Everyone wants to be explosively powerful as soon as they enter the gym
Yes, it’s another article about building strength. You think we’d move on from it and focus purely on building a specific body part, such as the legs (which we know many of you need). While building up specific body parts is among one of our chief intentions of these articles and we have plenty of great resources on them, sometimes you have to face facts and realize that there are other elements to the bodybuilding game besides looking completely shredded. Besides, if you want to put on great amounts of muscle mass and be built like a Mr. Olympia level bodybuilder, then that means coming to the understanding that building quality strength is a crucial part of the whole game. If you want massive muscle that means putting up massive weight on your lifts. If you want to put up massive weight that means building massive strength, and there is more to it than just throwing more pounds on the barbell.
In this day and age where everyone wants to get access to what they want immediately, these tips should have you getting some major strength gains in no time at all, so long as you stick to them and do not just completely ignore us. Follow these tried and true methods and watch your strength build.
The Top 3 Ways to Build Massive Amounts of Strength
With all of that being said, let’s take a look at the top three ways to build some great strength.
Supports
Now this method doesn’t mean that you’re going to throw on some wrist straps, attach them to a barbell or dumbbell and lift. Actually this method requires a static hold rather than actually completing a full range of motion and lifting the weight from one position into another. Sounds completely ridiculous, right? While it may sound dumb to just hold weights in place rather than lifting them, keep in mind that this is to build strength, not muscle mass, that part comes later. Holding the weight will help to get your body used to it, so you can eventually complete it for a full range of motion.
For instance, if you were trying to improve your overall strength on the bench press you’ll take you 110% one rep max, un-rack the bar, and simply hold the barbell at the top of the lift for five to ten seconds. You don’t need to try and bench it, as tempting as it is, but just hold it. This method will mean you’ll get used to holding up heavier weight while at the same time avoiding injury.
Double Up
At the beginning of every training session is usually when you’re at your strongest. By the end you’re usually spent, if you were training hard that is. What doubles entails is picking the lift you want to improve upon, splitting your usually set range in half, and performing the lift once at the beginning of your training and again at the end. Again, it sounds ridiculous and you may look like you have Alzheimer’s by making your way back to where you started by the end of your training session, but in the end, if you want to put on strength this is the way.
Doing it all together can make your body go on autopilot, but by separating the sets your nervous system is forced to work over time. That means you’ll be forcing your body to prep for a hard lift not just once, getting used to the motion as you do, but twice meaning that your intra and inter muscular coordination will be maximized.
Cluster Training
This is a great method for building strength as evidenced by Olympic lifters utilizing this form of training during their sessions. The method goes like this: during a set you’ll perform your lift then give yourself a ten second rest before performing the next rep. This gives your nervous system a bit of recovery time and will ultimately allow you to perform more reps than what you’d usually accomplish during a typical set. For for example if you can perform your 60% one rep max for three reps then try and aim for five to six reps with the cluster training method.
Don’t Forget To Recover
While strength training largely involves training in the gym, you cannot forget to recover from your lifts, as this is where you will really progress. You need to focus on getting the proper amount of sleep, some good macronutrients, and really making sure that everything else is in check. When it comes to your macronutrients, protein is perhaps one of the most important ones for recovery, and while a good diet will get you an adequate amount of it, we still recommend a solid protein supplement.
MUTANT ISO SURGE
Maximize your gains with a great tasting and effective whey protein isolate, MUTANT ISOSURGE.
For a solid protein supplement, we recommend MUTANT ISO SURGE. This is a fast absorbing protein-packed product that is designed to get to your muscles quickly to help you recover. MUTANT ISO SURGE is packed with 25 grams of protein per scoop, the ideal amount of protein per serving, accompanied by 1 gram of carbs and one gram of fat.
As far as the actual ingredients, ISO SURGE contains whey protein isolate as well as whey protein hydrolysate (an ideal combo for recovery and building strength). ISO SURGE also contains cocoa (which is processed with alkali), and contains 2% or less of natural & artificial flavors. It also has a natural cream flavor, MCT oil (fractionated coconut oil) which helps digestion, then salt and coffee powder which help flavor, color (caramel), potassium citrate, guar gum, sucralose, sunflower lecithin, silicon dioxide, lactase, protease, rebaudioside-A (from stevia leaf extract). Finally, ISO SURGE contains milk and tree nuts (coconut).
Check out our full review for ISO SURGE here.
Strength Building Wrap Up
Overall, strength building is more than just picking things up and putting them back down, there are certain methods that you can incorporate into your routines to really help build some solid strength. And most importantly, do not forget about your recovery!
Are you looking to build more strength? Let us know by hitting up our comments below or head on over to our official Facebook and Twitter.