3 Ways to Get Strong Fast
Strong is the new sexy. Get-Fit Guy has 3 ways to learn how to lift weights and time your workouts for getting stronger faster.
Ben Greenfield
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3 Ways to Get Strong Fast
How to Build Muscle
Strong is the new sexy.
And when you build muscle the right way, you not only get strong, but you get a lean, tight, toned appearance that gives you a far better look than the type of physique you might develop when you simply pound away miles on the treadmill or just perform yoga or Pilates. It’s not that cardio, flexibility, and core strength aren’t good for you, it’s just that in the absence of strength training and some muscle building, you simply won’t get that body that you want. I discuss this in more detail in my book Get-Fit Guy’s Guide to Achieving Your Ideal Body.
So in this episode, you’ll discover the best 3 ways to get strong fast and how to time your workouts to get stronger.
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3 Ways to Get Strong Fast
There are 3 primary strategies you should use for increasing strength: multi-joint exercises, periodization, and proper timing of your workouts.
Multi-Joint Exercises
You’ll often read articles in fitness magazines that highlight the injury-preventing and performance-enhancing importance of tending to small, supportive muscles that are notoriously weak in most people, such as the shoulder’s rotator cuff, the outer butt’s gluteus medius, the small scapula muscles along the shoulder blades, and the abdominal, hip and low back region, or “core.”
While these certainly are weak areas that shouldn’t be neglected, for the average working, time-crunched exerciser, it simply doesn’t make sense to devote several extra hours per week performing isolation exercises for these tiny, supportive muscles.
For example, a common exercise for strengthening your shoulder and rotator cuff involves multiple sets and high repetitions of internal and external rotation with a piece of elastic tubing. If you have 30 minutes at the gym over lunch hour, do you really want to spend 10 minutes of that time standing relatively motionless, as a few small muscles in your arm and shoulder are firing?
Instead you’ll find your limited time better suited to large, multi-joint movements that incorporate the rotator cuff, but also use many of the other major muscles of your body, thus training coordination, motor-unit recruitment, and muscle strength, while at the same time strengthening the rotator cuff. Talk about bang for your buck!
Two examples in this case would be 1) barbell or dumbbell overhead presses and 2) bodyweight or assisted pull-ups, both of which involve multiple large muscles and full upper body coordination, but also incorporate the smaller, stabilizing muscles of the rotator cuff. Other examples of good full body or multi-joint movements include squats, cleans, overhead presses and deadlifts.
Periodize
If you use the same strength training volume and intensity, and the same sets, weight, and the number of repetitions all the time, you’ll experience burnout and you won’t get lean and strong as quickly. So you should modify your strength training routine with the seasons.
This is achieved through “periodization,” a concept I introduced in the episode How to Get Better Results From Weightlifting. Periodization is the scientific term for splitting a training year into periods and focusing on a specific fitness goal for each period. By following the simple rules below, you’ll be able to effectively periodize your strength training:
· Winter: If your goal is to develop muscle mass, tone muscle in a specific body area or part, or build significantly greater strength, the winter is a good time to do it, since you may be eating more anyways. So you might as well turn those extra calories into lean muscle! Do winter strength training workouts with a set and repetition range designed for muscular growth. I recommend 3-4 times per week strength training, with 3-5 sets for each exercise, with 10-15 reps, 65-75% intensity, 30-60 seconds rest between sets, or circuits with minimal rest.
· Spring: Because you may be wanting to play sports or stay active in the summer (while showing off your lean, strong body, of course), spring is a good time to develop more joint and ligament strength and muscular coordination. I recommend including 3-4 sets of 8-10 reps, with a heaver weight than used in the winter, and the goal of completing 2-3 weight training sessions each week. For ideal strength, use 3-5 sets of 8-10 reps at 75-85% intensity with 60-90 seconds rest between sets.
· Summer: Summer can get busy. But fortunately, you can maintain your results with 1-2 strength training sessions each week that are hard and heavy, with 2-4 sets of 6-8 reps at 85-95% intensity, and 90 seconds to 2 minutes rest. If you’re playing summer sports, you can begin to include plyometrics – either performed separately or at the same time as the weight training session.
· Fall: Fall comes just before a return to winter muscle building, and so a good goal for fall is to develop lots of power so that you can get good results and be even stronger when you step into the gym to restart your winter muscle building. When these types of power training sessions are performed properly, there will be little to no soreness or muscle failure, but a high amount of muscle fiber stimulation. All lifts should be performed explosively, in most cases with a lighter weight than used in previous periods. I recommend just 1-3 sets of 4-6 reps at relatively light weight of 40-60% intensity lifted quickly, and a strength training frequency of 1-2 sessions each week.
Use Proper Timing
There are 3 basic timing rules to follow as you get stronger:
· Timing Rule #1: Research has shown a higher calorie-burning response when strength training is preceded by cardio, rather than vice versa. So do your cardio first, and your weights after.
· Timing Rule #2: Space strength training workouts that target the same muscle groups by at least 48 hours. Muscles will take at least 48 hours to recover between strength training sessions, so if, for example, a session includes barbell squats, and a subsequent weight training session includes dumbbell lunges, then space these sessions by at least 48 hours since they train similar muscle groups.
· Timing Rule #3: If you have limited time at the gym or limited ability to visit the gym frequently, perform either short and frequent or long and infrequent strength training workouts. In an a frequent scenario, 2-3 weight training workouts of 20-45 minutes each can be performed on a weekly basis. In an ideal scenario, I recommend you incorporate 3-4 strength training sessions per week if you’re just getting started, and then 1-2 sessions per week for continued maintenance.
If you have more questions about ways to get strong fast, post them in Comments below or on https://www.Facebook.com/GetFitGuy!