The 3 Big Strings to Your Strength Training (but do you play them right?)

To open this weeks Performance Peek, to introduce the topic of you achieving optimal strength development, I’m going to actually start with something a bit random…

The last few weeks have seen me renovating my lawn (aka sons’ football pitch). And in the pursuit of the perfect surface, I’ve been doing various things – cutting, feeding, aerating, watering. Essentially managing the various key components to achieve my version of Wembley Stadium.

When you’re striving to achieve greater levels of strength, irrespective of your ability, genetics and age, there are 3 big players which will influence your success. Knowing what these are is vital, but in particular knowing how to manage them is where you will succeed, or fail (like me and my lawn)..

In fact, I will take the last 15+ years of my professional coaching experience and say, these big 3 account for almost always, someone’s success with their strength training (that includes coach’s too!). And a word of warning – it doesn’t matter how experienced/unexperienced you are, these 3 are easy to unknowingly succumb too. So as this is a performance peek, rather than stare, let’s get straight into it.

Execution of the Art

Four years ago my friend rebuilt his house, so one day I helped him with some brickwork.? I used the same bricks, cement and tools as he did, but as you may suspect, my execution of the skill of brick laying was poor, and soon he sacked me off.

Similar with strength training, how you execute every rep will determine:

-????????? Which muscles you use/recruit (are they the ones desired)?

-????????? To what extent you use/recruit these (somewhat, lots)?

-????????? How much you load areas of your body, that you want to limit ?(e.g. your lower back, knees)

Yet when you train, by chasing the reps, technique can very easily be compromised to satisfy your ego.? The downside being, each time this occurs you’re simply reducing the quality and success of your training.?

Think about the last time you went to your local gym.? More often than not, the people around you are technically compromising most of their reps to some degree. And even if small, these small differences create huge differences, long term to your results with your body.

Consider if my mate let me continue building his brick wall. Being 2mm out on a brick looks like nothing, yet add this up over dozens of bricks and his house would resemble the Tower of Pisa.? And this isn’t being dramatic…

I’ve seen people develop elbow tedonopathy from consistently not using their lat muscles on chin up or pull-down. People start to develop lower back pain because they simply aren’t ‘bracing’ when performing a squat or deadlift.

Safety aside, if you want to ensure your strength programme delivers with ongoing progress, technique is most likely to be the area you can achieve greatest wins (at the expense of ?ego).

?‘Yeah I know That’ – But do you do it?

The following two come hand in hand…

In fact, they would appear the most simple. But either this doesn’t get done at all, or how it’s done leaves you out your depth.

The intensity of your strength exercises (the load/resistance) and the volume (the total number of reps over all sets) are like the flour and yeast to every training session – you need the correct balance.

The basic laws of physiology suggest that if you want to consistently improve an aspect of your physical performance, then you must overtime, gradually continue to increase either the intensity of volume you’re exposing it too.

But often 1 or more of the following happen:

• ?You forget progress isn’t always in the numbers. If you can perform the same total reps at a given load with superior technique, this will achieve the quality overload you’re looking for to get stronger, as you will load and use the target muscles to a greater extent.
• You overestimate the load/reps as you progress in ‘chunks’.? If you did 4 sets of 4 reps one week, there’s a tendency to think ‘next week its 4 sets of 5 reps’. If you’re using your optimal technique, such a large leap is generally unlikely, which means to hit the goal you either drop the load or sacrifice technique. Often achieving 1, maybe 2 extra reps in total is commonly true progress.
• ?You don’t do this because you don’t plan.? Simply, you make up the weights and reps in session. Despite not even needing an explanation as to why this will not lead to success for you (just like me guessing the weekly shopping list and getting it wrong to my wife’s anger) it’s the most prevalent error many people make. No excuses here my friend, although this is more down to the fact of simply not having a personal training plan to trust and follow.

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Did You See What I Didn’t Mention?

I intentionally didn’t include ‘what exercise you do’. While of course the exercises you choose are crucial, they are a fixed part of your training plan, something you will likely stick with for 6-12 weeks. Whereas what I’ve shared today, are practical strings to your programme which need focus and attention every session.

?Oh and finally I just wanted to say cheers...

Just a thank you, to all of you who have subscribed to the Performance Peek. Ranging from company directors to strength and conditioning coaches across the globe. It’s been great to hear my approach of combining quality insight and tips, in an open, easy digestible, down to earth way has hit the spot. Please feel free to message me of here if I can be of help.

Have a great week

Dave

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