Progressive Overload - Tricking Your Body to Gain Strength!

The definition of strength as I have defined in the past is the body's ability to produce muscular tension when a force is applied to it. This act of a force can come in many forms of resistance. This is why strength training can be such a creative personal venture.

First of all, there are many ways to tension the body. You can use anything from sandbags all the way to a full Olympic weight set. Pick your poison, because lifting all these forms of weighted resistance are highly effective if the plan you follow is well structured and progressive. In other words, you need to make sure that you design your program to practice moving more weighted resistance often, and moving it many times each time you try to lift it. If I am talking about bench-pressing 200 lbs. for 3 sets of 5 reps, in order for me to get stronger I have to either lift the weight for more reps or add more weight to do it for more sets!

No matter what lift you are trying to execute you have to always try to progressively add either overall volume of sets or repetitions to gain the strength you desire. If you are targeting muscular endurance you concentrate on a high volume of reps. You can also gain strength and endurance by doing a high number of sets with a heavy weight being able to execute lifting that heavy load many SETS over and over. Another method is to perform a pyramid format where you increase the load for every set for the desired maximum amount of weight. This principle of progressive overload will work with every lift or exercise that you perform.

Practice to get stronger. You have to practice lifting a heavier weight in order to get better at lifting it. This is the key to gaining optimal strength.

To learn more about Kettlebells, Fitness, and achieving Total Mind-Blowing Strength come and visit me at http://www.efandps.com To be one of my members and to receive more tips on INSANE BODY CONSTRUCTION please visit me at:http://www.efandps.com/www.efandps.com/Brandons_Members_Newsletter.html I'm Brandon Richey the Strength and Conditioning Pro!

Sets and Reps - A Formula For Strength!

Have you often wondered how sets and reps are structured to gain strength? When you think back to the days that you played ball and the coach had often had a different set count and rep count for the bench press every week did you ever wonder why? You probably noticed that it was like that on every lift from week to week, especially if you had a descent strength coach.

Lets start answering these questions by first defining strength. The definition of strength is the bodys' ability to produce muscular tension when a force is applied to it. Now that we know this how does it apply to building this phenomenon we know as strength? There is a relatively simple explanation for this. Whenever force is constantly applied to a muscle the muscle adapts by being tricked or practiced into the role of having to handle the stress of that load. By doing this the muscle becomes fitter and can more forcefully contract to move a weight or object more effectively. A good strength coach or trainer also knows that strength can be built by applying the maximal amount of force to the muscle consistently over time without training the muscle to failure. For example: Lets say that a man can bench press 200lbs for 3 sets of 4 reps. This is a total of 12 repetitions. Now lets say we want to get him stronger so we add 10 lbs bringing his bench to 210 lbs. Now with the added load he can only do 3 sets of 3 reps. This is only a total of 9 repetitions. To get him stronger doing the same total number of reps with more weight all we need to do is add an additional set. Now the man is doing 4 sets of 3 reps totaling 12 reps, but with more weight!

This is the key to structuring sets and reps to build ultimate strength. I used the bench press in this particular example, but this principle applies to the entire body. Now you know the secret behind the Formula For Strength!

To learn more about Kettlebells, Fitness, and achieving Total Mind-Blowing Strength come and visit me at http://www.efandps.com To be one of my members and to receive more tips on INSANE BODY CONSTRUCTION please visit me at:http://www.efandps.com/www.efandps.com/Brandons_Members_Newsletter.html I'm Brandon Richey the Strength and Conditioning Pro!