HOW TO GET STRONG

Strong people are harder to kill, and more useful in general.

- Mark Rippetoe

We’ve talked in the past about the inverse relationship between lean body mass and all cause mortality as we age.  What that means is that the more lean body mass we can maintain as we get older, the less likely we are to die of ANY CAUSE.  That’s an important statistic don’t you think?  Besides the fact that we can be alive into our older years, maintaining our strength can give us independence, a higher quality of life and help us maintain our relationships with our friends and families. Who doesn’t want to be able to get up out of a chair on their own, take a flight of stairs when needed or be able to get up off the floor if we fall down?

So it seems like a noble goal to get, and stay strong before we get too far advanced in age.  So how do we do it?  Let’s start by defining strength in this context.  

Strength is the ability to produce force against an external resistance.  

In some cases the resistance is just the weight of our own bodies acting against gravity like when we stand from a chair.  In some cases it’s picking up a box off the floor to set it on the counter.  

Now we need to talk about our bodies a bit.  Our bodies are incredible machines that learn and adapt based on what we do to them.  We are going to use this fact to our advantage to get strong. When we do a task (lift weights in this example) our bodies see that task as a stressor.  When we rest and recover after that stress, our bodies make an adaptation to our nervous system and tissues that prepares them for future stressors of similar kind. This cycle of stress, recovery and adaptation is the tool we will use to get strong.

So, down to the actual “How To” of this process.  

Choose exercises that correspond to the ways that you need to be strong.  We recommend compound movements like the squat, bench press, overhead press and deadlift that can be performed with a barbell.  Don’t be afraid of barbells, they are just tools.  The benefit of them is that they can be moved safely over your center of mass and they can be incrementally loaded heavier as your body gets stronger.  

The next step is to get organized.  Keep track of what you’re doing so that you can take advantage of the adaptations your body is making.  It’s not so important the number of pounds that you start out lifting, but it is important that you progressively lift more weight over time.  THAT is where the magic of getting stronger happens.  There are optimal rep ranges and percentages of effort to work within when training for strength but the most important factor is progressively adding weight to the bar and sticking with the program consistently over time.

Don’t forget about the second stage of the stress, recovery, adaptation cycle.  You need to recover. For our purposes in strength training, recovery is food, sleep and letting your muscles rest between workouts.  All 3 of these are important and are often underestimated by many gym-goers.  

Getting strong is worth it.  

You might be surprised at what your body is capable of if you give it a chance to show you.  The physical strength you gain now will give you confidence in the present and will set you up to be more independent and have a higher quality of life into your senior years. So let’s do it! Let’s get strong!