The interesting thing about training is that there’s a lot of benefits to be had, but there’s also ways we can tailor our training program to achieve certain outcomes.
A question I get asked regularly is about the differences between somebody training for strength and somebody training for muscle gain.
So I’m going to distinguish the differences between each one and how to tailor your training for your goals.
Progressive Overload
Progressive overload is the number one most important principle when it comes to training.
Progressive overload revolves around the fact that our bodies grow by adapting during rest to the stresses of resistance training.
After a resistance training session, our bodies will dip below our normal baseline homeostasis.
In the bounce-back to our normal baseline, our bodies will sometimes super-compensate by bringing us temporarily OVER our normal baseline.
If we get our bodies into that super-compensated state on a regular basis, our bodies will start treating that as our new baseline. And at that point, we've adapted to the stresses we've placed on our body.
Now that was a bunch of biology mumbo jumbo, but so I’m going to sum it up in a way that’s a little easier to digest.
When we train, we should always strive to challenge our bodies in a new small way, whether that be an extra set, an extra rep or some extra weight.
In this way we’re always giving our bodies something new to adapt to, and that’s where gains are made.
When we first start lifting, these adaptations will come very quickly, but as you become an intermediate lifter, it’ll take longer and longer to make desired adaptations.
The adaptions we make can come in the form of strength gains, or muscle gains, and typically you’d progressive your training with one of those goals in mind, especially as an intermediate and advanced trainee.
However, when you’re a beginner, it’s not really going to matter what goal you’re training for, as you’ll make fast and consistent gains in both categories. This is what’s often labeled as “noob gains”
Training for Strength
When it comes to adaptations related to strength, we’re talking about neurological adaptations.
These are things like your rate of force production and neural drive. This is your nervous system’s ability to tell muscle fibers to contract.
The way we train for strength is by progressively lifting heavier weights. And typically we’re going to be working below 5 reps at loads above 80% of our one rep max.
And we’ll be using primarily compound movements when it comes to training for strength gains.
We’re telling our body to recruit more muscle fibers to create the force needed to lift something heavy.
If you’re a new trainee, your best course is to train for strength gains.
Training for Muscle
So now we’re talking about physical adaptions. We’re aiming to increase the size of our muscle fibers.
The way we train for muscular adaptations is by working in higher rep ranges at lower percentages of our one-rep max, and training closer to fatigue. We’re going to be working with higher volumes of training here.
We’ll still be training with compound lifts, but we’re going to be using isolation exercises as well, taken close to failure.
And we can use both types of training to meet our goals, and that brings us to...
Periodization
Periodization is just a fancy word for how a training program is laid out.
Using periodization, we can switch between hypertrophy blocks of training and strength blocks of training.
The way strength training and hypertrophy training can help each other is like this: as I make strength gains and increase my one rep max on a certain lift, In turn I can then lift heavier weight in the hypertrophy rep ranges, and continue to push adaptations there.
So as you become an intermediate and advanced lifter, playing around with periodization is going to become increasingly important.
Summary
With our training program, we’re always looking to implement progressive overload.
When we’re pushing strength adaptations, we’re lifting progressively heavier weights in very low rep ranges, typically below 5 reps, and working above 80% of our 1RM.
When we’re training for muscle gains, we’re working in higher rep ranges and with a larger number of sets, working closer to failure.
And then using periodization, we can lay out our training and organize it to make gains in both categories.
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