Elements of Strength Training
Strength training is an important part of fitness. Once upon a time, sports coaches thought that gym strength training merely added excess bulk to an athlete, but nowadays, personal trainers understand the full benefits of strength training workouts.
Strength training programs aren’t just for power athletes such as football players, either: athletes in any sport can benefit from gym strength training to improve endurance. The purpose of these strength training routines is to provide sport-specific complete resistance training, improving overall performance instead of merely building muscle mass.
Strength training involves the following elements:
Maximal Strength
The maximum strength of an athlete. Its importance varies depending on the sport. Maximal strength training routines are useful overall as they build endurance. Maximal strength can also be parlayed into explosive power or strength endurance.
Hypertrophy
Literally “overgrowth”, and a term personal trainers are very familiar with. It refers to increasing muscle mass; as noted above, this is useful for sports such as football where aggressive contact is common, but it can be a detriment in others. The common perception of gym strength training as a whole is colored by the assumption that hypertrophy – building bigger muscles – is its only purpose. In reality, it’s only a minor aspect of strength training: bigger is not always better, and that goes for muscles as well.
Explosive Power
This is how maximal strength becomes sport-specific power. Consider the difference between a train chugging along at a leisurely pace and one tearing down the tracks at breakneck speed. The maximal strength is the same – it’s hard to stop a train in motion – but the speed changes that strength from merely “inexorable” to “brick-shattering”. Explosive power training is all about that effect, which the more physics-minded might identify as Newton’s Second Law: force is a product of acceleration, and using exercises such as plyometrics, the athlete’s ability to unleash his maximal strength in sudden, powerful bursts – like a piston punching through a wall – is enhanced.
Strength Endurance
As impressive as explosive power may be, it isn’t the end-all, be-all of gym strength training – in fact, it’s not even the primary focus. Strength endurance is a vital factor in many sports such as swimming, cycling, distance running and so forth. Like explosive power, it is also a function of maximal strength: the greater the maximal strength, the better the strength endurance. Circuit training is one way you can coach strength endurance to your athletes. Another is weightlifting, using relatively light weights but with numerous repetitions; a mere handful of rounds won’t provide much benefit.
Periodization
This is an important part of sports-specific fitness training. You should divide your training plan into periods or phases, and set goals for each part. Maintain a good balance to reduce the chances of overtraining. Periodization enhances performance by allowing variations in workout volume and intensity.
Strength training workouts are very important as they improve the overall performance of an athlete, as opposed to the outdated strength training systems that focused entirely on muscle building. Fitness trainers should know the importance of gym strength training and coach their athletes with the use of strength training programs.
Keep in mind, that with the stress and demand that intense training can put on the body it is always a good idea to be fueling the body with health nutrition and outstanding supplements.
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