How to Get Stronger

Steps

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   Use free weight exercises. Exercises which use free weights (barbells and dumbbells) activate more muscle fibers and are more transferable to real world activities. For this reason you will want to make these the staples of your program.
   • The single stimulus to make muscles larger and stronger is to stretch them while they contract. When you try to lift a heavy weight, your muscles stretch before the weight starts to move. The greater the stretch, the greater the damage to the muscle fibers and when they heal after a few days, the greater the gain in strength.
   • The results of this study give a clear message. You become stronger by lifting heavier weights, not by exercising more. If you do too much work, you can't lift very heavy weights and you do not become stronger. When it comes to becoming very strong, less is more.
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   Use compound exercises. In addition to using free weights you will want to make sure your exercise choices are compound in nature. This means that they should involve more than one joint. Examples are squats, pull-ups, or bench presses. Exercises such as the bicep curl are not optimal choices since they only utilize one joint, and hence less muscle mass.
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   Use lower reps. Low reps allow for heavy weights, and heavy weights are what builds strength fast. For strength you generally want to stay below 6 reps. 1-3 reps is the pure strength zone, while 4-6 reps will allow you to gain some mass with your strength.
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   Use more sets. To make up for the relatively lower volume of your low rep sets, it is necessary to increase the number of sets you do. There is no special number. Anywhere from 5-12 sets of an exercise is the norm. The exact number will depend on the number of reps you're doing, your goals, and your current level of fitness.
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   Use longer rest periods. In contrast to bodybuilding, we want to avoid being tired as much as possible when training for pure strength. This means we want close to complete recovery between sets. The exact amount of time will depend on the exercise, but anywhere from 3-6 minutes is typical. Some powerlifters are known to take up to 15 minutes between heavy squats or deadlifts!
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   Lowering a weight slowly, called negative lifting, is a greater stimulus to make you stronger than raising it. You can lower much heavier weights than you can lift. As you raise a weight, you have to slow down because gravity works against you so that the weight feels heavier as you continue to raise it. On the other hand, when you lower a weight, you tend to move faster as gravity works with you and the weight feels lighter.
   • This negative lifting workout should be done only by experienced lifters not more often than once a week. Pick 10 to 15 lifts that you do regularly. Start out by lifting the heaviest weight that you can lift ten times in a row. You will struggle to get through the last three or four lifts.
   • Then add five to 15 pounds, which may be too heavy for you to lift. Two spotters should lift the weight for you and you try to lower it six times. You'll really hurt and you may want to quit.
   • Add another ten pounds and try to lower the weight three times. Then pick your arms off the floor, replace them on your shoulders and take at least two days off.
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   Train more often. The more often you do something the better you get at it. For professional strength athletes it is common to train 6 days per week, 2-3 sessions per day! While this isn't practical for most of us, it gives us a hint as to how to increase strength quickly. The more often you can train (without sacrificing recovery) the better.

EditTips

• Allow at least a full day of recovery before resuming to train. This gives your muscles time to recover, for-long training without rest can cause serious injuries.
• Eat plenty of food full of protein and fibre such as wheat, fish, lean meat and grains.
• Have a plan before training.
• Use the above tips within a professionally designed training program to get the best results.
• Exercise does not make you stronger. If it did, marathon runners would have the largest muscles of all athletes. The single stimulus to make muscles larger and stronger is to stretch them while they contract. When you try to lift a heavy weight, your muscles stretch before the weight starts to move. The greater the stretch, the greater the damage to the muscle fibers and when they heal after a few days, the greater the gain in strength. The results for this study give a clear message. You become stronger by lifting heavier weights, not by exercising more. If you do too much work, you can't lift very heavy weights and you do not become stronger. When it comes to becoming very strong, less may be more.
• Don't forget to get plenty of quality sleep every night to maximize your recovery.
• Combine your training with a scientific nutrition and supplementation program to speed up your results.
• Some body builders lift weights for more than six hours a day, but you don't have to waste that much time to become very strong. Training for weight lifting is done in sets. A set of ten means that you lift and lower a heavy weight ten times continuously before you rest. If you repeat these sets of ten three times with a rest period between each set, you have done three sets of ten.

EditWarnings

• Always consult your doctor before beginning any exercise or nutrition program.
• Take special care if you are a teen, as doing too much weight-lifting can be devastating to the joints.