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What is strength training?

Strength training is performing exercises with the intention of making your muscles stronger. These exercises generally take the form of performing a movement against a resistance, for example your bodyweight or free weights.

How strength training is different to bodybuilding

Bodybuilding and strength training are often mistakenly thought of as being the same thing because they use similar techniques, but there are some key differences in the training methods, the end results and most importantly, the primary aim. In bodybuilding, there is one goal: aesthetics. The aim is to increase the size, definition and symmetry of muscles to build an impressively muscular physique. Bodybuilders increase in strength as they train, but this is only a side effect of their training. In strength training, the main aim is to increase the strength of the muscles. Strength training will also tend to increase the size of the muscles, but not to anywhere near the same extent as bodybuilding.

Factors affecting strength

In essence, strength is a measure of the ability of a muscle to exert a force against a resistance. Although the size of a muscle is often related to its strength, one does not always follow the other. It is possible to massively increase your strength without gaining much, if any, muscle mass and it is also possible to increase the size of your muscles without gaining much strength. Increasing muscle mass will increase your strength because you will have more muscle fibres to exert a force. However, when you lift a weight, you never actually use all the available muscle fibres at the same time. By learning to increase the number you use, you can increase your strength without increasing your muscle mass. The number of fibres activated in the muscle depends on the signal that they receive from the brain. When training specifically to gain strength, your nervous system will learn to activate a greater proportion of the muscle fibres, which increases your strength.

Training the brain

If you want to get stronger, you need to focus on the nervous system because it is this that has a greater influence on your strength than anything else. Unsurprisingly, the best way to train your nervous system is to lift heavy weights. Increasing your strength is primarily about training the connection between your mind and your muscles. By exerting large forces to lift heavy weights, your nervous system will learn to adapt to them. You need to be lifting weights such that you can only manage between two to five repetitions per set. Any more than this and the weight isn’t heavy enough. Training frequency also has a big effect. For maximum strength gains you need to train regularly and often.

Most bodybuilding routines train each body part only once per week to allow the muscles to fully recover. Strength training taxes the muscles in a different way so the recovery period needed is not so long; it is primarily the nervous system that is being trained. You should be aiming to train each body part around twice a week. Strength training workouts should be short, but intense. You should not be training to failure. Training to failure will increase the time needed to recover, which will not help you gain strength. Choosing the right exercises is also important for building strength. The most effective forms of exercise for strength are heavy compound lifts and bodyweight exercises. For example, barbell squats and pull-ups.

Summary

You can build up your muscles all you want, but if you aren’t focused on the right exercises, your nervous system won’t adapt and you won’t get stronger. Strength Training is all in the mind.

MMA strength training isn’t similar to that of any other sport. Mixed martial arts or MMA requires a different type of conditioning and strength building. In fact, strength training, conditioning, rest period, and physical endurance vary in all types of sports and MMA is no different, and these are the factors that primarily determine an athlete’s success.

Unlike other sports, MMA requires constant display of maximum physical strength for a five-minute round, with virtually no moment to rest at all. Thus MMA strength focused workouts hold utmost importance in order to develop the required physical attributes and focus.

If you are preparing for an MMA bout, don’t think walking the treadmill, sprinting, or running will do you any good. These are not the strength training and conditioning workouts required to be successful in an MMA bout. Your goal is not to look impressive walking around the ring but to defeat your immediate rival. And this will not be difficult if you are practically trained in grappling, striking, and submission skills.

Whether you are training for a bout or to have the body of an MMA fighter, go for the most efficient and effective MMA strength programs and conditioning routines. Bodybuilding-style strength training programs would not be of much help in this regard. Since MMA is entirely different from other sports, your strength training and conditioning program must be different if you really want to achieve your goals.

• Ensure that your strength building program does not focus on chest, legs, or arms.
• Make sure you do not focus solely on building muscle, as gaining too much muscle can be counterproductive.
• Make certain that you focus on bettering your strength level while keeping a low bodyweight.
• Ensure that you primarily focus on movement patterns; muscle building is secondary.

Movement Patterns for MMA Strength Building

While focusing on strength training, ensure that you combine some of the essential movement patterns to achieve effective results. This will ensure that all key muscle groups work in the right direction. Some of these movement patterns on which you should focus are: squat, twist, lunge, push, pull, and bend. Besides, there are some isolation exercises that MMA fighters must do, such as single joint exercises, crunches, isometrics, stretches, etc.

An ideal MMA-specific strength improvement program should focus on conditioning two to three times a week. This will ensure that each major muscle group is targeted every time. Besides, you will be gaining strength by holistically following this strength training program.

Strength and Power Endurance: Key to a Successful Strength Development Program

Your MMA strength training program should focus on strength and power endurance. This will ensure that you have adequate strength and power to be able to constantly move a certain weight at a specific speed throughout the competition. Thus by first increasing your strength and strength endurance and then power and power endurance, you will be on the right track to develop the required strength for mixed martial arts.

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There are many different types of strength… and they all need to be taken into consideration when forming an effective physical training program.

What makes someone strong?

Well, that is not an easy question to answer… because it depends on which of the many different types of strength you are talking about.

Someone can exhibit great competence in one aspect of strength while being completely lacking in another.

To understand this better, let’s talk about three of the most important types of strength: Maximal Strength, Explosive Strength and Strength Endurance…

Maximal Strength is the amount of force that can be generated from one all out effort… regardless of time or bodyweight.

Maximal strength can be displayed through three types of muscle actions…

Concentric Strength occurs when the muscle shortens as it overcomes resistance, like when lifting a weight.

Eccentric Strength occurs when the muscle lengthens as it yields to or attempts to overcome a resistance, like when controlling a weight on the way down.

Static Strength occurs when the muscle contracts against an immovable resistance, or contracts to prevent unwanted movement.

Explosive Strength is strength per unit of time, and is also known as Speed Strength.

There are different types of explosive strength…

Starting Strength is the ability to recruit as many muscle fibers as possible instantaneously at the start of the movement… It is the type of strength necessary to quickly accelerate a load that is at rest.

Acceleration Strength is how long you can keep the maximum number of muscle fibers recruited after Starting Strength. Once the initial movement begins, the rate of force development is the acceleration… It is what will get the load moving very quickly.

Strength Endurance is the ability to be as strong as possible, as long as possible.

Strength endurance is characterized by being able to perform a movement repeatedly for an extended period of time without being overcome by fatigue or sacrificing form.

Now let’s add a couple more types of strength…

Relative Strength is the amount of force that can be generated from one all out effort… relative to bodyweight.

For example… if two people have the ability to lift the same object, but one person is small and lighter in size, they exhibit more relative strength.

Relative strength comes into play when you are measuring your strength abilities against others, competing in a sport that has weight classes or competing in a sport where you have to overcome your own bodyweight to perform a task.

Absolute Limit Strength is the amount of force that can be generated from one all out effort… with the use of drugs and/or supplements.

I personally am the least interested with this type of strength because I am only interested in strength improvements that come from proper, effective physical training… and not through biological manipulation.

As you can see… there are a lot of types of strength to take into account when planning a strength training program.

My suggestion…

Do not concentrate on the training of one particular type of strength at the expense of all others unless you have a very specific reason to do so.

For most of us, we do not know which type of strength will be called into question as we go through our lives… so train them all.

Therefore, vary physical training methods, stresses and intensities while training maximal strength, explosive strength and strength endurance to bring about the greatest performance improvements for sport, work and life.

In this way, you will not only be strong… but strong for any occasion.