Strength is measured by the amount of force you can produce with a single all-out effort. You need strength to increase work capacity; to lessen the possibility of injury; to prevent lower back pain, poor posture and other hyperkinetic diseases; to improve athletic performance; and perhaps save lives or property in an emergency. Strength training increases the strength of bones, tendons, and ligaments, as well as muscles. It has been found to be therapeutic for patients with chronic pain.
Power training builds strength and stamina to some degree, but it’s primarily useful for preparing you to do activities that require power. Examples of activities that require power are throwing, hitting and jumping skills in sports and dance or throwing heavy loads in agriculture and industry.
So what are the BASIC facts about strength? There are three types of muscle tissue; they are smooth, cardiac and skeletal. Each has a different structure and function. Smooth muscle tissue consists of long, spindle-shaped fibers; each fiber usually contains a single nucleus. The fibers are involuntary and are located in the walls of the esophagus, stomach, and intestines, where they function to move food and waste products through the digestive tract. Cardiac muscle tissue is also involuntary and, as its name implies, is found only in the heart. Skeletal muscle tissues consist of long cylindrical multinucleated fibers. They provide the force necessary to move the skeletal system and can be slow, intermediate, and fast twitch fibers.
Some experts suggest that strength training with high-resistance exercises tends to selectively develop fast-twitch muscle fibers. Fast twitch fibers generate more tension than slow twitch fibers, but they fatigue more quickly. They mainly use anaerobic metabolism. These fibers are especially well-suited for fast, high-force activities such as explosive weightlifting movements, sprinting, and jumping. Strength training primarily increases the size of the fast twitch fibers, although the intermediate fibers also increase in size and take on the characteristics of fast twitch fibers with training.
An example of a fast-twitch muscle fiber in animals is the white meat of a chicken’s flying muscles. The chicken is heavy and must exert great force to fly a few feet to a perch. A wild duck that flies hundreds of miles has dark meat (slow twitch fibers) in the flying muscles for better endurance.
The amount of force you can exert during a strength test depends on contraction velocity, muscle length, warm-up, and other muscle-related factors. If you want to score high on a test of strength, consider some of the success secrets used by experienced lifters and proven research. Generally, a muscle exerts the least force as it shortens (toward the end of a movement) and may exert more force during an isometric contraction than when shortened. The muscles that exert the most force when they lengthen (lower a weight). If a muscle is placed in a slight stretch immediately before it contracts, it can exert more force than if it started from a resting length.
The speed of contraction affects the amount of force that can be exerted. A slow contraction can lift a heavier weight than a fast contraction and is safer. If the muscles are warmed up before lifting, more force can be exerted and heavier loads can be lifted.
It is important to note that strength capacity differs with gender and age. Women have less muscle mass than men and typically average 60 to 85 percent of the absolute strength of men. However, women are just as strong as men, in relative strength. Peak strength is usually reached in your twenties and declines with age. Regardless of age or gender, strength can be improved.
Applying the “overload principle,” so that the exercise is performed with near-maximal resistance with only a few repetitions, builds strength better. To increase strength, the muscle must contract to at least 60 percent of its maximum. Strength training requires an overload in the amount of resistance, while muscular endurance requires an overload in the number of repetitions. Therefore, in accordance with the law of specificity, when designing a program for strength development, high resistance and low repetitions at a moderately slow speed should be used for maximum effectiveness.
When you begin strength training, there will be marked improvements for the first few weeks. This is mainly due to motor learning factors rather than muscle growth. Thereafter, the improvements will be slow and the changes will be the result of hypertrophy of the muscle.
There is a training threshold and a target zone for the development of muscular strength. Experts generally agree that “Progressive Resistance Exercise (PRE) using maximum load (resistance) of three to eight repetitions in one to three sets or four times per week will build strength. However, experts disagree on the ideal mix of reps, sets, and speed. At least one study suggests that doing just one set will initially build as much strength as three sets. Over time, those who do three sets will likely continue to gain strength for a longer period of time. longer than occurs with just one series.
The amount of exercise needed to maintain strength is less than the amount needed to develop it. Recent evidence suggests that once strength is developed, it can be maintained by performing fewer sets or exercises on fewer days per week. For example, if you’ve done three sets three days a week, you may be able to maintain current strength levels with two sets or by exercising two instead of three days a week. If programs for fewer sets or fewer days per week result in a loss of strength, programs should be returned to the original amounts.
A word of caution, if the target zone is exceeded, an “overload syndrome” may occur. If the frequency, intensity or time of your training program exceeds the optimum and you try to progress too quickly, inflammatory changes in the muscles, tendons or joints can occur. The muscles’ ability to contract may decrease or loss of lean tissue may occur, so the improvement stops and you actually lose strength.
If you’re an athlete, periodization of training can help prevent “overtraining” or “overload syndrome.” When an athlete is training for a single performance or perhaps multiple competitive events such as games or matches during a sports session, careful planning is required to achieve peak performance at the right time and avoid overtraining and injury. Periodization is a modern concept of manipulation of repetition, resistance, and exercise selection, so there are “peaks” and “valleys” (tapering) associated with the athletic program. Training normally starts with high repetitions and low resistance. The resistance is gradually increased and the repetitions are reduced as each climax approaches.
A strength training program should apply the “principle of specificity” by closely matching the activity for which strength is needed. Training specificity will improve performance. If you want your arms to be stronger so that you can “carry” heavy loads, or if you want finger strength to “grip” a heavy bowling ball, much of your strength training should be done isometrically, using your finger muscles. arms the same way you do. to carry loads or using your fingers in the same way you hold a bowling ball. On the other hand, if the task you’re training for is performed “isotonically,” your strength program should be primarily isotonic use of the muscles involved in that skill.
If you’re training for a particular skill that requires “explosive power,” such as throwing, punching, kicking, or jumping, your strength exercises should be done with less resistance and more speed. If you are training for a skill that uses concentric and eccentric contractions or is plyometric, you should perform strength exercises using these features.
Cardiovascular endurance training at the same time as strength training can prevent maximum results from both. Studies have shown that concurrent strength and cardiovascular endurance training may not produce the same result that one might obtain by training either separately. Some people have interpreted this to mean that they interfere with each other. The cause of this is not clear. It may be that the time spent on each is less or that overtraining occurs instead of one inhibiting the other. Whatever the cause, the differences are relatively minor and should not prevent an individual from doing both at the same time.
The force developed in one limb can be transferred to another, unexercised limb. When the right arm is trained its strength increases, the unexercised left arm will also increase in strength, although not as much as the exercised arm. This phenomenon is called “training transfer,” “bilateral transfer,” or “cross-education.” The reason for this is not fully understood, but the phenomenon is sometimes applied in rehabilitation to prevent injured muscles from atrophying.
Progressive Resistance Exercise (PRE) is the most effective type of strength training program. Muscles adapt uniquely to the load placed on them; therefore, to continue to increase strength, you must gradually increase the tension on the muscle as it adapts to each new load. Muscle groups differ in their strength potential, so each muscle group should have an individualized program (target zone). For example, the legs and trunk can usually lift greater loads than the arms.
The “double progressive system” is an effective variation of the PRE system. The double progressive progression system periodically adjusts both the resistance and the number of repetitions. For example, you can start with three repetitions for the arms. Once a week, you add a repetition. When you’ve progressed to eight reps, increase the weight by five pounds. Decrease the reps to three and start the program over.
In my next article I will discuss the facts about the different types of resistance training. It is important to note that strength training is a progressive program of various types of resistance methods. Depending on your goals, you need to know which method will give you the best results. Start training now and get stronger, faster and fitter!
