Above is my man Eric Cressey, a strength coach from the US deadlifting 3.7 x his own bodyweight.
Strength is the foundation of all your athletic endeavours. Without adequate strength levels, you'll never develop great hypertrophy, speed or explosiveness if you don't have either of them naturally.
Strength can also be missing in many gym goers training programs meaning their training plan is pretty much useless for long term adaptations.
Strength can also be displayed in the following ways:
Absolute Strength - the heaviest load you can lift in an extreme situation (think of a mum lifting a car off her baby, sure she'll probably sustain multiple fractures of the lower back but little Johnny will be safe)
Maximum Strength - the heaviest load you can lift irrespective of time (think a 1 rep max where actual bar speed and acceleration is slow, a grinding rep if you will)
Relative Strength - the heaviest load you can lift in respect to your own bodyweight (think weight classes in competitive powerlifting - by the way this is the best predictor of almost any sport you can think of)
Static Contraction Strength - the heaviest load you can hold in the top range of motion (think lifting the bar off the pins in a bench press and just holding it at arm's length)
Speed Strength - the heaviest load you can lift with maximum acceleration (stopping each set once actual bar speed decreases)
Starting Strength - the ability to overcome inertia or your own bodyweight (think a 5m sprint off your defender on a lead)
Accelerative Strength - the ability to continue and max force production after starting strength has been displayed
Strength Endurance - the ability to maintain max force production after accelerative strength has been displayed
Explosive Strength - the ability to produce max force production quickly (think a boxer over 12 rounds)
As a general strength goal, you should be able to deadlift and back squat 2 x your bodyweight and bench press and front squat 1.5 x your bodyweight.
How strong are you?
Great to see someone posting about relative strength, too many people work out doing 21s and 10 reps of every isolation exercise in the book..
ReplyDeleteI follow Rippetoe's Starting Strength and just
pushed my squat to 1.5 my bodyweight, my bench is struggling and I am barely able to push more than my weight but I am definetely getting stronger and feeling much better out on the ground as a result..
Hey Mate,
ReplyDelete21's...terrible stuff that.
What do you think is holding back your bench? How are your deads coming along? What about chin ups?
Your bench will be limited by your upper back strength because you're body can't lift what it can't stabilise.
If there is anything you want me to write about, just let me know buddy.