes between sets.
Numerous studiesThe effect of training volume and intensity on improvements in muscular strength and size in resistance‑trained men, Maximizing strength development in athletes: a meta‑analysis to determine the dose‑response relationship, Applications of the dose‑response for muscular strength development: a review of meta‑analytic efficacy and reliability for designing training prescription, Differential Effects of Heavy Versus Moderate Loads on Measures of Strength and Hypertrophy in Resistance‑Trained Men demonstrates that such training is most effective in developing strength.
Take time for technology
Technique doesn't affect your muscles' ability to produce force, but it does have a significant impact on your strength. Flaws in technique prevent you from fully realizing your muscle potential.
To eliminate inaccuracies, work with a coach who has experience working with strength athletes. If this is not possible, study the tutorials.
Basic exercises
To increase strength, you cannot do without physical activity, but preference should be given to basic exercises, and the number of repetitions per 1 approach should be in the range of 1-6; if you are not involved in powerlifting, then perform exercises for 4-6 repetitions.
However, basic exercises greatly deplete the body, so in one workout you need to perform 4 basic exercises and, to complete, 2-3 isolating exercises with lighter weights for 8-10 repetitions.
How often to exercise to increase strength
It depends on your level of training:
- Beginners are advised Applications of the dose-response for muscular strength development: a review of meta-analytic efficacy and reliability for designing training prescription to exercise three times a week, do four sets for each muscle group, and select the weight so that it is 60 % of 1RM. For untrained people, this intensity is quite enough to ensure a sustainable increase in strength and muscle. In addition, lighter weights will prevent injury while the technique is not yet up to par.
- Amateur athletes with an average level of training are recommended Applications of the dose-response for muscular strength development: a review of meta-analytic efficacy and reliability for designing training prescription to exercise twice a week, do four approaches for each muscle group, but use already 80% of 1RM.
- Experienced athletes should train twice a week and perform eight sets for each muscle group. In this case, the weight in the exercises should be 85% of 1RM.
Why is the time between reps important?
When muscles constantly contract and relax, blood accumulates in the muscles. This leads to cellular edema, in which the muscles become visually larger. Many people call this process pumping.
Pumping, in turn, leads to a restriction of blood flow in the muscle. As a result, the muscle experiences a lack of oxygenated blood during continuous contractions.
This leads to the accumulation of metabolites in the muscles. The resulting metabolic stress on muscles has an anabolic effect (promotes muscle building), which leads to molecular signaling and increased hormonal responses in the body that cause hypertrophy.
Occlusion training itself (restricting blood flow to the muscle being trained) can be used to induce hypertrophy and maintain muscle mass. This uses much lighter loads and increases the number of repetitions performed.2
To train occlusion, cuffs, elastic bands, and tourniquets are used, with the help of which the venous outflow of blood in the trained muscles is artificially limited. Also, using a light weight (something you have on hand, say a one-pound pack of sugar) for high reps can help you achieve a similar effect.
Methods for developing speed
When people talk about speed, the image of a runner immediately pops up. What does speed have to do with strength, you ask? And here’s the thing: the faster the projectile is lifted, the more weight you can handle in motion. This is especially evident in weightlifting. No athlete will lift heavy weights in the snatch or clean and jerk if he performs the movement slowly. This applies to a lesser extent to powerlifting, but it still applies; speed is important here too.
To develop speed, relatively low weights are used, about 60-65% of 1RM. Since we want to develop speed, we should move the projectile as quickly as possible. This applies to the positive phase of the movement, while the negative phase should be performed at normal speed, maybe even a little slower.
How does this actually happen? Let's take the bench press as an example. Let’s say that you are able to bench press 100kg at one time, then to develop speed you should lift 60kg. You take the starting position, slowly lower the barbell to your chest and, as soon as it touches it, press it up as quickly as possible. The projectile should literally “explode” and fly upward. Then you repeat the movement again.
As a rule, 2-3 repetitions are used per approach, however, you should perform 8-10 such approaches, and the rest pause between approaches should be no more than a minute. For deadlifts and squats, you can perform 2 repetitions; for bench presses, 3 are usually used. Training to develop explosive strength and speed should take place on a separate training day; mixing them with strength work is not recommended.
To develop explosive leg strength, an exercise such as jumping with a barbell on your shoulders can be used. For the muscles of the chest, deltas and triceps, push-ups from the floor with cotton are used, and for the back muscles, moving the weight in front of you is very good. These exercises are quite specific and are rarely used in powerlifting, but for variety in training, I recommend trying them. Shock absorbers and chains can also be actively used in powerlifting.
Additional Strength Development Factors
In addition to exercise, there are a number of factors that affect your level of physical strength. If any of them noticeably “sags,” the classes may not give the desired result. Let's look at the factors that anyone working on strength development should pay attention to:
- Correct execution of the selected exercises. If the technique is violated, the result may be several times less than expected, and injuries or pain in the joints cannot be ruled out.
- An interval of 1-2 days between training for one muscle group. It is a well-known fact: muscles need time to rest. Therefore, either classes are required every other day, or different workouts are structured so that there is a break between them.
- Periodic change of exercises. Working on the same muscles leads to lower results with the same load. Changes are needed from time to time.
- Balanced diet. A separate topic that an amateur athlete should study at least superficially, and one who wants to become a professional should study in detail.
- Healthy sleep. The average minimum, with the exception of individual cases, is a stable 7-8 hours a day. Training is a lot of physical activity, and if a person doesn’t get enough sleep, he simply won’t have enough strength. Although this may not appear immediately.
- Regularity of training. What you started should not be abandoned, just as you should not take long breaks.
By adhering to the rules described above, you can achieve good results in developing strength. Specialized information will help you do everything more correctly and avoid mistakes.
