How to Build Muscle StrengthIn the quest to build muscle size, we sometimes forget about the real reason we're doing what we do (we're not all vain are we?) - to improve our appearance (of course) and our performance. One of the key performance indicators for a weight-training athlete is the measurement of muscle strength. That is to say, what good are showy muscles if they're not strong? This page reveals a method that shows you how to build muscle strength quickly, safely, and effectively. Strength training, while similar to muscle hypertrophy training, is not the same as training for muscular size. Generally speaking, when training for strength, we encourage lifting heavier weights than normal as well as for fewer reps and sets. However, there is a strength-training component that we cannot neglect and that is explosive speed. So you could break "strength training" into at least two parts:
Absolute strength is basically, "How much can you bench?" Or "How much can you squat?" This refers to a one-time lift for maximum weight. Powerlifting is the perfect example of absolute strength. Explosive strength, also known as "speed strength" and "power," can be thought of as how much force you can apply for a sustained - yet short - period of time. An example may be that of a football lineman pushing his opponent around for the duration of a football play. Another example is that of an Olympic weightlifter. Sure, Olympic lifters have awesome absolute strength, but their lifts are done with rapid acceleration whereas powerlifting rules have been designed with slow, steady motion as the guiding principle. All that said, whether you're a sprinter, a lineman, or a lifter, you want to have stronger muscles. How do you do that? To address both absolute and explosive strength, you need to train in at least two different ways. First, for the absolute strength, you'll need to improve your "One Rep Max" or 1RM. It's rather counter-intuitive, but in order to get stronger for one rep, you don't do one-rep sets. Rather, you do sets of 5 reps normally, with 3- and 4-rep sets thrown in on occasion. You normally use compound exercises like those in an actual powerlifting competition, like squats, bench presses, and deadlifts. You use very heavy weights in a controlled fashion; the heaviness of the weights prevent you from rapidly accelerating the weight, but you nevertheless try to raise the weight as rapidly as possible. For the explosive strength component, you want to train quite a bit differently. Rather than lifting VERY heavy weights, what you want to do is sets of 12-15 reps with a rather light weight and really raise the bar as fast as possible. The best method for employing both of these strength-training components is to train for one of them exclusively during a given workout. Simply alternate between speed training and absolute strength training. In either workout, perform 3-5 sets per compound exercise using barbells and dumbbells for the requisite rep range for the strength component you are training. As you can see, high volumes are really necessary. In fact, a high number of sets can actually lead to poor form through fatigue and overtraining, each of which can lead to injury. There you have it - how to build muscle strength in a very simple fashion.
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