An essay on strength-training

<u>The Truth about Strengthening the Body.
</u>
The body adapts to the demands that are made on it. If the body is demanded to lift heavy it will respond by increasing the muscle size and force-production efficiency [strength].
If the body is made to lift for numerous repetitions, it will increase its ability to lift repetitively [endurance].
If the body is made to lift a weight in a specific manner, it will improve its ability to lift in that exact same manner.
The most efficient way to strengthen the body for any particular ability is to practice that ability as much as possible without overtaxing the body’s recovery systems. Extreme demands require extreme diet and rest for recovery. Mild demands require only mild diet and rest. Undertraining is defined as not demanding the body’s full adaptative capacity. In other words, the demands are not very challenging, and so the body is not forced to improve its abilities much. Overtraining is defined as demanding more adaptation than the body is capable of. Or in other words, the demands are more challenging than the body can handle and the body weakens under the intense stress rather than strengthens. Ideal strength training puts very challenging demands on the body while giving it the rest and nutrients it needs to adapt to the stress over time.
Frequency must be relatively high in order to cause rapid adaptation, but adequate recovery between workouts is necessary or strength will deteriorate.
Volume also must be high enough to challenge the body without exhausting its resources.
Load must be challenging, but not so extreme as to greatly reduce the endurance and recovery ability. Some lifters can ‘go heavy’ multiple times per week, while others need a longer recovery time between max effort lifts.
I have found the exact frequency, volume and load that is ideal for any particular individual has to be found through trial and error in experience with training. A newbie will make gains almost by lifting anything since the body is challenged by the new demands. But as the individual progresses, care must be taken to adequately challenge the body without stressing it beyond its ability to recover and adapt.

 

All true, Sci, but...
An entire book can be written just from truth presented in this website as addendums to your evaluations. It's like the saying &quot;calories in: calories out&quot; - a hundred questions pop up like, &quot;calories from what?&quot; or &quot;when do you take in this or that calorie?&quot;
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">If the body is made to lift a weight in a specific manner, it will improve its ability to lift in that exact same manner.</div>
Some lifts improve the body's ability to do other things. The common misconception here I think is that of the newbies: that arm iso's will improve bench press, leg extensions will improve squats and so forth. Not that they won't in a beginner, but as for the rest of us...
Overtraining as a single definition? Not possible. First you have overreaching, which can and should be used as a tool by intermediate and advanced BB'ers. Overtraining, if simply defined could be described as overreaching too much (or often, or continuously).
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Frequency must be relatively high in order to cause rapid adaptation</div>,
Not always. What about the guys doing 2x/week HST?
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I have found the exact frequency, volume and load that is ideal for any particular individual has to be found through trial and error in experience with training</div>
Your best statement. I realize you didn't set out to write a book, but obviously by posting you were available for input, so there's my worthless 2c.

 

<div>
(quadancer @ Mar. 18 2007,06:18)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">All true, Sci, but...
An entire book can be written just from truth presented in this website as addendums to your evaluations. It's like the saying &quot;calories in: calories out&quot; - a hundred questions pop up like, &quot;calories from what?&quot; or &quot;when do you take in this or that calorie?&quot;
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">If the body is made to lift a weight in a specific manner, it will improve its ability to lift in that exact same manner.</div>
Some lifts improve the body's ability to do other things. The common misconception here I think is that of the newbies: that arm iso's will improve bench press, leg extensions will improve squats and so forth. Not that they won't in a beginner, but as for the rest of us...
Overtraining as a single definition? Not possible. First you have overreaching, which can and should be used as a tool by intermediate and advanced BB'ers. Overtraining, if simply defined could be described as overreaching too much (or often, or continuously).
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Frequency must be relatively high in order to cause rapid adaptation</div>,
Not always. What about the guys doing 2x/week HST?
<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">I have found the exact frequency, volume and load that is ideal for any particular individual has to be found through trial and error in experience with training</div>
Your best statement. I realize you didn't set  out to write a book, but obviously by posting you were available for input, so there's my worthless 2c.</div>
Thanks for the input...but my definition of SAID and overtraining is basically the same as yours. 2x/week frequency IS relatively high for some guys, hence the word 'relatively'. Basically everything you 'disagreed' with me on, you actually seemed to confirm...

What I set out to write was a definition of proper strength training WITHOUT mentioning anything about which % of your 1 rm load to use, which frequency and how many sets and reps, as I pointed out at he end, these are largely dependent on the individual. Noticed I used no numbers, as I have found it a fruitless search for the golden program of the perfect load/volume/frequency. As Madcow says on his 5x5 site....&quot;There are no Golden Programs!&quot; because the body adapts and changes over time. He lays out some good guidelines for beginner, intermediate and advanced level lifters, but ultimately the individual lifter has to find out what works for them specifically.

 

<div>
(scientific muscle @ Mar. 18 2007,03:26)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"><u>The Truth about Strengthening the Body.
</u>
The body adapts to the demands that are made on it.  If the body is demanded to lift heavy it will respond by increasing the muscle size and force-production efficiency [strength].
If the body is made to lift for numerous repetitions, it will increase its ability to lift repetitively [endurance].
If the body is made to lift a weight in a specific manner, it will improve its ability to lift in that exact same manner.
The most efficient way to strengthen the body for any particular ability is to practice that ability as much as possible without overtaxing the body’s recovery systems.  Extreme demands require extreme diet and rest for recovery.  Mild demands require only mild diet and rest.  Undertraining is defined as not demanding the body’s full adaptative capacity.  In other words, the demands are not very challenging, and so the body is not forced to improve its abilities much.  Overtraining is defined as demanding more adaptation than the body is capable of.  Or in other words, the demands are more challenging than the body can handle and the body weakens under the intense stress rather than strengthens.  Ideal strength training puts very challenging demands on the body while giving it the rest and nutrients it needs to adapt to the stress over time.
Frequency must be relatively high in order to cause rapid adaptation, but adequate recovery between workouts is necessary or strength will deteriorate.
Volume also must be high enough to challenge the body without exhausting its resources.
Load must be challenging, but not so extreme as to greatly reduce the endurance and recovery ability.  Some lifters can ‘go heavy’ multiple times per week, while others need a longer recovery time between max effort lifts.
I have found the exact frequency, volume and load that is ideal for any particular individual has to be found through trial and error in experience with training.  A newbie will make gains almost by lifting anything since the body is challenged by the new demands.  But as the individual progresses, care must be taken to adequately challenge the body without stressing it beyond its ability to recover and adapt.</div>
Well thought-out piece.

Unfortunately, for me, a massive increase in strength this past year has added little new size, but my goal was never to gain more size, anyway. My goal is to continually shift my body comp as time goes by...more muscle, less fat, which means the bodyeweight scale is the poorest of poor indicators of my progress.

I will say this, though...if I ever did resume regular hypertrophy training, I probably would explode. The last time I was training for hypertrophy, I was deadlifting 225, benching about 205, and squating about 265, which is significantly less than where I'm at now.

I'm of the belief that the *perfect* formula for those who want size above all else is to alternate several months pure strength training with several months hypertrophy training. If on each hypertrophy phase you are lifting more than the previous phase, assuming proper diet &amp; rest, you will grow.

Strength training doesn't mean automatically larger muscles, per se, but there is no doubt in my mind it is the catalyst for bigger muscles if you switch to hypertrophy and pump up cals.

 

Makes me thing of two things:

Strength is very much a neural adaptation stimulus and does not alweays result in hypertrophy.

Lyle is not exactly wrong when he mentions the hypertrophy range and the strength range!

To me that means a slightly higher rep range like 8 - 10 is the range that tends to cause hypertrophy, and the lower range or what I call &quot;safety range&quot; (4 - 6 reps) having an effect on strength.

Just a thought...good piece though...sci Well thought off!

One of the reasons why I think HST is a winner is because it comprises the best of both worlds (hypertrophy and Strength) but on top of it there is also the 15's (they're the body's balm)

 

<div>
(Fausto @ Mar. 18 2007,15:34)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Strength is very much a neural adaptation stimulus and does not alweays result in hypertrophy.</div>
Hello, fausto.

Couldn't agree more. Increases in strength do not equate to size increases. I can testify to that little factoid, firsthand.

HST, in and of itself, is no doubt the best hypertrophy program I've seen and/or used, and that includes a lot of &quot;pay for&quot; programs, like Musclenow.

That said, there is only one small tweak I would make to it, and I'll get to that in a second. Extensive bulking periods can be counterproductive, if you're a natural lifter. I have yet to find someone who has bulked for several months, and not have the growth curve flatline after the first 6 to 8 weeks or so. Again, I'm talking pure muscle gain, not muscle and fat.

Eating above maintenance is also physically &amp; mentally taxing on the body as well. There is definitely a shelf life to how long we can overeat and not suffer the ill effects of either too much fat accumulation, fatigue, &amp; burnout.

This is why I feel every cycle or two of HST should be complimented by a nice 3 to 6 month cycle of something like Westside, or another various strength-specific program. During the strength phase, it's really easy to eat @ or just below maintenance, and as long as you do cardio, you will lean up in addition to getting stronger. Bulking from a lean state is always advantageous. You're much less likely to add fat if you start off lean on your bulk.

Also, when you return to your next HST cycle, the weights you'll be hoisting will be much higher than if you do back-to-back-to-back HST cycles with no strength training in between.

In addition to lifting lots more poundages, the supercaloric intake will be a shock to your system, and the mass will pile on anew. Just my opinion, but it seems that one would be more likely to make long term gains that way, and not stagnate.

 

Another Slapman special no doubt! I know we've been talking about that for a while now, and it's time for both of us to put it to work! I'm getting ready for a special HST cycle or two as soon as I get my money and schedule worked out. As Sci was saying, &quot;Extreme demands require extreme diet and rest for recovery.&quot;
I have to figure out the final tweaks for my special program he and I were discussing first; and that there is the fly in the ointment: recovery.

 

<div>
(quadancer @ Mar. 18 2007,19:19)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Another Slapman special no doubt! I know we've been talking about that for a while now, and it's time for both of us to put it to work! I'm getting ready for a special HST cycle or two as soon as I get my money and schedule worked out. As Sci was saying, &quot;Extreme demands require extreme diet and rest for recovery.&quot;
I have to figure out the final tweaks for my special program he and I were discussing first; and that there is the fly in the ointment: recovery.</div>
A Slapman special? Yeah, I guess it is

I wish I could join you on your bulking ride, bro, but I'm still gonna shy away from the whole &quot;bulking&quot; thang. Us lifters tend to be a fickle bunch, and I'm sure I'll get the itch to bulk again at some point, but not now...not with the summer looming

 

<div>
(quadancer @ Mar. 18 2007,19:19)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">Another Slapman special no doubt! I know we've been talking about that for a while now, and it's time for both of us to put it to work! I'm getting ready for a special HST cycle or two as soon as I get my money and schedule worked out. As Sci was saying, &quot;Extreme demands require extreme diet and rest for recovery.&quot;
I have to figure out the final tweaks for my special program he and I were discussing first; and that there is the fly in the ointment: recovery.</div>
A Slapman special? Yeah, I guess it is

I wish I could join you on your bulking ride, bro, but I'm still gonna shy away from the whole &quot;bulking&quot; thang. Us lifters tend to be a fickle bunch, and I'm sure I'll get the itch to bulk again at some point, but not now...not with the summer looming!

I think I'm gonna share my carb story with the peeps on here...they should find it interesting.

 

They will. I meant that I have to figure out WHAT I'm gonna do for diet. I need to cut, am at the end of a strength routine, and facing a deload while too fat to bulk any more. It's just like everything is sort of in the wrong timing. I'll probably stay maintenance thru the deload and cut for part or all of this coming cycle, but I don't really want to cut with 15's.

 

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE"> Extreme demands require extreme diet and rest for recovery.  Mild demands require only mild diet and rest.</div>

Yes....that is perfect.  

 

Another fascinating thread, this place may not have the quantity of posts as say T-nation but the quality and empirical observations are top notch.


  I have personally experienced that strength gains wont automatically result in corresponding size gains. I do suspect that volume/frequency are more &quot;key&quot; than rep range - on 10x3 (10 sets x 3 reps) I grew more in size and strength than any other rep+set configuration , but couldn't maintain the intensity of the routine for extended periods (hence my trying and getting hooked on HST - which I cycle with brief 3-4 week cycles of 10x3 and feel I've found as near perfect a long term W/O plan as possible).
   I have also grown on singles when the sets were quite high (20-30) but strength/size gains were higher with 10x3(my favorite).

 

It may be that cycling strength and hypertrophy cycles ultimately yields the best overall results.  Still, many folks do see good strength increases on HST.  As Fausto says, the HST approach of increasing load and the use of different rep ranges does appear to make a good compromise of both strength and hypertrophy.  Can you get stronger on a pure strength oriented routine?  I imagine so, but HST does appear to be an effective compromise between both fronts.

Then there are hybrid tweaks like Mikeynov's Dual Factor HST that adds more traditional strength inducing approaches.  I have been doing this routine and can attest to the resultant strength increases (evaluation of hypertrophy effects will have to wait for a bulking cycle).

 

I have to agree Ruthenian although I never tried a strength cycle. I am doing one (SST) after this because my strength is lagging big time.

 

SST and HST are only different on one point.

SST trains the muscles to exert maximum force, and how they do it is irrelevant. Wether by hypertophy of muscles fibers, or increased firing-efficiency of motor units, as long as more force is produced the goal had been acheived.

HST trains the muscles specifically to increase cross-section area. Of course the muscles hypertrophy in order to increase force production, but HST is not nearly concerned as much with neural strength gains, although they will occur even at lighter than maximal intensity lifting (1rm%).

 

<div>
(Ruthenian @ Mar. 22 2007,16:17)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">It may be that cycling strength and hypertrophy cycles ultimately yields the best overall results.  Still, many folks do see good strength increases on HST.  As Fausto says, the HST approach of increasing load and the use of different rep ranges does appear to make a good compromise of both strength and hypertrophy.  Can you get stronger on a pure strength oriented routine?  I imagine so, but HST does appear to be an effective compromise between both fronts.

Then there are hybrid tweaks like Mikeynov's Dual Factor HST that adds more traditional strength inducing approaches.  I have been doing this routine and can attest to the resultant strength increases (evaluation of hypertrophy effects will have to wait for a bulking cycle).</div>
Having done cycles of both strength training and HST, I agree that HST is really the best combination of both worlds.

But I think when you're really pushing the limits of strength training, like I've been doing lately, the frequency of workouts must decrease, or at the very least, the split should be such so that you don't attempt your &quot;big&quot; lifts more often than once every couple of weeks or so.

For example, if I do deadlifts this week, I'll do weighted chins the next time I do back. If I do heavy shrugs one week, I'll come back the following week with lighter dumbbell work.

 

<div></div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">But I think when you're really pushing the limits of strength training, like I've been doing lately, the frequency of workouts must decrease, or at the very least, the split should be such so that you don't attempt your &quot;big&quot; lifts more often than once every couple of weeks or so.</div>

Although I may say maybe I'm not at this point &quot;pushing the limits of strength training&quot; I have been training 2x week and going as heavy as possible, seems to have worked some for me, although I have not been able to get my nutrition right (just can't right now, when I can I introduce the best protein powder I can get, usually with 46 - 50 g protein p/serving).

My workout consists of:

Deadlifts/Squats
15° B/B benchpress/Dips
Chins (underhand close grip)/Pendlay Rows (BB)
Military press
Lateral raises/Bent over superset
Incline Curls/Pushdowns*

* supersetted but not always used, only do arms maybe once per week and when I feel I have enough left over, which is not always the case.

I have been milking the 5's, but have had to stop here and there, so when I do I usually go back one whole week (in terms of weights).

Strength training rocks, I have done it and it was superb!

 

HST is the only &quot; pure hypertrophy&quot;(ie. non- strength) routine I've done, and I've lifted on and off for twenty years , it took a lot of blind faith to lift something 15 times in a row that first cycle!!!

 

I forgot about Mike's Dual Factor HST. I may have to give that a try...