Danavir Sarria's Strength Blog

Danavir Sarria's Strength Blog -

Category Archives: Core Training

Is That Really Necessary?

One of the hardest things to do when creating a training program for anyone is deciding if everything you wrote down was really that necessary.

It’s always easier to say yes than it is to say no especially when you know you can handle the extra. The cool thing about the human body is that it can take a lot of stress when it needs to. This is vital in life or death situations but when it comes to the gym, it’s not such a good thing anymore for most people.

For example, just a couple of weeks ago I started training again after 2 months of inconsistent training. I started with a modified version of Jason Ferrugia’s Muscle Gaining Secrets program (which is freaking awesome and you can get it right HERE).

I started with 4 sets of 5 goblet squats with a 100 pound dumbbell. I was repping it out like there was no tomorrow and when tomorrow came, it sucked…. Really really bad.

My hamstrings and glutes where being roasted 24/7 for 2 weeks. I could barely get into a full squat position without breaking down let alone trying to work out again. Even upper body workouts were useless as the pain was just sitting there and wouldn’t budge.

The worst part was that I didn’t even get any results from it. Even though it was only one training session, I felt like I should have gotten something from it…

After those 2 weeks, I restarted again with 1 set of 10 on week 1-3 while adding an extra set every week. Not only did I not feel any soreness, the muscle just grew like weeds on me.

The moral of this story is that you should be questioning everything you write down on that piece of paper you call a training program.

It’s always easy to add stuff in. Just look at Crossfit. Those guys don’t give a fuck what they do and the results they get. They just want get in, train till they heart bursts through their chest, pick it up, and leave.

On the other hand, it’s hard to take things out. What many don’t realize is that recovery is just as if not MORE important than the actual training session itself.

Training is where you provide stimulus to the body and recovery is where you reap the rewards. Without recovery, you will not get results.

At the very beginning of a program, things such as intensity or volume will increase overtime. Actually, at every part of a program, something will be increasing. This is the rule of progressive overload.

There will come a point though that you can only handle so much while still increasing variables in a program, especially if you play sports and or don’t have the greatest capacity to recover faster.

If all you need is 3 sets of 6 to get your targeted result, is 3 sets of 8 really that necessary? It’s not like you are going to build extra muscle because of it.

Of course, there are some times in a program where you should go beyond what you need but most of the time, you will not need to and if you don’t need it, why do it?

If your main goal is jump higher or punch harder and you need to work on your posterior chain, then deadlifts and or glute thrusts would take up most of your lower body training. Because of that, your squat volume should go down.

Simple, easy, but not everyone does it.

This doesn’t mean though that if you add a couple of reps on something, everything should go down. This is subjective as it is about science.

Some people do really good with high volume/frequency training and others don’t but when it comes down to it, certain parts of a program demand more overall focus than others.

If you are a hardgainer and trying to build muscle, maybe you shouldn’t be doing too much aerobic training and instead focus more on the resistance training.

If you are a powerlifter trying to get your deadlift up, it might not be smart to be sprinting 4 times a week.

If you are trying to burn fat, maybe it’ll be better if you do “just enough” work on your power movements than it is to spend most of your time on it and neglecting the circuit that comes right after.

If you are going to train biceps 3 times a week, then you don’t need to do 12 sets of curls every workout.

If you play a sport 4-5 days a week, it might not be the best idea to go to the weight room 4 times a week.

Remember, the goal of training is to provide a stimulus. Preferably the exact and minimum amount of stimulus you need for your goal.

Recovery is where you get the results of the stimulus you placed on your body.

Train hard, recover hard.

When in doubt, ask yourself “is that really necessary?” If it’s not, take it out and focus on what is.

On Becoming A Pushup Beast

I remember back in the 7th grade when performing just one pushup was an absurd challenge. At an all time high 178 pounds standing at a fluffy 5′ 5′ at the time, I went down, got into position, repped out half a rep and proceeded to fall flat on my chest due to exhaustion.

I was so embarrassed with myself that I worked on pushups everyday till failure and in 2 weeks, I got to 10 straight reps. I felt a lot better about myself but I still wasn’t satisfied.

Ever since then, I have prided myself on pushups and for the past few months, handstand pushups as well.

It’s the mark of every fit man to get down and hit a set of 50 like if it was nothing. Nowadays, I can go 50 reps deep and once in a while with enough intensity and rest prior to the set, go up to 80.

Pretty good considering I actually don’t focus on going such high reps during my actual workouts.

There was at one point in my training that I would focus on high rep pushups. Although it was difficult and took many month, I was able to get to 50 straight reps – this was a few years ago.

Now I try focusing on different pushup variations and protocols and stuff like that to keep myself at 50 without trying nearly as hard.

Thank you sub-maximal training (y) – that means thumbs up by the way.

Just a few months ago, I kept my regular pushup volume to below 30 reps a week to focus on handstands and other gymnastic maneuvers.

One day during that program, I decided to rep it out in front of other people for a prize and I got to 30 pushups in my fastest time ever and I knew I had it in me to do 100 that day. I didn’t because I had no incentive to, but I knew I could do it.

Now without any practice or even any training for weeks, I can do at the very least 3 one arm pushups on each hand or multiple handstand pushups (against the wall) or get down and rep out a set 50.

It’s pretty cool knowing that I can do such things without any real effort and now here I am to teach you how you can become a pushup beast too, using much smarter and better methods than I did (y).

So here we go:

1. Assessment

With this step, all I want to know are my postural and movement deficiencies (to look for weaknesses) and for my performance in the pushup.

There is a lot that can be done here but the most important thing that I found was to look for kyphosis.

For those that don’t know, kyphosis is the “hunchback” look that is now prevalent in modern society due to the exaggerated amount of computer use and overall sitting (I should know, I’m competent in both haha).

The postural changes that come from kyphosis vary, but as long as you don’t actually have scoliosis, it’s safe to say that you can “fix it” to keep you healthy.

When you see that hunchback look, many things are going on in your body because all it’s trying to do is adapt to the stimulus to keep you safe.

Kyphosis primarily means that you need to:

-Mobilize your thoracic spine (upper back)

-Release tension from your pecs (Through SMR & Stretching)

-Increase core strength and stability

Sometimes there are other factors but those are the main ones to focus on. The bigger the kyphosis, the more you have to focus on working on that pre-hab stuff.

Now for the performance, it’s as easy as getting a timer and then repping out as many perfect pushups as you can and then recording everything.

In this step, choose the pushup you would like to improve the most and give you the most bang for your buck as well. For example, if you want to do one arm pushups and you can’t do one perfect rep, I would rather have you do elevated one legged offset pushups, lever pushups, or some other difficult pushup where you can actually progress on.

This will be your indicator “lift”. You want to do everything possible to strengthen that lift and in this case it is important because you want to avoid failure (there are exceptions though).

The reasoning behind this is that if you take the lever pushup for example and in the first assessment you can only do 5 reps each arm, then your goal should be able to increase this number within the next month or so. By getting stronger with the lever pushup, you will automatically become much better prepared at completing multiple one arm pushups without ever having to try so hard and that is the beauty of sub-maximal training.

If in week one you can only do 5 reps each arm and no one arm pushups, and in week 6 you can do 15 reps each arm then I can guarantee that you will be able to do 3 or more one arm pushups when you try it out again.

2. Fixing Kyphosis For Beast Like Results

So as I said before, fixing a severe kyphosis posture seems to be the best thing to focus your pre-hab work on. Fortunately, there are only a few things to do to “fix it” and keep in mind in when creating a program.

The very first thing I would do is massage the upper back and pecs (especially the pec minor), otherwise known as self myofascial release (SMR).

Here are two videos to show you what I mean:

And at beginning and end of your workouts, add in a pec stretch

Some other things to point out:

It will take about 4 weeks to get really noticeable results but as long your working on it, you shouldn’t really have too much of a problem with it.

Also, always make sure to set up your workouts in favor of pulling over your pushing. Since you’ll be doing a lot of pushups, make sure you keep the volume of pulling to pushing at least 1:1 or 2:1.

3. Power Training

At Westside Barbell, Louie Simmons has developed some of the strongest guys in the world and one of his “secrets” has been his use of power training.

One way (and I think the best way) to improve pushup performance is to just get stronger. Power training, although not maximal in terms of overall intensity, will improve strength levels through velocity.

With that said, that is why it’s important to add in some power training near the beginning of your workouts to take advantage of the neuro-muscular stuff that happens.

For our purposes, I would stick to either (or combination of) different variations of plyo pushups or medicine ball drills.

Things like Clap Pushups, Chest Clap Pushups, Quad Clap Pushups work well. Medicine ball throws to a wall for speed or for distance work well too.

It’s important to keep in mind though that overall number of reps should be kept low and rest periods should be kept high as power training will fatigue the central nervous system faster than regular work that just targets the muscular system.

3-5 sets of 3-5 reps for 60-120 seconds in between sets repeated twice a week is a good template to follow.

4. Core Training

Any variation of the pushup is basically a moving plank, so everything that involves planking such as core stability and strength has to do with the pushup as well.

Just doing some extra planks at the end of a workout can get you to squeeze out another load of reps on your pushups.

Depending on your goals, there are different things you can do such as focusing on endurance work if you’re trying to get to 50 pushups or core strength when going for one arm pushups but generally like anything, I would start with endurance and then as the weeks pass by, focus more on strength while keeping that stability.

I always make sure to be able to keep a regular plank for 3 sets of 60 seconds and side planks for 3 sets each of 45 seconds.

From there, I like to use many hanging core exercises such as hanging leg raises and focus on “strength protocols” (5-8 reps with 60-90sec of rest).

Obviously set up your core training intelligently by progressing through exercises slowly.

I like to keep 1-2 direct core exercises a workout but no more.

5. Sub-Maximal Strength Training

One thing about improving pushup performance is that it is much as a skill as it is about strength, so “practicing” pushups often is important.

Other than that, I generally focus on improving strength sub-maximally.

To get to 50 pushups in a row, I would work on getting my one arm pushup up and to get my one arm pushup numbers up, I would work on lever pushups and modified one arm pushups.

There is no point to max out every time you go out as it will only lead to overtraining and probably worsen any kyphotic posture.

I find that it’s important too to work pushups at multiple rep ranges too. Most of my pushup work will consist of going for 5-10 reps and sometimes I’ll add sets of 20.

Now add in the performance assessment that goes on every 3-4 weeks and there is more than enough volume to worry about.

For me, pushups three times a week and done once a workout works best. I like to keep pushups to 3 sets max and as said before, from 5-10 reps before progressing to the next pushup.

That plus your power and core training will lead to major increases in your pushup numbers.

6. Performance Assessments

The point of this is to increase your performance on a certain pushup so it’s logical to assess yourself every so often to make sure what you’re doing is actually working.

I know how I respond to different stimuli so I actually don’t use regular assessments often as I know that an increase in my indicator pushup automatically improves the actual pushup I want to do so what I like to do is just practice maybe 2-3 reps of the pushup I actually want to improve at a random day and see how it goes.

For example, if I want to improve my one arm pushup and my “indicator lift” is the lever pushup, most of my workouts will include lever pushups. When I feel like I should assess myself (which I usually do after 3 weeks), I’ll do my warmup, core, and power training first and then try my hand at a set of perfect one arm pushups.

If things go well, I’m doing things right. If not, something is wrong so I change things up.

I also like to assess myself on off days to get some form of exercise in without killing myself or taking much time at all.

On off days, I’ll just drop down and do 1 set of low volume pushups. For me, my performance on these vary a lot but if everything goes right, I can tell if I’m improving or not.

At around 4-5 weeks or so, I’ll get curious and just drop down and bang out as many reps as I can with the pushup I want to improve, in this case one arm pushups and classic pushups.

The key here is to just to see where you are with your progress without killing yourself.

Pushups, even ones that require a ton of strength or endurance on your part, can be done every single day as long as it’s done extensively. In other words, as long as it’s easy enough for you to recover quickly for the next session, then you’re good to go.

Conclusion

Becoming a pushup beast can take some time and effort but it will pay off at the end. Eventually, you’ll get to the point where you’re strong enough to cycle through many different pushups without worrying about progressing or burning out to quickly.

There are a ton of ways to go about this but I prefer to do the least work necessary to improve so I go with what I said above.

I think you’ll appreciate that so have fun kicking ass and taking names (y).

3 Gymnastic Moves You Should Be Doing

Gymnastics is bodyweight training. Bodyweight training is gymnastics.

At the higher leveled exercises, they require so much strength and coordination that even most meatheads stare in awe and jealousy.

Fortunately, there are three exercises in particular that after a A LOT of practice, can be learned and mastered by us mere mortals.

They are:

1. Handstands

2. The Crow

3. L-Sit

Simple but not easy.

It usually takes months to get movements like these right, but they are well worth the frustration.

Have fun being a bodyweight BEAST!

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Strength, Muscle, And Simplicity

Attaining herculean strength and Rambo sized muscles is probably the goal of any male, or at least it should be.

With more estrogen flying around these days, that might be changing.

Hopefully not.

But anyways, getting big and strong shouldn’t be the mystery it is. It’s pretty simple.

When it comes down to it’s core, it’s all about intensity and volume.

Intensity being in the total amount of weight you use and volume being the total amount of total time under tension you place upon yourself or client.

People get confused because different athletes use different methods to get big and strong.

Bodybuilders essentially hit a muscle group 1-2 times a week, hitting muscles with tons of volume.

Athletes generally hit a muscle group 2-4 times a week, with their volume and intensity waving depending on the program.

Some train the same muscle groups 5-6 times a week.

I personally love to train 3 times a week.

Point is that everything works as long as the program is smart and fits your needs.

Just recently, I was asked to create a training program for a friend who wanted to get strong and huuuyge. So me being the overly excited person I am, I started out planning out things using every strength building concept I knew.

Things started getting pretty crazy but eventually I calmed down.

Thankfully.

Instead I remembered what were his starting numbers, his goals, his current level of fitness, and his current level of training knowledge.

Right now he is 134 pounds at 5’10.

He wants to reach 150 and if possible 160 in 12 weeks.

He is still a beginner in my book but has almost a year of solid training under his belt.

And for his level of training knowledge? Ehh…not very impressive, but that’s what I’m here for.

With this information, I set out to create a simple strength program for him that still made left me satisfied.

Maybe because I know how much he’ll hate me after the first session.

But anyways, here was my plan of attack.

Periodization

He asked for a 12-16 week program.

So I divided the program up into 4 blocks, each being 4 weeks a long.

Month 1 will be an intensification phase, month 2 will be an accumulation phase, month 3 will go back to intensification phase, and month 4 will return to an accumulation phase.

Basically the number of sets and reps will wave every month from high sets, low reps to low sets high reps.

Being that his goal is hypertrophy, the intensification phase will mostly see reps within the 5-8 range and the accumulation phase will generally use reps within the 10-15 range.

Pretty simple.

He also asked that every workout take no longer than 45 minutes and preferably for 30 minutes each. No workouts on Wednesday either and he wanted squats and bench press to come earlier in the week.

In that case, I set up the weekly schedule to be:

Monday – Lower Body (Squat Day)

Tuesday – Upper Body (Bench Press Day)

Thursday – Lower Body (Deadlift Day)

Friday – Upper Body (Military Press Day)

Exercises & Other Details

The main workouts consist of 4-5 exercises.

1-2 exercises are for the core and done at the beginning of the workout.

The other 3 are the main exercises.

The program will follow the 5/3/1 method with a slight twist (just switched weeks 1 and 4 around to start with an intro week)

That is why the program is set up with squat days, bench days…etc

Now the accessory exercises will be supersetted and will be done for a high number of sets (3-6) and low number of reps (6) during the first month. Every week will see an increase in the number of sets by 1 (starting with 1 set if it’s core and 3 sets if its an accessory exercise).

These exercises are high tension exercises like chin ups and one arm dumbbell rows.

Again keeping it simple.

Month 1 Of Training Program

Here are his 4 workouts for the first month:

 

Month 1- Monday (Squat Day)

Core Training

1) Hanging Leg Raise 1-4 X 5; 45 Sec Rest

Strength Training

A1) Back Squat: 5/3/1 Method; 120sec Rest

B1) Single Leg RDL: 3-6 X 6; 0sec Rest

B2) Goblet Grip Bulgarian Split Squat: 3-6 X 6; 90sec Rest

 

Month 1- Tuesday (Bench Press Day)

Core Training

A1) Side Planks 1-4 X 45sec; 0sec Rest

A2) Mountain Climbers 1-4 X 5; 45sec Rest

Strength Training

A1) Bench Press: 5/3/1 Method; 120sec Rest

B1) One Arm Rows: 3-6 X 6; 0sec Rest

B2) DB One Arm Bench Press: 3-6 X 6; 90sec Rest

 

Month 1- Thursday (Deadlift Day)

Core Training

A1) Supermans 1-4 X 5; 45 Sec Rest

Strength Training

A1) Deadlift: 5/3/1 Method; 120sec Rest

B1) Single Leg Glute Thrust: 3-6 X 6; 0sec Rest

B2) Goblet Grip Forward Lunge: 3-6 X 6; 90sec Rest

 

Month 1- Friday (Military Press Day)

Core Training

A1) Plank 1-4 X 45sec; 0sec Rest

A2) Hanging Knee Raise 1-4 X 5; 45sec Rest

Strength Training

A1) Military Press: 5/3/1 Method; 120sec Rest

B1) DB Neutral Grip Pull Ups: 3-6 X 6; 0sec Rest

B2) DB Dips: 3-6 X 6; 90sec Rest

Conclusion

Simple, effective, gut busting.

Exactly what he asked for. All he has to do now is follow the program and eat enough to support it, which he promised he will.

I’ll most probably have to change a couple of things throughout the program, but knowing him, he’ll do just fine.

For now we’ll wait and see what happens.

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11 Random Ways To Get Strong And Powerful

I don’t know any guy who wouldn’t like to get stronger and have more power.

For athletes, it’s essential.

This strength and conditioning stuff can get confusing at times but I’ll try to make it simpler for you with 11 (random) ways to build strength and power.

So here we go!

1. Hit The Compound Movements

“Get the F*CK off the elliptical and go squat!”

That’s what I told my buddy after telling me that last week he spent 45 minutes on the elliptical with his girlfriend to help get in shape.

Ummm….NO.

Stop wasting time on the little things that don’t matter.

If you want to do your curls, pushdowns, other isolation exercise or get on some cardio machine, go ahead but just know that you’re probably missing about 80-90% of your potential results.

Not to say that isolation exercises are useless.

They are very useful but the truth is you won’t get anywhere with your physique or athletic goals without most of your program focusing in on compound movements.

These are exercises like the squat, deadlift, bench press, pushup, chin up, romanian deadlift, bearwalk, lunge, and everything else in between.

At least 80% of your program should be comprised of exercises like these.

Compound exercises work multiple muscles at one time and allow for heavy loads to be placed upon those muscles.

It’s possible to bench 400 pounds but if you trying putting 400 pounds on a chest fly, good luck.

These heavier loads make it possible to get real strong, big, and explosive. Not to mention, make you the biggest bad ass at your local gym.

I better not see your ass on the elliptical again…

2. Strengthen The Core

Strength is all about tension.

The more tension, the stronger you will be. Hence the reason why squeezing a bar as hard as you can will help you use more weight.

A strong core will bring more stability and strength. The more your core can handle, the more weight you’ll be able to move.

Ideally, the core should be your strongest area of your body but for most including myself, it is the weak link, the limiting factor in our movements.

Heavy compound movements will do an awesome job in working your core but research and in the trenches work, lead by Dr. Stuart McGill, has shown that it’s not enough.

You MUST include direct core work.

Although the topic needs a book on it’s own, I would suggest that most people need to step back and work on core stability and remove all flexion work for a good 4-8 weeks.

Do things such as planks, supermans, and bird-dogs.

From there, progressively add motion to the lower body and then only the upper body.

For example things like hanging knee raises and later in the program, add in something like medicine ball slams.

In regards to flexion based exercises like situps, I would stay away from those for 4-8 weeks and them add them slowly into the training program.

For regular people, they generally won’t need more than 20% of their core work to be flexion based.

For martial artists, I would stay at 20% and maybe up to 50% late in the program depending on what they need.

3. Train Explosively

Chad Waterbury has said over and over again on T-Nation that motor neuron recruitment is the fundamental cause for strength.

The more motor neurons you can recruit, the stronger you will be.

So how can you recruit as much neurons as possible?

By training explosively!

You do this by exploding on each rep.

If you squat, go down controlled and then explode up, trying to move the bar as fast as possible. Don’t worry if the bar doesn’t actually move fast, it’s the intention that counts.

That force you apply will increase motor neuron recruitment and overtime will lead you to getting stronger.

Another thing I want to add is the Dynamic Effort Method, popularized by Louie Simmons from Westside Barbell.

The Dynamic Effort Method involves using submaximal loads (Usually 50-70% 1 rep max) for low reps (1-5) and exploding up on the concentric phase.

Everything is the same but in this case, bar speed matters.

Power and acceleration is the emphasis here.

Although it’s not the ideal way to train athletes other than powerlifters, it still works extremely well.

4. Give Yourself Enough Rest

Strength and power are largely neurological.

Unlike when your trying to build muscle, where the muscular system takes the brunt of the force, your nervous system needs much more rest.

The muscular system only needs 30-90 seconds of rest, maybe even up to 2 minutes.

When it comes to the nervous system, you’re going to need anywhere from 2-5 minutes.

Basically, the force needed to do something, the more rest you will need.

You’re going to need more rest after a set using 90% of your 1 rep max than after a set using 70% of your 1 rep max, unless you’re using the dynamic effort method and even then you’ll most probably need more rest anyways.

2-5 Minutes of rest between sets, remember that.

5. Don’t Train Till Failure

Typical bodybuilder (and runner) mentality.

Just because you’re “repping it out” doesn’t mean you’re going to get the Arnold like results you’ve always wanted.

If you want to get stronger, you’re going to have to forget about things like this.

Sometimes going to failure is acceptable, but more often than not, it isn’t.

Getting stronger has to do with your central nervous system, not the muscles. If you’re always maxing out, you will plateau faster than you can say “whoops”.

Make it a point to leave 1-2 reps in the tank on every set of every exercise. That will help make sure you’re not killing yourself yet keep getting you stronger.

6. Back Off Every Once In A While

If you’re like me, you’ll be hurting not going all out every session.

But when it comes to performance goals like strength and power, planning your rest is probably just as if not more important than the training session itself.

The last tip was on the micro-cycle level (in the actual workout).

This tip has to do with the meso-cycle (Weekly/Monthl) to the macro-cycle level (yearly).

A program of mine will usually contain 4 week blocks. In this case, I would recommend that you start week 1 “soft” and progressively go harder every week from there. At week 5, which is now the new 4 week block, you would go back down in intensity and volume and repeat.

You can think of it as a 1 week down, 3 week hard cycle. You will use week 1 as a “restoration” week by using less weights and less overall reps.

On week 5, you would use less weights and less reps again, but this time compared to your week 3 of the last cycle.

For example, if on week 3 you used 200 pounds for your squat, you would squat 200 pounds on week 5 and then grow from there.

Eric Cressey from Cressey Performance uses a High, Medium, Very High, Low cycle.

This fluctuation in intensity and volume also works extremely well. It’s also a good model to use if you hate starting a program “slowly”.

I don’t use this model but Cressey always delivers great stuff and has never failed me. I’ll be implementing this model in the future.

For more advanced guys who usually need more frequent rest, Christian Thibaudeau likes to use a 1 week down, 2 week hard cycle.

This is much like the model I first described, except it jumps from a down week to a high intensity week with no “medium” week in between.

I’ve never used this model either as I’ve grown accustomed to a regular 4 week cycle, but like Cressey, anything that “Thibs” makes is always top notch.

7. Fix Your Posture

You’re body is at it’s strongest when it has perfect posture.

Although that’s pretty much impossible, it’s something to always keep in mind. If you’re training an athlete in particular, don’t mess too much with their imbalances as these are adaptations that their sport demands. It’s what will make them good in their sports.

Only fix as much as needed to keep them healthy.

With that in mind, the most common postural problems in regular people have to do with:

-Thoracic spine mobility

-Hip Mobility

-Ankle Mobility

-Rounded Shoulders

-Weak Core

-Weak Glutes

 So how can you hit these areas to fix them?

-Foam roll

-Thoracic spine: Quadruped t-spine mobilizations

-Hips: Fire Hydrants and hip circles

-Ankles: Rocking ankle mobs

-Rounded shoulders: Lots of rows

-Weak core: Direct core work such as planks and hanging leg raises

-Weak glutes: More posterior chain work like deadlifts and step ups

Make it a priority to go after these postural problems for 4-8 weeks and then put them on maintenance.

8. Train Sub-Maximally 80-90% Of The Time

Just because it’s bench day doesn’t mean you absolutely, positively have to put as much weight on the bar as you can possibly handle.

Always doing so will lead to training till failure and maybe even over-training.

If you can bench 200 pounds for a 1 rep max, but you can increase your bench by using 170-180 pounds on the bar then why would you ever try and kill yourself with a heavier weight?

It makes no sense.

From time to time, it is important to figure out your new 1 rep max so you can calculate what weights you can use to keep getting stronger.

After all, that’s what training is for.

Those testing points are called indicators and the exercises are called indicator lifts. They indicate where you are with a certain exercise at a certain point.

Duh.

There are multiple ways to figure out your 1 rep max but whichever way you go about it, always train below that number.

Whatever it is, find 90% of it (your 3 rep max) and go from there.

Stay in 3-5 the rep range and stay there 80-90% of the time assuming that you’re not looking for hypertophy and endurance which require higher rep ranges.

9. Pack On Some Muscle

At one point or another, you’re going to have to build some more muscle to get stronger. If you’re a fighter or another athlete that needs to stay in a certain weight range, be careful with this as you don’t want to gain too much weight.

At 6-8 reps, you will be in the “functional hypertrophy” range or in other words, get stronger and build more muscle at the same time.

At 10-15 reps, you will be at the non-functional hypertrophy range meaning you’ll get bigger (and probably gain more size in less time than with 6-8 reps), but you’re strength won’t increase nearly as much. Bigger muscles allow for a higher capacity to produce force, so this range does have it’s uses even if strength won’t increase as much simultaneously.

You’re best bet is to alternate the use of these rep ranges.

For most people, starting a training session with a heavy compound exercise followed by accessory exercises at 6-15 reps works wonders.

With concerns to a month by month basis, switch the focus every month from functional hypertrophy to non-functional hypertrophy and vice versa.

For example, every workout will contain accessory exercises using 6-15 reps but on weeks 1-4 most of them will be from 6-8 reps. On weeks 5-8, the focus will be on 9-15 reps. Then on weeks 9-12 it will go back down to 6-8 reps. Weeks 13-16 would contain exercises mostly in the range of 9-15 reps.

That way you won’t plateau.

10. Jump, Sprint, Throw

If you want to get strong and powerful, then you must start jumping, sprinting, and throwing.

These are the movements that will make you a beast on the field/ring.

These movements help develop insane power and for those that don’t know, it is what separates the wannabe’s from the pro’s.

They should done 2-4 times a week, depending on the amount of training sessions they are, and performed at the beginning of every workout with long enough rest periods to promote maximal power production.

Also, keep the number of reps low as that also affects fatigue levels.

The cool thing is that developing higher levels of rate of force development (i.e power), will also help you become stronger and becoming stronger will help you become more powerful.

See how that works?

11. “Strength Is A Skill”

If you want to get strong and powerful, you need to change your perception of exercise.

It is no longer a workout, it is a training session. It is practice.

Take away all the science and you’re left with knowing that if you repeat things over and over again, you will become better at them.

If you want to get better at basketball, what do you do? You got out and play more basketball. Do you play till you can’t move? No because then you won’t practice tomorrow and if you don’t practice tomorrow, you probably won’t go the next day and if you let that repeat itself, you’re never going to get better.

It’s about the consistency to get better and better as much as possible.

If you squat 4 times a week, you will have the potential to squat more than someone who squats 1-2 times a week, assuming the program is intelligently designed.

This means you will have to reduce the volume of your movements in each workout but the increase frequency will take care of the total volume.

Practice fresh and practice often. You’ll get stronger that way.

Conclusion

So there you have it, 11 random ways to get strong and powerful.

What do you guys think?

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