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Strength

Complete guide with Strength Workouts to make the most of your daily sessions

What is Strength?

The Strength is regarded as the basic pillar for any physical capacity.

Starting with routines that are designed to improve this quality should be a “must” for all those who want to improve their performance.

Nevertheless, other gym users who want to achieve hypertrophy can also benefit from improving their strength

Differences between Hypertrophy and Strength Training

Hypertrophy

The main key is planning a diet, making the necessary changes to keep a muscled body with a low percentage of fat. To put it briefly: you should increase the protein intake, reduce the carbs and maintain the fats (depending on the phase you are at, either bulking, cutting or maintenance)
Cell adaptation
Mainly glycolytic training. Glycogen is used as the main source of energy
Medium-high rep ranges, from 8 to 12 in general. They should be around 70-85% of the RM
Analytic exercises. Higher use of machines

Strength

The main key is periodization in order to progress
Neuronal adaptation
More demanding workouts that access the phosphocreatine substrate
Low rep range, lower or equal to 5. It should be around 90-100% of the RM
Basic exercises, adding accessories to complement the workout. Using bars and planes mainly

Terms used in Strength Training

This is a list of terms or expressions that are used in routines focused on strength. You may already know some of them…

RM or Repetition Maximum

It is the highest weight that we can lift.

It is the maximum strength pattern established per exercise that “measures” how strong we are in said movement.

Thanks to this information we will be able to design the training program

If I can lift 210kg in deadlift at most, this means that my RM could be 210kg

Variables in Strength Training

Intensity. Unlike what we may think, especially regarding the “hiit” nomenclature, when we talk about intensity in a strength context we are referring to the weight that is used. That is, it is the percentage regarding our 1RM. We could be talking about lifting a weight that is a 90% of our RM.
Repetitions. Number of times that we repeat the movement or the pattern that involves a muscle group. It is usually between 1 and 5…
Sets. Group of repetitions. 5 sets with 5 reps…
Volume. Duration of the workout session.
Frequency. It is the number of times that we repeat a type of exercise or session. If you do squats 5 times a week, you will say “5-frequency squats”. Usually, experienced users tend to follow higher frequencies.
Density. It would be the relation between what the effort lasts and the recovery, either within a set, or between sets, mesocycles… these ones at a higher scale

Periodization

It is the planning that has to be done before starting the season or the period of time that we are planning to train. Either if we are looking for a goal in a competition or simply because we want to improve our marks and progress.