I’ve written about How to Get Strong before, but here’s a quick summary.

The Two Main Factors in Getting Stronger

1. Hypertrophy – Add more muscle mass, lift more weight.
2. Skill Mastery – Get better at a movement, lift more weight.

Obviously, if you add muscle mass you’ll probably get stronger. That shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone…

But getting more efficient at a movement will make you stronger at that movement as well.

In fact, teaching your body HOW to move as efficiently as possible is probably where most of you should be spending the majority of your time.

And this is one of the simplest training tenants that even the CrossFit zealots know. In the CrossFit world (and by CrossFit world, I’m talking about the good coaches who know what they are doing) they preach:

The Training Continuum

Mechanics → Consistency → Intensity

Which means when you’re training, you should focus on mastering the movement FIRST, then perform that perfect movement consistently, then and only then, increase your intensity.

So if you run into a coach who won’t let you back squat until you can perform a bunch of perfect goblet squats, don’t get mad, those are the good ones!

Building strength and capacity using this continuum is not as sexy as banging big weights and throwing your chin over the bar, but it is the way to ensure long term improvement, performance increases, and a big reduction in injuries.

The Four Types of Strength

When you’re trying to get strong there are basically “4 types of strength” you need to train:

1. Absolute Strength
2. Strength Speed
3. Speed Strength
4. Absolute Speed

In this article, we are going to talk about the first one: Absolute Strength.

Understanding Absolute Strength

Training absolute strength is where most people (yea, that means you) should be spending 80% of your training time.

And the good news is, you’re probably already familiar with it.

When we talk about training absolute strength we are talking about grinding through the big compound lifts & heavy loads.

Example: The Deadlift

Grinding out a heavy single or double is necessary for improving your absolute strength.

With that said, this is all relative to the individual athlete and their personal training history, so let’s work through an example.

Using the deadlift as an example, let’s program a simple absolute strength workout for two different athletes (Beginner & Advanced) using those two principles I mentioned above (Hypertrophy & Skill Mastery).

Training Programs

Athlete #1 – Beginner, little/no experience with the deadlift

Movement: Deadlift

• A: 2 sets x 10 rep @ empty bar
• B: 2 – 3 sets x 5 reps slowly adding weight until you get to a weight you can do for 5 reps, but probably not 7-8 reps
• C: 5 sets x 5 reps @ weight from “Part B”

Let’s break this down:

In “Part A” the focus is to “warm-up” but also to pattern that perfect deadlift pattern without any intensity.

We’re building skill and myelinating those nerves pathways – Can you perform all 20 reps perfectly?

In “Part B” we are still warming up but we are also challenging that movement pattern with a bit of intensity — Can you still perform the reps perfectly? (We’re at 35 reps now!)

In “Part C” we are now into our training sets and here, for the beginner, we are performing a higher reps workout (25 Reps) to build muscle mass while still challenging his/her mechanics & consistently with even more intensity.

Ultimately, the goal of this deadlift session is to improve:

• Muscle Endurance
• Motor Coordination
• Movement Sequencing (55-60 reps of one movement!)

While also starting to work a bit of Strength Endurance by adding load and staying in that 5-7 rep range.

Athlete #2 – Advanced, has been deadlifting for a few years (or more)

Movement: Deadlift

• A: Spend 10:00 warming up to a 2 Rep Max
• B: 5 x 2 @ 90%+

In “Part A” we give the athlete the ability to work on their own to warm up to a heavy double (The 10:00 time limit is really only there to keep them on track and moving since there is almost always more work to do in this training session!).

SIDE NOTE: I don’t care if my athletes hit their previous rep max here, just a daily rep max. Research shows that your 1 rep max can vary by up to 20% day to day, so if I tell them to chase a previous rep max one of two things might happen:

1. You may not hit that previous max which, in my experience, really messes with people psychologically – Often ruining the rest of the workout, or
2. You may stop short – Not maximizing your potential for that training session.

Then in “Part B” the focus is on grinding through 2 solid reps at just a bit less than that daily max, five times.

When performed correctly the advanced athlete here gets 10-15 super high-quality, high-intensity lifts in during the working sets of this strength session.

We’re also working on maximal contraction & strength endurance – I’ll talk more about the “Muscle Endurance Tree” in a future article.

Key Takeaways

Beginner Athletes:

• Spend the majority of your time practicing perfect movement
• Then slowly start challenging that movement with intensity
• Your strength training foundation should be made of absolute strength work & muscle endurance

Advanced Athletes:

• Perfect mechanics ALWAYS matter, check your ego and save yourself from injuries
• Absolute strength should still make up 80% of your strength training
• Although you’ve “earned” the right to train maximal contractions, don’t forget the foundation is still built on muscle endurance and strength endurance!