Geschatte leestijd: 4 minutenStrength training is a popular activity among gym-goers. But what is strength training? How do we define this activity in the gym, and for what purpose do practitioners engage in strength training? In this article, you’ll find the definition of strength training, an explanation of how muscle growth occurs, and things to consider when starting strength training.
What is strength training?
A definition of strength training is as follows: strength training is an activity aimed at strengthening muscles. Often, this can happen in support of a sport. For example, football players may engage in strength training to increase their explosive muscle power and to sprint faster to reach the ball before the opponent. An important principle is that strength training should be functional. This means that performing these exercises should actually contribute to the sport one performs and wants to improve in.
Suppose you are the conscious football player from the example. Then it makes no sense to do exercises that do not contribute to the goal of being faster. So the football player needs specific exercises that improve explosiveness in his legs, and he has less use for the training schedule of a bodybuilder.
How do muscles grow?
Muscle growth occurs by regularly stimulating the muscles with resistance training. This breaks the balance in the body, also known as homeostasis, causing the muscles to seek a new balance. After all, the muscles want to be able to handle the stimuli they are exposed to next time. By administering these stimuli and breaking homeostasis, muscle growth occurs, also known as hypertrophy. We won’t delve deeper into this phenomenon in this article. You can find more information about the types of hypertrophy elsewhere on this website, especially in the article “hypertrophy and muscle growth.”
An important aspect of muscle growth is that, in addition to the stimuli, you also need to monitor rest. Muscles do not grow in the gym but when you take rest. So make sure your training stimulus is sufficient, eat well with enough building blocks and fuels, and get enough rest.
And if you don’t rest?
If you don’t rest and decide to continue training, the chance is high that your muscles cannot recover, and optimal muscle growth does not occur. This can lead to starting the next training session fatigued or in some cases even weaker than in previous sessions. Therefore, give your muscles time to recover from the damage they have been exposed to. If you don’t do this, overtraining and injuries are lurking.
Do you want to start strength training? But still have no idea how and in what order to start? We’re here to help you out. In this article, we’ll delve deeper into what it takes to start strength training. We’ll first look at the exercises, then determine the order, and delve into the number of sets and types of supplements.
Determine your goal
When you want to start strength training, it’s important to determine goals and possibilities beforehand. Therefore, it’s important to ask yourself a few questions:
- What do I want to achieve with strength training?
- How often per week do I want/can I train at least?
- How much do I want to adjust my diet accordingly?
As with many things in life, it’s important to start strength training with the end goal in mind. After all, if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will do. So answer the questions above for yourself.
Which exercises
The exercises that you as a novice strength trainer should definitely do are the compound, or compound exercises. These are the exercises that involve multiple muscle groups and force multiple muscles in your body to work together. The compound exercises you should definitely do are: bench press for your chest, squat for your legs, deadlift for your lower back and hamstrings, and pull-ups for your back and biceps. When you base your strength training schedule on these exercises, you can often train the smaller muscle groups around them with isolation exercises. You can add the abdominal muscles as an extra, but realize that the six-pack is heavily trained by doing compound exercises. And your six-pack only becomes visible by adjusting your diet: Abs are made in the kitchen.
Which order
Now that we have determined the exercises, the order is the second thing we will focus on. It should be noted that the body quickly adapts to the stimuli it’s exposed to, so variation is important in continually shocking your muscles.
As a starting point, we start with the large muscle groups first and then the small muscle groups. The idea behind this is that you need more energy for the large muscle groups and that you often already activate the smaller muscle groups for this. So if you start training your legs on Monday: start with the squat and then do the leg curls and exercises for your calves.
The smaller muscle groups are often already activated when you do the large muscle groups. So if you still want to focus on the smaller muscle groups, you can target them with isolation exercises, specifically targeting the smaller muscle groups.
Which supplements
Muscles grow through the combination of training, nutrition, and recovery. Proteins are the building blocks for muscle cells. Because as an athlete you need to take in enough protein for your muscles, your diet alone is often not sufficient. That’s why there are various supplements available in the form of protein shakes.
How many sets
The number of sets is determined by your goal and your level. If you are just starting out, it is advisable to start with 2 sets per exercise. This allows your body to get used to the new training intensity. If you have trained more often, 3 or 4 sets are recommended. The large muscle groups often need more sets than the small ones.
How many repetitions
Also, when determining the number of repetitions, it’s important to consider your training goal, experience, and level. Beginning strength trainers often do more reps to allow the body to adapt. Coordination and strength need to be developed before the weight can be increased and thus the repetitions can be decreased. As a rule of thumb: if you want to train for muscle endurance, keep the number of repetitions above 15. For muscle mass, aim for somewhere between 8 to 12 repetitions, while for more strength, stay under 8 repetitions.
