"Lift Heavy. Lift Frequently."

Lift heavy, lift often, move with intention.

Our bodies crave to be stronger than our day-to-day requirements.  We constantly find ourselves squatting, climbing, pushing, lifting, pulling and twisting as we live our lives, so why do we not prioritize these motions in the gym? The purpose of strength training is to increase our competency in these positions and motions so much so that our activities of daily life feel much easier. Our muscles, joints and connective tissues need to increase in strength whether our goal is to compete, look big and strong, or simply live without pain and discomfort.  Let's dive into how to be strong and why it is important for every body.

Strength is defined by the amount of weight a person can move during a SINGLE repetition. To increase this ability, the human body requires a relatively heavy weight (heavy to YOU!) to be lifted; these strength sessions should occur two to three times per week for highest efficiency.  Within the fitness world, most coaches would agree that completing sets fewer than ten repetitions is ideal for increasing strength.  An example of this approach would be choosing a weight that is light enough to complete eight reps, but too challenging to complete eleven with perfect form.  The "perfect form" is important here, as we ALWAYS want to remain in good posture.  After a starting weight has been established for a specific exercise, complete three to five sets of ten reps or fewer, with a weight that is CURRENTLY too heavy for eleven.  

After a few training sessions, your body adapts by getting stronger, becomes more efficient at the exercise, and more weight is necessary to continue the progress. Feel free to then add more weight, all while maintaining perfect form, and fatiguing before reaching ten reps. If the weight is light enough to complete more than ten repetitions, the muscles' endurance increases and calories are still burned, but strength remains relatively untouched. If strength is the goal, most of the time spent training should be completed with sets of ten, or fewer, repetitions. 

Now, to be clear, the weight chosen NEEDS to be heavy enough to cause fatigue (some people say "failure") within the ten repetitions.  Do not stop at ten simply because you read it here; stop at ten repetitions because the weight forces you to stop and your muscles are screaming for a rest.  That's how heavy I am talking, here.

Three heavy training days per week is the bare minimum recommendation for quality results.  

Once this schedule becomes embedded within your daily habits, adding a fourth day would yield even more results.  Beginning with three days, each session needs to be a full-body routine, focusing on the large, compound movements such as squatting, hinging, pushing with the arms, pulling with the arms, twisting the torso, and carrying weight for distance.  In this example of a three-day-per-week program, each day will be relatively tough and exhausting, as ALL of your muscles are getting worked in a high-stress session. 

When the fourth day is introduced, the program can then be split into two upper-body days and two days for lower-body each week.  This is the direction I prefer for myself and my clients, as the body then gets a mini-break on the legs when it is upper body day, and vice versa.  These days can be overall less stressful on the body and seem less daunting since we are spreading out the physical stress over the four days instead of cramming everything into three. For the more advanced, one’s results may plateau even after training four days per week; it is only now that adding a fifth or six day would be necessary.  In the case of five or six training sessions per week, more strategic and detailed programming is necessary to prevent overuse, burnout, and injury. 

Along with choosing the correct compound exercises, training to near-max three to four times per week, and recording your performance session to session, one needs to move with intention. 

Simply put, complete every repetition with the intensity, the attention, and the drive as if that single rep stands between you and your goals. Higher velocity and greater intention within each repetition will further stimulate the Type II muscle fibers, enabling a greater force output and ultimately working the muscle fiber to a greater extent.  The difference may not be noticed immediately, but over time, your muscles will be stronger, more dense, hold your physique to a better shape, and burn WAY MORE calories than moving slowly.  These Type II fibers burn more calories and help achieve a faster transformation.

So, this week, test your own strength by adding a couple more pounds to your lifts. See what you're made of,  attempt more weight AND more repetitions per set for four days this week.  Let me know the results.  I am sure the world won't be ending and you will be better because of it. 

Or be mediocre. That's ok too.