Developing strength in your muscles occurs by manipulating the weight and the number of sets and repetitions you lift for a particular exercise. Muscular strength improvements occur by using lower repetitions and heavy resistance, whereas muscular endurance improvements occur with higher repetitions and lower resistance. The best type of training program is one that uses a varied resistance and repetition ranges, such as in a periodization program.
Muscular Strength
Muscular strength is the maximum amount of force a person can generate one time for a specific muscle or muscle group. Improvements in muscular strength occur when using a resistance in which muscle fatigue occurs in less than six repetitions per set for two to six working sets. The weight used is usually 75 percent or greater than your one-repetition maximum, or 1RM. A working set is the heavy sets that you are training to muscle failure. Always perform at least one warmup set using a light to moderate weight for eight to 12 repetitions to get your muscles prepared for heavy lifting. Rest periods between working sets should be between two and five minutes to allow for optimum muscle recovery between sets.
Muscular Endurance
Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle group to perform repeated contractions over a period of time until muscle fatigue occurs. Training for improvement in muscular endurance involves using a low resistance that is about 50 to 60 percent of your 1RM. This allows for a repetition range of 12 reps or more for two or three sets. Rest periods for muscular endurance training are less than 30 seconds.
Muscle Hypertrophy
Muscle hypertrophy, or muscular growth, occurs with loads and repetition ranges that are between that of muscular strength and muscular endurance. A typical training program encouraging muscle growth uses a load between 60 and 75 percent of your 1RM, with a repetition range of six to 12 reps per set. In a hypertrophy workout, perform three to six sets for each exercise, with rest periods lasting 30 and 90 seconds between sets, depending on the muscle group.
Periodization
Periodizing your training program allows you to vary your workouts to train for muscular strength, endurance and hypertrophy. Periodization also helps prevent plateaus and overtraining. A sample periodization schedule might consist of four cycles, each lasting four weeks. The first cycle would be your conditioning cycle that focuses on muscular endurance. The second phase would increase the resistance and decrease your repetitions to focus on muscle hypertrophy. The third phase would involve another increase in resistance and decrease in reps to focus on muscular strength. Finally, the last phase might consist of two weeks of peaking or performing maximal lifts to establish new 1RM and two weeks of active rest. Active rest might mean allowing your muscles to recover from the intense training program and might involve doing more cardiovascular exercise than weight training.
References
- ExRx.net; Weight Training Guidelines
- "Essentials Of Strength Training and Conditioning"; National Strength and Conditional Association; 2000
- "ACSM's Resource Manual for Guidelines For Exercise Testing and Prescription"; American College of Sports Medicine; 2006
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