3 Key Principles of Increasing Strength

Wanna get Stronger? Listen up, Filip here and in this article I will cover the key principles you need to consider if you want to get "Stupid Strong".

We have added a video version now also, if you prefer to watch

1) Overload - To properly overload your muscles and force them to adapt, you need to consider your training intensity (weight), volume within a workout and your total weekly volume.

They all play a role in you getting stronger and you want to progressively increase your intensity and volume within in your training cycle.

2) Specificity - Train the movement. We've all heard the saying "practice makes perfect" and with your training it's no exception. By doing the exercise you are trying to get stronger in and ones that are similar, over and over again, you build neuromuscular connections so that your muscles fire more efficiently when performing the exercise. Repetition causes adaptation and therefore you will become increasingly better at performing lifts that you practice.

Accessory exercises also help make you stronger by carrying over specific strengths from another exercise, for example: through strengthening your triceps with a variety of triceps exercises, that strength will carry over to the Bench Press and Overhead Press.

3) Mechanical Leverage - By improving your technique/form to utilize more muscles in a specific movement you will be able to lift increasingly more. An example of this might be learning to use your legs more for Deadlifts.

Improving your mobility and flexibility can also have a great impact on your strength potential. Many muscular imbalances due to tightness can be associated to lack of strength and poor technique when trying to perform an exercise.

Now that we've covered the 3 principles for getting stronger, lets dive into some strategies that you can implement to adhere to these principles.

Periodization - Utilizing 'Macro', 'Meso' and 'Micro' Training Cycles for strategic progression and using 'Deload' periods to help recover and adapt.

Macro Cycle refers to the overall training period (either leading up to competition or of a specific time frame)

Meso Cycle refers to a period of typically 4-6 weeks or 4-6 microcycles where the intensity and volume typically increases progressively throughout the duration. It is generally followed by a Deload or some period of rest.

Micro Cycle refers to your typical training week. Each microcycle is planned based on where it is in the mesocycle and overall macrocycle, progressively getting harder or changing until a Deload phase.

A Deload is important to ensure recovery and proper adaptation of the new stimulus. A typical Deload lasts a week and should see you dropping intensity and/or volume for the duration.

Personally I like to sometimes utilize my Deload by doing 3-4 full body "pump session" days where I would focus more on Isolation movements and pumping lots of blood to my muscles. I find this helps me recover greatly and gets me ready to get back into heavy lifting.

Frequency - Utilizing frequency as a strategy to increase total weekly volume and workload.

Think about it, there is only so much you can do in a single session before you are so beat up from a single movement. That is why it is very beneficial to increase the frequency of doing that movement to adhere to volume demands.

Back to the old saying, "practice makes perfect", you get to master your craft and get used to the load by performing the exercise multiple times in a week.

By training the movement multiple times per week you get to tap into the peak responsiveness of the muscles. When a muscle is recovering after a workout, it usually takes around 48-72 hours for the muscle to sufficiently recover, at which point the muscle has an increased responsiveness for a period of time to any stimulus provided, meaning you will be stronger during a lift.

I hope you found this article useful and you can apply it to your own training. Please feel free to comment your thoughts below.

Filip,
Co-founder, Freak Athletiq