Getting stronger takes consistency, intensity and patience. It also requires long-term planning, including the use of training techniques like periodization.
The most basic strength routines are centered around barbell-based compound exercises like the bench press, back squat and deadlift. These movements replicate fundamental movement patterns and are reliably progressible.
Increase Weight
You want to get stronger but are not sure how to achieve that goal. Getting stronger takes time and consistency, but it also requires the right knowledge to progress safely. Whether you are trying to build muscle size for a more sculpted physique, or you need the strength to perform better in your sport, it is crucial that you progressively overload your muscles with increasing loads.
Castle-Mason explains that the most common way to measure your strength is through a single exercise for a very high number of reps (your one-rep max). But he says this method can be inaccurate as it is often performed in isolation and doesn’t take into account the rest of the body’s ability to generate force.
Getting strong isn’t just about building your biceps into oak trunks and your legs into Christmas hams, it has some hugely important health benefits. Check out these 9 tips to improve your strength. And remember, if you’re really serious about it, you need to be sleeping well, eating properly and ensuring adequate recovery.
Increase Reps
Strength doesn’t just come from building muscles — it also comes from improving your mobility, stability and exercise technique. If you want to get stronger, these factors are just as important as the amount of weight you lift.
One way to achieve this is to perform unilateral (two-sided) exercises like bench presses instead of a bilateral (one-sided) version. After a 5-10-minute full-body warm-up, home in on two lighter, high-rep sets of your first exercise of the day.
Then, when a set begins to feel easy, it’s time to go up in reps. Depending on your goals, you may choose a higher rep range for hypertrophy or a lower rep range for strength. This is called periodisation and it helps you make steady, consistent strength gains.
Increase Frequency
You can’t train a muscle group with the same intensity every workout and expect it to grow. Your body adapts quickly to stress, so you need to regularly shock it by increasing the intensity of your training or adding new exercises.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean more training sessions. The body requires a minimum of 48 hours to recover from the intense, high volume stress of a strength training session and return to homeostasis.
That means that you should aim to have a recovery week every two or three weeks. This will allow you to train a particular muscle group a little more often without overdoing it and getting injured. Rest includes good quality sleep, plenty of water and a healthy, positive lifestyle that reduces stress. This will speed up recovery and enhance adaptation.
Increase Duration
Getting stronger takes time. It also requires a clear goal in mind, a good plan and the work ethic to follow it through. However, it’s not about pumping iron until your legs look like oak trees and your arms Christmas hams – it’s about developing the best version of yourself that you can be, both inside and out.
To get stronger you need to gradually increase the weight of your lifts over a long period of time. The body is very quick to adapt to stress, which is why the classic one-rep max approach isn’t effective if you want to get stronger.
Keeping your strength training consistent will help, but there are other things you can do to speed up the process, such as using a periodisation strategy (changing between different rep ranges) and getting enough sleep (at least 8 hours a night). You should also make sure you’re eating enough calories and drinking plenty of water to support the process.Bli starkare