Developing muscular strength is about more than just going to the gym 3 times a week.
After all, how many folks do you know that go there regularly but aren't strong? It's probably because they spend most of their time on the treadmill or doing a few reps on the weights machines.
There's nothing wrong with that...
I'm just saying that if you want to get some serious strength gains then you're going to have to do things differently to most other folks.
In this article I want to discuss a little about how making changes to your workout routines can yield significant increases in your strength.
How To Develop Muscular Strength There are a number of factors that go into developing muscular strength.
Follow these tips to get the maximum benefits from your workouts.
Compound exercises - these are multi-joint exercises that work multiple muscle groups in the same exercise.
This allows you to lift heavier weights and develop more functional muscles, as well as adding much needed strength to the smaller ancillary (stabilizing) muscles.
Don't forget that muscular strength is all about functionality and not just great looking muscles.
For this reason compound exercises will give you the greatest range of motion.
Stick to free weights - as far as possible you should be sticking to free-weight exercises wherever possible instead of machines.
There is a far better range of motion with free weights which again forces you to balance and use the ancillary muscles...
this is an essential component of muscular strength.
Lift heavy weights, since the greater the resistance the stronger the body becomes.
Gradually increasing the weight over time is key to seeing the incremental improvement in strength while minimizing the risk of injury.
Low rep numbers - rep numbers between 6-8 are ideal for muscular strength exercises.
The weight should be heavy enough to make the final rep almost impossible to finish.
Stretch before and after your workout - stretching is great for developing muscular strength not only because you can avoid injury, but because a more flexible muscle is a stronger muscle.
When we stretch we are actually making tiny tears in the muscle fibres, which when healed give us a stronger muscle.
If we are also performing resistance training (weights) exercises then the effect is increased.
Max Sets and Super-sets - these are additional sets that increase the stress and endurance of the muscles, causing them to increase in strength.
Max sets are where you perform a final set of an exercise on a maximum weight where you can only one or two reps.
Super-sets are two different exercises performed back to back with no rest in between.
They are typically complementary exercises that work opposing muscle groups, like biceps and triceps.
The best workout plan in the world is useless if you are not taking these kinds techniques on board and using them in your strength building workouts.
Simply going through the motions is not enough if you want to develop muscular strength...
you'll need to focus on creating more and more resistance each time you set foot in the gym.