Muscle strength training.

Many people involved in sports, in addition to external aesthetic beauty, want to achieve another important indicator of their athletic abilities, and even track and field athletes include muscle strength training in their “menu”. Many people who are starting to train do not quite understand how to develop their strength abilities, so in this article we will try to explain what the fundamental feature of such training is.

Many people think that gaining mass and increasing strength are the same thing, but in fact they are completely different things when viewed through the prism of professional sports. There are differences in everything, in particular in nutrition and in the training itself.

Experienced athletes know that there are two different types of muscle hypertrophy (increase in size):

1. sarcoplasmic,
2. and myofibrillar.

In the first case, it is more acceptable for athletes involved in bodybuilding, and in the second it is suitable for powerlifters, because the essence of powerlifting is to show the maximum result in three qualifying exercises, which is possible only with the maximum developed muscle power. And muscle volume, their definition and appearance – they don’t really care.

Since the second type of hypertrophy is directly related to an increase in the number of myofibrils and an increase in their density, this ultimately leads to an increase in the level of strength indicators, and this is exactly what we need to know at the time when muscle training takes place to strength.

Understanding all these differences, the main thing for us now is to competently create a training program with an emphasis on basic exercises, excluding any kind of isolating ones, as is practiced when gaining weight. After all, experienced powerlifters, without wasting their time on isolation exercises, know perfectly well how to develop maximum strength with just three exercises: deadlifts, presses and squats.

Since you have to lift serious weights, great attention should be paid to the tendons, because they take a very long time to recover. To strengthen the tendons, static loads are also used, such as pushing a wall, or bench pressing an “unreal” weight. That’s why it’s worth alternating heavy workouts with medium and light ones, and you shouldn’t rush to increase the working weight in each exercise.

A heavy workout should not last more than 2 hours and this is primarily due to breaks between sets. And the preferred number of sets and repetitions for her would be 4x4, or 3x3. But this does not mean that you should adhere to this rule every time; the number of iterations can range from 1 to 6 repetitions per approach. This is exactly what you need to start from when choosing a working weight; it is clear that at one time you need to bench press the maximum weight possible for you.

To develop the athlete’s muscle power, various specialized exercises are also used:

1. bar presses, in the case of pumping up the pectoral muscles,
2. traction from plinths,
3. squats to a chair,
4. and others…

Some athletic principles are also actively involved:

1. Cheating,
2. Pyramid,
3. Rest-pause,
4. Non-standard repetitions:
   1. super fast,
   2. forced,
   3. partial,
   4. negative.

It is these additional special exercises and techniques that help develop strength, as well as bring the athlete out of stagnation, if such is the case. The duration of breaks between approaches also differs from the standard mode of working on mass gain (1-3 minutes), here you need to rest in order to restore the creatine phosphate depot as much as possible, and this will take you about 3-6 minutes.

Also, unlike mass gain, slow and medium speeds of muscle contraction should be avoided here, since for the desired result, medium and high speeds should be used, and they should also be varied to prevent addiction. It is best to exercise up to 5 times a week, while aerobic exercise should be kept to a minimum. But they cannot be completely excluded! - plant your heart. But he also needs hardening and training...

We must not forget that training muscles for strength also involves a slight change in diet, because before the competition you need to “fit” into the desired weight category, so a standard bodybuilder’s gaining program is unlikely to be suitable here. Supplements I should take are creatine, protein, various pre-workout complexes, gainers, amino acids and various stimulants.

Having calculated your capabilities and chosen the right goal, with the help of the information received from us, you will be able to correctly approach the issue of increasing the power of your body. Train, and may she be with you.