Strength training goes way beyond lifting weights while we count to ten. It is very common to train and not increase your muscle strength, which is why many are frustrated and do not understand what they are doing wrong. Sometimes we are temporarily stuck, but if we continue to perform a bad routine we could be wasting our time for years.
Give your muscles time to adjust
Above all, this advice is for people new to strength training. Some have the goal of gaining strength, others to define, others to increase muscle mass... The most common mistake is that our muscles are not given enough time to adapt to the stimulus The exercise.
When we start a training plan, we don't need to start lifting very heavy loads to stimulate our muscles. The simple fact of doing physical exercise will be enough to "wake up" our body until it adapts.
The muscles, after receiving the stimulus, go through a process of fatigue and recovery. We start the phase of muscle hypertrophy, which helps us progressively to adapt to the exercise.
How do we know what is the right stimulus to increase strength?
Vary your routine It is essential not to accustom your body to the same stimuli. Many often fall into the temptation of always do the same exercisesMaking little productive the training long term.
When we offer different routines to the muscles, our body is "surprised" and will work to adapt to the change. It won't matter if we have an incredible exercise design, if we don't vary from time to time we will enter a phase of stagnation.
Gain strength by varying these factors
Workouts can not only vary in the weight we lift or the number of repetitions we do in a series. By varying any of the following factors, you will notice a great progression in strength.
- Volume. Number of repetitions, series and weight with which you work.
- Intensity. Percentage of maximum effort that we apply in each routine. You can do several moderate ones in the week and one of them at high intensity to notice the progressive increase in strength.
- Frequency. Number of days you train in the week.
- Duration. Time you dedicate to pure and hard training. It's not worth the time you waste walking around the gym or talking to your teammates.