How do you get stronger?

I think it depends what you mean by strong. The strength of a rugby player, strongman, powerlifter and gymnast are all different- related but not the same. As consequence you train differently for each. Strength is measured in terms of specific activities or functions - to get stronger you need to work out how to train to get stronger at whatever it is you are wanting to do. This sounds obvious, but many people fail to grasp this when they make decisions about how to train. For me, as a powerlifter, strength is measured by how much you lift in the squat, bench and deadlift for 1 repetition. So when I train, I train to get as strong as I can at those movements for a single lift. I have learnt a lot over the last decade of training- here I outline what I learnt about getting stronger.

Muscle groups versus movements

When I first started training I had a basic understanding of strength training. I understood that certain rep ranges are better suited for strength development and I understood that different rep schemes had a different training effect. However, I had inherited a way of thinking that I got from bodybuilders- I thought in terms of muscle groups. For bench I trained pecs, delts and triceps, in that order of priority. For squat it was quads, hamstrings, glutes and lower back. For deadlift it was back, glutes, hammys and quads. This is ok for a beginner if your goal is just building muscle strength. However, a lift will be better developed training the lift; not the muscles that move the body in the lift, but the movement itself.

I have had lots and lots of conversations with lifters about this. I was once asked- ‘ever wonder why a new gym goer improves so quickly?’ You might think that a newbie in the gym goes from little exercise to lots and builds muscle quickly. That’s what I used to think. But coaching legends like Boris Sheiko will tell you the greatest potential for strength development comes from developing skill, inter-muscular coordination, building and reinforcing motor patterns, developing efficiency. When I first started lifting weights I was benching about 80kg. Within weeks I was benching over a 100kg. My muscles did not grow that much. A big part of the improvement comes from developing skill. The analogy that is often used is a baby learning to walk. At first the movements are uncoordinated, awkward and inefficient. But with practice comes improvement. Training walking muscles may help some, but it won’t be enough for the kid to walk. Muscle development goes hand in hand with training the movement, but the key is understanding that the movement is the priority. It follows therefore that the further an exercise is from the movement you want to improve, the less it will assist.

Imagine you have $20 in 20 cent peices. You can invest some in squats, some in good mornings, some in front squats, some in box squats, some in glute ham raise etc. How much do you invest in each? The more you put into one, the better the return there. You don't need to put it all into the competition lift, but if you only put 20% in the comp lift, don't expect a big return. When I was first starting out doing westside type type training I did a squat movement twice per week, but hardly ever the comp lift. I got strong, but it did not convert into a bigger squat. My advice to powerlifters is always to build the program around the movements.

Specificity, Volume and intensity

In the strength and conditioning world, what I have outlined above relates to specificity. If you want develop specific skills, you train those skills directly. Specificity also relates to loading. If you train light weights for higher reps, you will get a very different training effect than high loads for low reps. Of course, since the human body is adaptive and improvement, muscle growth and the development of skill comes about from adaption to the challenges we put it through. To keep moving forward we need to keep challenging it. For this reason it is also important to incorporate variation into your training. So the real art of designing a training program, in my opinion, is working out the optimal balance of specificity and variation. Too much variation and your will not develop specific skills, too much of the same thing and you will plateau. Since loading also relates to specificity, which means the closer the loads you train with are to the ones you complete with the better prepared you will be, you need to work out a way of preparing yourself for heavy loads, while not overtraining. This is why most training programs for powerlifting are periodised. Periodisation, where the loading increases and decreases in waves, introduces a form of variation that also manages fatigue and aims to have the athlete peak at the right time. The most common forms of periodisation work with 4 or 8 or 12 week blocks, from lighter loads with higher repetitions, to heavier loads and lower repetitions.

Another consideration is the development of general athletic attributes necessary to improve and be the best you can. Your conditioning will impact on your ability to train and recover. Musculature will also impact on your ability to train and recover. For this reason, a good program will address all your needs: strength, conditioning, mobility, musculature etc. The key is to prioritise the activities that are most relevant to whatever it is you are training for. Most well known periodised programs will incorporate assistance and have parts of the program allocated for hypertrophy, conditioning, speed or targeting specific weaknesses.

The systems out there that work

There are many training templates out there that work. 5x5 programs, Smolov, Sheiko, Westside, RTS and many many others will all develop good results. An important lesson I learnt is that you need to give an approach some time. Don’t expect something to work straight away. Some programs like Sheiko templates will have you feeling fatigued and beat up right through to the end of the template when, like magic, you deload and super-compensation develops strength gains on the platform. My advice is to look at the proven plans and as you work through them try to get an understanding of why the various exercises, rep schemes and loadings are as they are. When you start designing your own training plan you need to get doing things for a reason. Doing a stack of goodmornings or box squats will make you good at those movements. It will also have some carryover to competition lifts. If you do lots of different movements you will develop general skills and be good and lots of things. But since you have finite energy and need to manage recovery, you need to prioritise certain movements. Finding the balance is not easy and things will always be changing. But make sure when you do change things around, you do so for good reasons. Because these things are actually complicated I think it is wise to start with a template and work from there.

Some general observations

Strength is best built with loads of 75% or more, but you can’t use loads over 80% frequently without getting fatigued. This is why programs that use higher loading- like 80% or more, tend to have deload weeks, where the loading drops, every 4 weeks or so. Its common knowledge that the CNS can only tolerate about 3 weeks of heavy loading, then your performance starts to decline.

The more complex the movement, the more specific your training should be. A squat is a more complex movement than a conventional deadlift. For this reason, it is more important that training movements replicate the squat than the conventional deadlift. I also believe that more complex movements require more practice to perfect. The more competition style squats you can pack into a training cycle the better you will be at squatting. Benching is more straight forward, so you can mix things up more. In my experience, floor press and incline will help your bench more than front squats will your back squat.

Do not underestimate the importance of volume. I was once given the following advice by a world class lifter: do not focus on the top set in a workout. Too many think I will hit this number today and once they get there they think the job is done. It is actually better to focus on the total work done in a session. Instead of aiming for a PR triple on bench, focus on total volume, including multiple triples. It might mean that the highest weight lifted is slightly less than it would be if the volume was lower. However getting strong is not the same as demonstrating strength. In the long run it’s the work you do within sessions and across the cycle that will enable you to smash your previous bests when it matters. So many people focus on how they feel in training without thinking about why they feel that way. Many templates will put you in a fatigued state. That’s the way they are designed. You should not feel fresh and strong in week 4 of a Sheiko template. That’s because you have beat the crap out of yourself over the last 4 weeks. Strength gained is realised when the loading drops off.

Where to now?

If you want a good starting point- I would recommend getting your hands a Sheiko template- like Sheiko 37 followed by 32. If you aren’t a fan of week after week of high volume torture you could try Wendler’s 5/3/1 or a basic Westside barbell template. If you think you would like something in-between, like I do, with specificity and some variation- check out Mike Tuchsherer’s Reactive Training at www.reactivetrainingsystems.com

Steven Pritchard

Tags: weightlifting Stephen Pritchard