The Full Monty

Let’s face it, “Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but don’t nobody want to lift no heavy ass weights.” While that statement is partially true, it doesn’t encompass the full spectrum of fitness. In our experience most people want the full Monty, to look like a bodybuilder, lift like a strongman, and perform like an athlete. To get the full trifecta, you’ll need to adhere to the 3 pillars of strength; strength in balance, the ability to explode, and strength in relation to body size.

Agility

Agility is the ability to remain balanced while moving with speed and power. What’s the point of being donkey swole when you can’t move 3 steps to the right or the left without toppling over. Agility gives you the ability to put your hard earned gains to good use.

Train: Drill with cones and agility ladders at least 2x per week.  Coordination training  your body use to following set patterns and change in direction. This forces your central nervous system to operate at a higher level.

Explosiveness

This type of strength depends on how many muscle fibers you can engage and the speed at which you can engage them. This type of strength helps with jumping, punching, sprinting, pretty much anything hard hitting and fast.

Train: In order to improve you explosiveness you need to train your nervous system to recruit more muscle fibers faster. Try things like box jumps, medicine ball throws, and compound such as cleans and snatches. This will train your body to recruit more muscle fibers in a short amount of time, therefore increasing your explosiveness and maximum strength.

Relative Strength

Have you ever wonder why they say ants are one of the strongest insects even though you can crush them with the bottom of your shoe? That’s because they have high relative strength. While you can bench press upwards of 200 lbs, they can lift up to 10x their body weight. That would be the equivalent of the average bodybuilder lifting a ton.

Train: In general, the leaner you are the more your relative strength improves because fat is essentially dead weight. The best way to improve relative strength is to lean out while improving relative strength. High intensity training is a great way to burn fat and gain muscle.

Still in doubt, find out? Find out what your max pull-up and push up reps are an then set a two week goal to improve those numbers. If you’ve improved, it works. If not, you might need to try another training method.

There you have it, the 4 pillars of strength and how you can improve them. Be sure to hit us up in the comment section below to tell us about your progress.