Here’s why strength matters, what it actually is, and how to train it effectively.
Every physical activity you engage in is entirely dependent upon your capacity for strength. This applies to your work life, sports, hobbies, chores, etc. No matter what it is that you want to do, or enjoy doing, you will do it easier and better if you are stronger.
To understand this fact, we must first define strength. And to be clear, I am not talking about mental toughness here, but instead physical strength. Strength is defined as the ability to produce force against an external resistance. This means it is a trackable, measurable, and improvable characteristic. Your ability to produce force can be improved, and for the reasons listed previously, it should be improved because, again, it will make everything else you do in life easier and better.
In recent years, there has been more of an emphasis on functional fitness, and while flexibility and conditioning are important as well for a well-balanced life, the emphasis on functional fitness implies a separate training modality, when in fact being functionally fit is a byproduct of the strength adaptation.
What does that mean?
It means that as your strength improves from where it is today, all derivative adaptations of strength improve as well. Speed, agility, endurance, stamina, flexibility, balance, coordination, and power all increase as a result of getting stronger—as long as that strength is developed in a methodical and well-thought-out manner.
Enter the barbell.
At Traditional Strength, we acknowledge that your overall strength is a key component of improving your life. As such, we have devoted a considerable amount of time to finding the best method for safely and effectively achieving the goal of strength development. And while some may not find the barbell as sexy as Pilates, it is in fact the best possible instrument for strength development ever created.
The barbell does several things that functional fitness tools like the kettlebell and the cable machines at your local commercial gym cannot provide.
Firstly, it allows us to load normal anatomical human movement patterns. The squat, for instance, is a perfectly common movement that even babies perform on a regular basis. If you pay attention to how a child will sit on their heels in a squat position, you will notice the similarities.
Likewise, the deadlift is a common human movement pattern that is used every day by anyone who has ever had to pick an object off the floor. These are just two of the most obvious examples that should resonate with you.
Secondly, the barbell can be incrementally loaded. This makes it the best possible tool for any individual looking to get stronger, since everyone will begin at a different starting point depending on age, gender, bodyweight, conditioning, etc.
If you need to start with 11 lbs, you can.
If you need to get to 800 lbs, you can.
This tool works for everyone, provided that they have two arms, hands, and are alive.
Lastly, the barbell allows us to perform full range-of-motion exercises that engage the most muscle mass possible, and in terms of general strength development, this is a critical consideration.
Full range-of-motion exercises are the best way to improve your overall flexibility and strength because they work multiple muscle bellies in the way they are intended to interact with each other.
One example of this would be the bench press. The bench press engages the muscles of the chest, shoulders, arms, and torso in a way that allows for the localized muscles to stabilize the joints which they share in common.
This would be entirely different than a dumbbell curl, which would work only the biceps muscles, leaving out the triceps, shoulders, and chest. This means that compound barbell exercises are substantially more beneficial in terms of efficiency than any isolation exercises or machines.
So how do you actually train for strength?
Now that we have an understanding of strength, its importance, and the best tool for developing it, the question is: what is the best method for utilizing this tool?
And the answer is simple.
Do three compound lifts two to three days per week.
Each day that you lift, you should perform a squat, some form of pressing motion, and a deadlift. You should perform these exercises at a set number of repetitions and for a specific number of sets.
Upon completion, you should go home and then go about your normal life while your body recovers from the stress that you have applied to it.
Then, two days later, you should return to the gym and do it again, only this time you should make it a little more difficult than the last time.
This methodical approach to weightlifting is known as training.
When training, you are performing a specific amount of work to achieve a desired outcome. As a result, you apply stress to your central nervous system, your bones, and your muscles. Once this stress has been applied, you go home and rest for a day before returning, and as a result your body adapts to that stress and your muscles grow.
Not only do your muscles grow, but your bones also become denser and stronger—an especially important and desirable adaptation for women as they age, as it directly combats sarcopenia and age-related bone loss.
Over time, this steady, gradual accumulation of stress makes you a significantly stronger person than you were when you started. This is because bigger muscles produce more force, and again, the definition of strength is the ability to produce force against an external resistance.
This method of training for strength is well researched and proven, and under the guidance of an experienced coach, leads to significant improvement in overall quality of life as well as performance in the things we value most: interacting with loved ones, picking things up as we age without getting sore, and for older populations, extra padding so that their hips do not fracture when they trip and fall.
Keep this in mind for the future, because like it or not, we all age. And as we age, our muscles atrophy and our bones lose density.
Start training today and become a happier, healthier, stronger version of your current self.
Because getting stronger is the only outcome that matters.
Greg Herman
Coach & Owner
Traditional Strength Gym