Strength Training 101
Basics of Strength Training
If you are new to strength training, it will take you some time to learn how to move correctly in order to be able to handle the correct loads you’ll need to have the stimulus you are looking for in order to adapt. Keep in mind the following:
Subjective Loading
The best way to know if what you are doing is impactful on a hormonal level is to think of the intensity as subjective rather than objective. Objective loading would be to use a specific weight for a specific activity regardless of how you physically felt. Because we are all different and our bodies need different loads, objective loading doesn’t work for most of us. Subjective loading, on the other hand, is based on how you feel. Whenever I have someone do an activity using weights, I have them understand intensity by giving them a description of what it should feel like. For example, if you are doing a set of 10 repetitions, you should feel like the last three reps are very challenging and force you to struggle. You should feel a burn in your muscles, and you should not be able to do five more reps than were prescribed. When you finish the set, you should be out of breath. You should be forced to brace your core, hold your breath, and bear down because you are fatigued. These cues provide context for how intense something should be in order for you to get the stimulus you need.
Focused Multi-Joint Movements
Strength training, real strength training, takes focus. Focus on technique, form, and shape. A good strength training session can be compared to watching a great sporting event. You are focused on everything that is happening, not because you think you have to be, but because you are so into it that you want to be. I can’t tell you how many strength training sessions I’ve observed where people are talking and lifting weights at the same time. It’s just not possible to be disengaged and still get to the stimulus that you need.
The menu of strength activities is long and the key is to find the activities that you can do well and then build on those while working on new ones and learning new things. Note that the best strength movements are the ones that you can handle heavier loads because the heavier loads are harder to move and force the body to adapt. Think in terms of multi-joint movements like squats, lunges, step-ups, and presses, as opposed to smaller movements that involve only one joint, such as isolated tricep extensions, leg extensions, and arm curls. The more joints involved in the movement, the more compound, meaning the more muscles are involved and, therefore, the more load you can handle. The body doesn’t respond to the movement, it responds to the amount of load you can handle for the movement. So if I do a bicep curl, just flexing at the elbow, you are limited to just using your bicep, one muscle, and one joint, but if you do a squat, you can use your calves, quads, glutes, abdominal muscles, and hamstrings all at once, and your hips, knees, and ankles are all involved in the movement. Therefore you can handle a heavier load in a squat. The bicep curl max weight is much less than the back squat max weight. Back squat integrates more muscle fibers than bicep curls. It’s the response from the load that the central nervous system recognizes and thus responds to with a release of hormones. So you might get sore from doing 100 5 lb biceps curls in the class you just took. That is just muscle soreness rather than central nervous system involvement because you had no deep multi-mus- cle engagement and no heavy load, thus no hormonal response. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of room for bicep curls and tricep dips in strength training, as a matter of fact, many of these smaller more intricate activities can help support overall strength, but really it’s the multi-joint compound big movements that are important to start to integrate into your strength practice.
The 100x Rule
If what you are doing for some of your strength cannot be scaled up to be 100 times more intense than what you are currently doing, then it’s probably not the strength activity that is going to cause the right amount and type of fatigue. Take, for example, doing side-lying leg raises. You know, the ones that Jane Fonda used to do. You can’t scale that up to be 100 times more intense. You could do it faster and you could add an ankle weight, but you cannot add 100 times more intensity. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad activity; it’s actually great to isolate and teach glute activation, but it can’t be scaled up very much. On the other hand, if you took dumbbells and held them as you squatted, lunged, or stepped up to a step, you could find a way to progress this movement to make it 100 times heavier. You could move from dumbbells that weighed 10 lbs to a 40 lb kettlebell and then to a barbell that weighed 100 lbs or more. You could start as a beginner doing just bodyweight squats and over time progress to loading a bar on your back that is close to your own body weight or even greater than your body weight. So as you build your strength practice, find movements that have the potential to allow you to move with heavy loads.
Hit me with questions if you want to get started!
See you in the gym,
Aaron Leventhal CSCS, PN1, ACSM/ACS Exercise Oncology Expert