What is Strength Training?

What is Strength Training?

Stop wasting your time lifting little weights, it’s keeping you weak!

Do you workout regularly but see little progress? It’s highly likely that you aren’t lifting heavy enough weights. Sure, I understand that heavy is a relative term but a lot of folks are under the impression that any “lifting” is strength training and this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Every week I get to meet with folks to about their health and fitness goals. About 90% of the time, folks are under the misconception that all exercise is strength training. It isn’t. No, running isn’t “lower body strength training”. Sorry. For the record, it’s not that running is bad or you shouldn’t do it, it’s just not strength training.

Why not?

Activities like running, hiking, biking, even circuit training with light hand held dumbbells aren’t strength training for a few simple reasons. First, these activities don’t require the athlete increase his/her force production over time. You don’t ride bike with the intention of adding resistance. Similarly, folks don’t lift heavier dumbbells over time either. Instead, I usually hear about a pair of 8lb DBs that they’ve been using for the last 3 years. Again, all of these activities are fine and have health promoting benefits, they just aren’t strength training.

Strength training is a type of training (not exercise) that is designed to increase one’s ability to exert force against an external resistance. That means, over time, the athlete MUST increase their force output. The program must ASK them to do this. For example, on day 1 you were able to squat 3 sets of 6 reps at 95lbs., if you’re running a strength training program, you MUST be squatting more weight (more than 95lbs) at some point in the future.

Effective strength training isn’t concerned with how sweaty you got adding weight to the bar or how out of breath you were whilst completing the work. Effective strength training only cares that the weight went up over some period of time. That’s it, period. Everything else is not strength training. And, once again, everything else is completely fine and probably should be in your overall program somewhere. I’m a big fan of circuit training, HIT, and traditional slow cardio.

How do we get strong(er)?

First, we pick the best exercises (tools) for the job. In our opinion, this means we’ll select exercises that (1) include large ranges of motion, (2) incorporate large amounts of muscle mass, and (3) allow for heavy loading. Most of the time, this looks like basic barbell exercises (squats, presses, and pulls) but could also involve some machines as well (chest/shoulder presses, leg presses, and chest supported rows). All are fine and will get the job done, despite us having a preference for the barbell exercises.

Additionally, the barbell exercises (and some machines noted above) are all limited by force production output. In other words, your ability to apply force to the barbell is THE limiting factor. You can’t squat more because you’re not strong enough to squat more. This is very different than a single leg exercise like a lunge or worse, standing on an unstable surface. Activities like bosu ball exercises and lunges are limited by balance. Balance and the fact that you’re probably not going to have access to 200lb dumbbells. Why does that matter? If balance and equipment limit the activity, force production isn’t the limiting factor, thus making that particular exercise a poor “strength” choice. Do those other activities have a place in your program? That’s up to you and completely fine if they do, just make sure you’re not skipping the squats.

Why do we care?

Folks spend a lot of time and money in the fitness industry. Paying for gym memberships, classes, and trainers. It would be in everyone’s best interest to be clear about a few things … how to get someone stronger being one of them.

Finally, strength training is a plan designed to increase your force production. We’ve already said this, however, what really makes this useful is that force production is useful in ALL ENVIRONMENTS. More force is good if you’re a HS freshman wanting to make the JV football team, force production is useful if you’re a 42 yo female wanting to go hiking on the weekends, and force production is (very) useful if you’re over 65 years old and want to keep living in your own home. In other words, by increasing force production, you can go live the life you want, doing the stuff that matters most to you.

Want help designing a great strength program that meets your needs? Book a Meeting with one of our coaches today and we’ll get you going.

Hope this helps!

James