When you first begin the gym, you often notice that there are a LOT of people who are lifting a lot of heavy weight, these individuals are avid gym goers who dedicate time and effort to get stronger.
When you are a gym beginner, very rarely will you see yourself being very strong at many lifts, this applies to most people who start the gym for the first time.
The only people who start out with pretty good strength usually have a background in athletics or jobs where they lift heavy objects.
What if I told you that there is a way to increase your strength in the gym by simply adopting a certain training strategy and by abiding by common technique and principles.
Strength training has been around for a LONG time and is often associated with powerlifting, powerlifting being a sport entirely dedicated to lifters who want to showcase their incredible feats of strength in the squat, bench press and deadlift.
There are a couple different ways and techniques that you can increase the strength on your lifts as well as basic strength training principles that you can follow if your sole purpose is to increase your strength.
DISCLAIMER: Just because you are training for strength doesn't mean that you aren't building muscle, YOU STILL ARE! Strength training just puts a little less emphasis on muscle growth and more on strength!
Pre-Cautions Before Strength Training
The thing about strength training is that since you are prioritizing pushing/pulling more weight rather than the amount of reps that you do, there is a high chance of injury and other issues.
Strength training shouldn't be taken lightly and you should exert maximum amount of caution when doing so.
Stretching: Make sure that you stretch the muscles that you are working out ESPECIALLY when strength training as you will be working with a LOT of weight. This will help prevent injury when working out.
Warming Up: Make sure you work up with lighter weights before implementing your heavy top sets (your sets where you work with heavier weight) in your workout. This will prime your muscles for the heavy sets and will allow you to detect if there is any potential chance of injury.
How to Strength Train
Here is my step-by-step guide on how to build strength and gain pounds on your lifts.
NOTE: I am NOT a professional, this is an anecdotal experience that helped ME build my strength along with the support of a couple of scientific studies as well as a few experienced lifters.
Track Your Progress: Often times people forget the weight that they were doing the last time they were doing an exercise, by tracking your progress you will know when to add more weight/reps to your sets so you can continue to get stronger without any tech
Progressive Overload: Focus on adding more weight/reps to your workout each time you do it, this will keep the constant intensity of the exercise which will make you get stronger.
Add as Much Weight When Possible: Whenever you can, prioritize adding weight to your sets instead of adding reps, even if you can get more reps, try to add more weight in order to increase your numbers (which will get you stronger faster).
Focus on Lower Reps: I have very strong friends who often only do 1-5 reps per set. They still train close to failure but with a lower rep range as it allows them to prioritize adding more weight to their exercise.
Repeat: Repeat the process of adding more weight, progressive overloading and tracking your progress along with the cautionary measures listed earlier and you will get stronger.
For example: These steps allowed my squat to go from 135lbs-225lbs!
Other Required Steps for Strength Gain
Here are the basic things that are required for you to do in order to gain muscle AND strength.
Good Nutrition: By eating healthier meals, prioritizing whole foods over processed foods, maintaining a caloric surplus (as it is better for muscle growth) and keeping a high protein intake you will set yourself up for strength gain. (There are nutritional guides on my page if you want to check them out!).
Good Sleep: Sleep roughly 7-9 hours EVERY night in order for you to give your muscles good time to recover and be primed for strength gain. As heavy lifting requires rest!
Consistent Training: Train at LEAST 4 times a week in order to optimize strength gain and fitness success.
Conclusion
Overall, this guide helped me gain a LOT of strength on my lifts and the content of this guide was backed up by a couple of studies as well as some strong friends!
I hope I can help you gain strength in the gym! It's NOT going to be an easy journey but with hard work, commitment and faith, you WILL SUCCEED.
Thanks for reading and happy lifting!
Just a young man trying to bring fitness to the world!
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