Improve Your Performance Through Muscular Strength Training

Introduction

Muscular strength describes your ability to efficiently recruit as many motor units as possible to produce as much force as you can. If you have yet to read about the theoretical background of muscular strength training, we highly suggest you check it out here.

If you’re already familiar with the subject and want to focus on training, you’ve come to the right place! Here you can find out how to create your own muscular strength training program. We even have some free sample training programs to choose from!

Basics of muscular strength training

Muscular strength training uses weights of nearly 80-100% of your maximum with only 1-3 repetitions in each set. The amount of sets ranges from five to six with 2-4 minute breaks in between. As you will be lifting weight close to your physical limits, you must maintain good technique and remember to rest enough between sets. This will make sure you keep progressing as an athlete and stay healthy in the process.

Muscular strength training utilizes very heavy resistance to overload the muscle and creates small tears (microtrauma) inside the muscle. As our bodies tend to overcompensate the repair process, the muscles become stronger in the process. This is also known as supercompensation and it forms the basis for any type of strength training. However, since the muscles adapt and become stronger, you must also maintain progression in your training. This means constantly adding more weight or repetitions to further stimulate the muscles. This is also known as the progressive overload rule of strength training and it is the main building block of strength training. Consistently adding more weight means you will grow stronger and become an even better athlete.

Your training must also be specified to your sport and individualized according to your personal needs. After all, your aim is to improve your own performance. Athletes also often forget that strength development and learning happens when you rest. Thus, it is important to remember to rest and get enough sleep to maintain progress. This is especially important since your body is not able to receive a maximal stimulus for the next 48h after maximal strength training. However, after 72 h your strength gains will start to decline. Therefore athletes often perform muscular strength training once or twice a week to keep their strength levels as high as possible.

Here’s a simple chart if you want to create your own muscular strength training program. 

Best methods to train muscular strength

Muscular strength training requires heavy resistance with fewer repetitions and long rest periods. In addition to regular “straight set” weight training, muscular strength can be trained effectively with pyramid sets and different types of split training. This ensures that your nerves stay sharp and able to recruit muscles the best way possible. After all, your goal is not to fatigue the muscle but rather to improve muscle activity and recruitment.

Straight sets

Straight sets are the easiest and most commonly used training method for improving strength. This is because it incorporates the same amount of weight and repetitions in each set. Usually, these sets range from three to five.

The benefit of straight sets is that they are great for beginners and can be varied according to your goals. For maximum strength, you need more weight with fewer repetitions whereas muscular hypertrophy requires more repetitions with slightly less resistance. Of course, the same principle can also be used for muscular endurance training.

Straight sets can also be combined in various ways to create supersets that incorporate different muscle groups back-to-back with no breaks in between. For example, doing 10 pull-ups and immediately moving on to 12 repetitions of weighted squats. Once you have completed this set it is time to rest before performing the next superset.

Pyramid set training

The basic principle of pyramid sets is that it changes the weight around 5-10% from set to set. Naturally, as the resistance gets heavier the number of repetitions will be lower. Pyramid training can also be divided into wide pyramids and narrow pyramids, which describe the change in repetitions or resistance from set to set. As the name suggests, wide pyramids have a wider range of repetitions and weights during a single session – and vice versa.

Pyramids are also the only training method that utilizes weights that are above the maximum amount of weight you can lift (110%). Changing the resistance during a single workout session is extremely effective because it offers a varied stimulus for the muscle. You can ever do a reverse pyramid set for more challenge.

Split training

Split training focuses on a specific muscle group or body part during a single workout session. It can also be divided in a few different ways. The most common splits are upper body/lower split, agonist/antagonist split and push/pull split. 

Upper body/lower body split alternates between upper body and lower body training during a single day. It is often used for improving general fitness rather than athletic performance.

Agonist/antagonist split (the muscle responsible for a movement/its opposing muscle) alternates between opposing muscle groups. For example, hamstring day followed by a quadriceps day. This kind of workout routine is often divided into three workouts a week. 

Push/pull split (or sometimes push/pull/legs split) often incorporates both upper body and lower body exercises during a single day. However, one day focuses on push workouts whereas another one concentrates on pulling exercises. For example, focusing on biceps, triceps & shoulders on one day and curls & rows the next day.

More advanced training methods include splitting workouts between major muscle groups; legs, core, chest, shoulders and arms. Each training session focuses on fully exhausting the muscles to stimulate growth while giving other muscle groups some much needed time to rebuild and recover. This is more commonly known as body-part split, which is often used in bodybuilding due to its ability to build more contractable muscle mass. That said, there are tons of variations when it comes to split training, so picking out the best one always comes down to personal taste.

While split training is a popular training method for improving muscular hypertrophy, studies have shown that multiple training sessions for the same muscle groups during a week are more effective for overall strength development. That is why powerlifters or Olympic weightlifters never use this training method.

Physiological effects of muscular strength training

Since muscular strength training focuses on enhancing muscle recruitment through the nervous system, it is not trying to exhaust the muscles themselves. With this in mind, lifting the heaviest weight possible will not result in added muscle mass, but rather in a more powerful and efficient performance. This enhanced muscular efficiency leads to improved strength capability and reduced risk of injury. Additionally, studies have proven that muscular strength training also improves anaerobic energy production and reduces delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) after working out. 

Muscular efficiency refers to your body’s ability to adapt according to the way you use it. As a result of both sports-specific training and weight training, you can perform former skills with more power, greater precision and with less effort. For example, even endurance athletes can improve their performance if every step produces more power than before. 

Reduced injury risk is a huge benefit of muscular strength training. The reason why strength training can improve injury prevention is that stronger muscles, joints, ligaments and bones can withstand the ground reaction forces that athletes face in high-intensity sports. 

Improved anaerobic energy production describes how well your body can perform using anaerobic energy production. Consistent muscular strength training increases the amount of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP), Creatine Phosphate (CP), free Creatine and Glycogen inside the muscles, where they can be used for anaerobic energy production more efficiently. Additionally, strength training also improves your ability to tolerate lactate and resist fatigue. The reason behind this is that stronger muscles require less effort to produce a submaximal (below your maximum) movement.