Training for STRENGTH : Part 1

Have you ever seen a power-lifter doing endless sets of biceps curls or incline hammer curls ??...The answer would be a resounding NO..But these power-lifters also happen to be the strongest men walking the planet. If you read my earlier blog, I pointed out that even the great bodybuilders of the past were very strong because majority of them started out as power-lifters first and then jumped to body sculpting. The point is, in order to get strong, all of us need to train like power-lifters (mimic the techniques I mean...). before we get rolling let me give a quantitative idea of what STRENGTH is. Its quantified by something called "1RM". This simply means the amount of weight one can lift using a certain muscle group just once (not anymore) using decent form. This implies we have different 1RMs for our different muscle groups. When I say increase in STRENGTH, I mean increase in the 1RMs for all the muscle groups (or even a particular one if that is your favorite muscle group) in a 6-8 week period. Another thing that literally shits me out is when I see people doing bicep/triceps curls in like 10 different angles for endless sets. The logic they give is that it improves the so called "shape" of the muscle. Hell yeah it does...I agree..but that doesn't do anything to increase the core body STRENGTH. That is where compound exercises come in. These exercise are the ones that usually involve free weights and work maximum muscles possible at the same time. Examples are bench press, dead-lifts, squats, barbell rowing, chin ups, military presses etc. The Bench press for example not only works the chest muscles but also the triceps and shoulders (essentially act like stabilizers in this case). These exercises elicit the maximum hormonal output because it involves big muscle groups and includes stabilizers which has a neural component to it. With this info in mind lets see how one can go ahead and train for increase in STRENGTH. A typical workout can be:

1) Taking around 85% of your 1RM weight for any given exercise (preferably a compound exercise...unless you want to waste your time in the gym)

2) Doing 3-5 reps with this weight (You wont be able to do more than 6-7 reps with this weight usually..).

Corollary 2.1) When doing a rep with the weight above, always explosively lift the weight and try to accelerate it up (Remember Newton's law F = M A ??). While letting the weight down, take twice as much time you took to lift it up and do so in a totally controlled manner. (More on this in part 2)

3) Resting for 3-5 minutes (This is the most crucial part) and then doing 3-5 reps again.

4) Doing 6-7 cycles (or sets) like this.
5) Giving that muscle group at least 5 days of rest before working it out again.

7) Next time when working the same muscle, mandatory increase of weight by 5% or by 5 pounds (WHICHEVER IS LESS !). This is the concept of progressive overload (Remember the legendary Milo from my first post ??...)

8) Goes without saying, give any workout routine at least 8-12 weeks to see appreciable results and don't give up.

9) At the end of 8 weeks, one should be able to do 3-5 reps in a set with his previous 1RM weight.

To summarize, When you take a load around 85% of your current 1RM and do some program like the above, you essentially involve the type 2 fibers bypassing the recruitment of type 1 fibers. Since you are exploding and trying to accelerate the weight up, Your NERVOUS SYSTEM takes a real beating..and you need to rest for at least 3-5 minutes before resuming another set as your NERVOUS SYSTEM takes that amount of time to recuperate maximally so that you can train "it" again. Always remember...when doing heavy lifts like these, your muscles recover much much faster than your NERVOUS SYSTEM. By training and resting like the way I mentioned, you will essentially be training your NERVOUS SYSTEM to become more efficient at recruiting more type 2 fibers rep after rep..set after set...and thus making those fibers stronger. Make no mistake here, but you can have the largest amount of type 2 fibers in the whole world but still be weak because your NERVOUS SYSTEM might not be very efficient at recruiting them. So, why you waiting dudes..?? ...go ahead and blast yourself in the gym and have fun !! :)

Disclaimer : People on these kind of programs usually don't see a LOT of mass increase (at least not in 8 weeks or so). You need to be eating just slightly above your maintenance level with good amount of nutrients and don't go overboard with the calories. You shall definitely get stronger, denser, leaner and meaner. Size shall follow later. BTW... Bodybuilders have more muscle (that is what they call them...yeah..technically referred by scientists as "SARCOPLASMIC HYPERTROPHY") than power-lifters but never statistically can a bodybuilder challenge a power-lifter for a STRENGTH competition. So..you better get the point.