How to build strength, pt. 1
Not all clients are interested in strength outcomes (or physique for that matter), but regardless, it’s a vital piece of the puzzle of achieving long-term, sustained results.
What is strength?
For the purpose of this article, we will define strength as someone’s ability to move weight through a pre-determined range of motion.
For trainers and trainees in the gym, strength can be measured on the bar, through a specific set of parameters:
Rep range
Intensity
Technique (includes ROM)
Building and expressing strength
Building and expressing strength are not the same thing.
Building strength is any activity that contributes to increasing our ability to “move weight through a predetermined range of motion”.
Expressing strength is taking this “built” strength, and applying it.
This distinction is important as it allows us to take a broader view of how we build strength, rather than a common mistake of “Just lift heavy, bro” all the time.
Conscious skill
Every movement in the gym has a skill demand, from a bicep curl to a low bar squat. If an individual is able to perform exercises (skills) repeatedly, and well, we deem them to have “good technique” or be competent in the skill of the movement.
Improvement in technique will lead to increased weight... so improved technique equals improved strength.
Example 1
If someone has good bicep curl technique, they are able to:
Brace effectively to create stability
Maintain consistent breathing patterns
Maintain a steady torso and hips so as to isolate the bicep
Position the arm to create constant tension
Initiate movement with the bicep alone, lead with the pinky to create a short bicep
Control the speed and tempo of the movement
A relatively simple exercise will still provide an increased training stimulus by honing the skill.
Example 2
Good low bar squat technique includes:
Bracing effectively
Effectively using the valsalva maneuver
Creating 3 points of balanced contact with the foot
Achieving prime external rotation at the hip by spreading the floor
Setting a stacked ankle, knee, hip and torso
Creating tension in the upper back and lats by “breaking the bar around your back”
Breaking into the knee, hip and back in the correct amounts simultaneously
Continuing to maintain tightness and encourage hip external rotation while controlling the speed of the negative
Maintaining tightness in and out of the hole
Driving the “floor away” and upper back into the bar simultaneously with as much force as possible
Resetting correctly
Because of the increased complexity, we often see faster early progress in a squat than a bicep curl, and we will need more time to re-calibrate it if it has been removed from programming for a period of time.
This is important with setting up blocks and designing programs. Clients will need adjustment periods to improve their movements as they develop technique and start building strength.
Neural adaptations
There are three types of neural adaptation that are applicable when it comes to strength training. These are helpful to be aware of.
Intra-muscular: “Intra” refers to adaptations made within the muscles. In short, intramuscular adaptations are the ability to create more force by organising the firing of motor units. This is facilitated by learning to contract more motor units simultaneously at a faster rate, ultimately providing you with a stronger muscle contraction and so more strength.
Inter-muscular: “Inter” refers to the “unconscious skill” of muscles working together systematically. As with conscious skill, the more we perform a movement the less effort it takes. The more you do the movement at the same weight, the less motor units are required to complete the task, “freeing up” spare motor units to be recruited when required. You can now add more weight and recruit the previously unused motor units and continue to gain more strength.
Disinhibition: Disinhibition is the body’s built in protective mechanism from extreme muscle contractions. Without disinhibition, simply attempting to scratch your nose could result in a black eye. These safety measures include responses from tendons, agonist and antagonist muscles, pain signaling and more. Through repeated bouts of training, the body learns to “feel safe” and reduce the inhibitory factors.
“Pushing the car”
Here’s a fun a analogy to help your clients understand how the body works:
Imagine you’re a Ford driver (of course you’d be used to break downs!).
So your Ford has broken down and a couple of other drivers have stopped to help you push your car to a service station.
People are intermittently taking turns to push the car. It doesn’t get very far, but it is moving.
Then a Holden driver arrives, organises the group and suggests everyone push together on the count of three. with everyone pushing together the car now moves - this is motor unit synchronization.
Seeing an impending hill, the Holden driver pulls in some more people off the to help push - this is motor unit recruitment.
Instead of slow long drawn out mistimed strides, the team now coordinates itself into fast foot movements executed together by counting aloud “1, 2, 3, 4”. With more frequent and well timed expressions of force the car now punches up a hill - this is motor unit rate coding.
Once the hill is cleared, the group now have discovered the technique of pushing the car. It's moving easily and a few people can drop off, rest and then swap back in once recovered - this is intermuscular adaptation.
Nearing a bend, the Ford driver jumps in the car to steer, only to discover the hand brake has been on the entire time, releasing the brake makes the same distance much easier to cover - this is disinhibition.
Moral of the story? The body is really cool, and Fords suck!
Hypertrophy
Last, but definitely not least - having more muscle means having a greater potential/ability to get stronger. We refer to this as hypertrophy. Imagine swapping out some car pushers and swapping them for bigger ones - that’s hypertrophy.
As we mentioned earlier - knowing the above adaptations are important as it allows you to focus on specific areas depending on the clients goals, skill, conditioning, training age etc.
For more on strength, listen to ep 148 of the STCfit Learning Podcast ft. Will Crozier, out now on all platforms.
