Resistance Training For Muscle & Strength

Before you can get stuck into the specifics around optimising resistance training for muscle and strength gain, you have to understand a bit more about why resistance training is useful for building muscle and strength. Then you can understand how best to optimise your training to ensure it is actually set up to accomplish the things required to elicit the desired adaptations.

We discussed this to some extent in our article on the goals of exercise, but to reiterate, resistance training is the tool we use when we want to build muscle and strength. Therefore, to design an effective program, we need to understand how to use resistance training for muscle and strength gain.

Results don’t just happen by accident. There are much better and much worse ways to design a resistance training program for muscle and strength.

Having worked with hundreds of individuals in our online coaching, we very frequently see resistance training programs that are simply not designed effectively to elicit muscle gain and/or strength gain. While someone may understand just how important exercise is for health, performance and body composition, that doesn’t mean they understand how to set up an effective program of resistance training for muscle and strength gain. A lot of people get caught up in discussions of specific protocols or the minutiae of resistance training, but fail to understand the underlying principles of resistance training.

At Triage, we believe in empowerment through education. So rather than just showing you protocols and having you effectively just follow choreography, we always try to ensure that we provide you with the information you need to actually understand the underlying principles behind the protocols.

If you haven’t already, it would be incredibly helpful to also read our articles on why exercise is important, the goals of exercise, the types of exercise we have available to us, and to have a rough idea of the general exercise guidelines. You can also visit our exercise hub, and read our content on resistance training and cardiovascular training, along with the rest of the articles in this series.

If you need more tailored and personalised advice on how to structure your own training, then we may be able to help you via online coaching.

If you are a coach (or aspiring coach) and want to learn how to coach nutrition, then consider signing up to our Nutrition Coach Certification course. We do also have an exercise program design course in the works, if you are a coach who wants to learn more about effective program design and how to coach it. We do have other courses available too.

Now, let’s get stuck in!

Understanding Resistance Training

We can broadly define resistance training as exercise that involves contracting the muscles against resistance. 

This resistance can come in the form of barbells, dumbbells, machines, resistance bands, or even the mass of your own limb(s) or body (e.g. bodyweight exercises like push-ups). Technically, you could call most exercise resistance training, as even walking is contracting your calves and lower body muscles against the ground. However, for the most part, when we talk about resistance training, we generally mean significant resistance, closer to the limit of your muscular capacity. 

As noted, there are many ways you can actually apply resistance against the muscles, including:

• barbells, 
• dumbbells, 
• machines, 
• cables,
• resistance bands,
• odd implements (i.e. cinder blocks, barrels, sand bags, rocks etc.),
• and your body weight.

Each of these offers something slightly different, although generally, the most significant differences are actually just in terms of ease of use, accessibility, modifiability (i.e. the ability to modify the exercise to your needs), and progressability (i.e. the ability to progress the exercise). However, it is important to be aware that there are subtle differences between each of these different modalities. We will mainly be focusing on barbells, dumbbells, machines, cables, and your body weight when we discuss resistance training, as these are generally the things that most people have access to and are most familiar with.

Why Do Resistance Training

An important point to understand when discussing resistance training is, what is the goal of resistance training? What are we actually trying to accomplish by doing resistance training?

While there are actually many benefits and adaptations to resistance training, generally speaking, the adaptations that people are most looking for when they use resistance training as a training modality are:

1. Improved strength 
2. Muscle building 

Of course, this isn’t all that resistance training offers. When we resistance train (with weights, body weight, bands, or whatever), we improve our function, mobility, and bone mineral density. We also soak up blood glucose into our muscles as we contract them, along with building bigger depots for glucose to be stored (bigger muscles allow for more muscle glycogen storage). The list goes on, from reductions in blood pressure, to improved cognitive function, better balance, reduced pain, and so on.

It is important to note that resistance training generally leads to improved function and ability to interact with the world. This is a very important benefit, as it enables you to participate in tasks that are meaningful to you. Whether it’s picking up your children, moving things around the house with ease, enjoying your hobbies, climbing a mountain or giving your significant other a piggy back, resistance training can help. 

We discussed many of the benefits of resistance training already in the article on why exercise is important, so we won’t repeat them all here. 

However, it is helpful to think of resistance training as the tool we use to improve our muscle size and overall body strength. The added benefit is that we generally see an improvement in overall function and ability to interact with the world, along with profound health benefits.

Resistance Training For Muscle & Strength

Most people have been exposed to cardiovascular training protocols by virtue of playing sports when they were younger. However, fewer people have been exposed to good resistance training practices. As a result, most people are unsure of how to actual design an effective resistance training program. They don’t understand how to actually use resistance training for muscle and strength gain.

So, with that in mind, if you intend to design an effective program for yourself, it will be helpful to have a greater understanding of muscle gain, strength gain, and what we need to do with resistance training to facilitate muscle and strength gain.

Hypertrophy (Muscle Gain)

Building more muscle is a very common goal that people use exercise for more broadly, and it is one of the main reasons people engage with resistance training. To build muscle, we want to effectively increase the size of our muscle cells and the components within those cells. This results in an enlargement of the overall muscle cross-sectional area. While you can also increase the number of muscle cells (hyperplasia), this doesn’t seem to contribute meaningfully to overall muscle building (hypertrophy). 

In response to certain forms of exercise (i.e. resistance training), the body initiates a process called muscle protein synthesis (MPS), where new proteins are synthesised to repair and build new muscle myofibrils (the contractile components of muscle cells) and other protein structures within the cells. However, muscles can also increase in size due to increases in the volume of sarcoplasm (the fluid and organelles surrounding the myofibrils).

As a result, we classically think of muscle building as being one of two types:

• Myofibrillar Hypertrophy: This type of hypertrophy involves an increase in the size and number of myofibrils within muscle fibres. Myofibrils are responsible for muscle contractions, and an increase in their size and number contributes to greater force production and strength.
• Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy: Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy involves an increase in the volume of sarcoplasm, the fluid and organelles surrounding the myofibrils within muscle fibres. While this type of hypertrophy does not directly contribute to increases in strength, it can result in greater muscle size (which indirectly may increase strength by improving leverage and making the individual weight more) and endurance capacity.

Now, it is important to realise that these aren’t clearly delineated, and usually, you will see some degree of both of them occurring when you engage in a good training program. So it isn’t important to focus on these too much, but it is important to know that you can build muscle in these two ways.

It is important because you often see people who are quite muscular, but who got that big by focusing on more sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. So these individuals may not be as strong as they look. Similarly, you often see individuals take performance-enhancing drugs and see a quick boost to their muscle cell volume, and thus muscle size, but as soon as they come off the drugs they lose this increased volume. But as I said, you don’t need to worry about this stuff too much.

Now, before moving on, I want to briefly touch on the concept of “toned”. You see, toned is a word often used in the fitness industry, usually targeted at women who may not want to develop large amounts of muscle and thus may be put off by terminology such as building muscle mass. However, being toned is just having sufficient levels of muscle to provide shape, combined with relatively low levels of body fat. So to achieve this, you would still be working on building muscle, and you don’t need to do any specific “toning exercises” or “toning programs”. It is all just muscle building, thus the same principles apply, and the only difference is the overall quantity of muscle being built. 

Interestingly, hypertrophy is kind of a side effect of training, rather than the main effect (which is to get stronger, which we will discuss in a moment). However, you can bias muscle building by training in a manner that is more conducive to this side effect occurring. However, you do generally still need to get stronger to really maximise muscle building. 

Muscle hypertrophy is influenced by various factors, many of which overlap with the factors that affect strength, so we don’t need to delve into them again. Resistance training with moderate to heavy loads and sufficient volume, combined with adequate protein intake and proper recovery, is typically effective for stimulating muscle hypertrophy. You generally don’t need to do anything wild or exotic to build muscle, as it is a side effect of generally good program design. It is actually quite easy to build muscle, in theory at least. 

However, most people find it difficult in practice because it generally takes a very long time (the maximum amount of muscle you are likely to build in a month is about 1kg if you are doing everything right and you are generally genetically well endowed for muscle building, although most people build significantly less than that). 

This is one of the insights that has a huge impact on the way you think about your training and goals overall. Very often, clients come to us for coaching with extremely distorted beliefs about what is actually possible to achieve. Many people believe that they will be able to gain a significant amount of muscle, in a relatively short space of time. However, this isn’t reality. Muscle gain takes a long time. This understanding also impacts your nutritional practices, and this is why we cover this topic fairly extensively in our Nutrition Coaching Course.

What Causes Muscle Gain

It is helpful to understand what is actually causing the muscle to be built in response to exercise. Understanding this allows you to design better exercise programs and to know what you should be focusing on within a program. While we can get into the nitty-gritty of the actual biochemical pathways of muscle growth, what is actually more helpful is understanding the three main vectors by which you can induce hypertrophy. These are:

• Mechanical Tension: Mechanical tension refers to the stress exerted on muscle fibres during exercise (notably resistance training). It is a key stimulus for muscle growth and involves the stretching and contracting of muscle fibres against resistance. Mechanical tension activates intracellular signalling pathways that promote muscle protein synthesis and hypertrophy. This is the pathway responsible for the majority of muscle growth, and should generally be the focus of exercise aimed at building muscle (i.e. you want to design a program that prioritises this, or at the very least doesn’t interfere with this).
• Muscle Damage: Muscle damage occurs as a result of mechanical stress placed on muscle fibres during exercise. Microscopic tears or disruptions in muscle fibres occur, triggering an inflammatory response and subsequent repair and remodelling processes. This repair process involves the activation of satellite cells, which proliferate and differentiate to repair damaged muscle fibres. Over time, repeated cycles of muscle damage and repair lead to muscle growth and hypertrophy. Muscle damage is often associated with eccentric (lengthening) muscle actions, such as lowering a weight under control during resistance exercises, and also seems to occur more when muscles are at longer lengths (i.e. the stretched position). Muscle damage in and of itself doesn’t necessarily lead to muscle hypertrophy, as evidenced by the fact that if you repeatedly hit your muscles with a hammer, they don’t grow bigger (outside of maybe growing bigger due to inflammation). So while it is implicated in the muscle-building process, it doesn’t seem to be the main driver and may just be going along for the ride. 
• Metabolic Stress: Metabolic stress refers to the buildup of metabolites, such as lactate, hydrogen ions, and reactive oxygen species, within muscle cells during high-intensity or prolonged resistance training. These metabolites accumulate as a result of anaerobic metabolism and oxygen debt during intense muscular contractions. Metabolic stress is believed to contribute to muscle growth by stimulating intracellular signalling pathways involved in muscle protein synthesis. It also promotes cellular swelling and the release of growth factors, which may further enhance muscle growth. Metabolic stress is often induced by performing resistance training for high-repetitions and multiple sets, usually also using short rest intervals, and potentially also incorporating techniques such as drop sets, supersets, or occlusion training. Metabolic stress may preferentially be stimulating sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, rather than myofibrillar hypertrophy. 

Using Resistance Training For Muscle Gain

We now know what actually triggers muscle gain. However, we haven’t covered how we actually use resistance training to accomplish this. We will get into the specifics of rep ranges, sets, tempo, rest periods etc. in future articles, but we can understand this from a higher level.

We can use resistance training for hypertrophy (muscle building), as long as it targets the three mechanisms of hypertrophy:

1. Mechanical Tension
2. Metabolic Stress
3. Muscle Damage

We don’t need to target all of these equally, and in reality, mechanical tension seems to be the most potent vector to target. So we are generally going to optimise a training program around maximising mechanical tension. But that doesn’t mean we are going to completely ignore the other vectors.

So, what are we going to focus on with our training programs to target these?

Mechanical tension refers to the tension produced within/by muscle fibres in response to mechanical loading (i.e. contracting the muscles against weight). This muscular tension leads to the initiation of anabolic signalling processes that lead to the hypertrophic response. We create that tension by executing exercises in a manner that leads to the target muscles having to do the work, along with using a weight that is sufficiently heavy to require the muscles to actually have to work hard.

This is the key focus if we are trying to optimise mechanical tension for muscle building. We want to perform exercises that actually place the tension on the target muscles (this is taken care of by proper exercise selection and exercise execution), and use a weight that is sufficiently heavy to actually be challenging enough on the muscles (this is taken care of by using the appropriate rep range, taking the reps sufficiently close to failure, and performing the reps with an appropriate tempo that allows you to actually keep the tension on the muscles). We then also need to apply a sufficient volume of stimulus (this is taken care of by optimising the number of sets you perform for a given body part), along with sufficient rest and recovery (this is taken care of by appropriate rest intervals, along with an appropriately structured weekly/monthly training program). We will touch on this more in a moment.

Metabolic stress refers to the build-up of metabolites within muscles as a result of increased anaerobic metabolism during resistance training. There are multiple hypotheses as to how metabolic stress contributes to the hypertrophic response, however, for the purpose of this article, we don’t need to discuss them. Metabolic stress likely plays a smaller role than mechanical tension in causing muscles to grow, however, it does still likely play a role.

We get metabolic stress by virtue of training with good exercise technique that keeps the tension on the muscles, while also training in rep ranges that cause the muscle to get a “pump”. We can also use stuff like short rest periods or other techniques to cause more of those metabolites to build up in the muscles (basically any technique that causes the muscles to get more of an acidosis build up (that burning sensation)).

However, outside of very specific sporting situations where we need to improve the ability of specific muscles to handle the build-up of metabolic, we generally aren’t going to prioritise metabolic stress. It will happen by virtue of optimising mechanical tension, and working in an appropriate rep range. We may occasionally layer in some work directed at metabolic stress rather than mechanical tension, but this is really only ever done after the boxes have been ticked with mechanical stress.

Muscle damage may also play some role, but that is more of a nuanced discussion. We also generally don’t need to focus too much on trying to target muscle damage, as it generally happens to some extent with good exercise programming and technique. We could argue that training the muscles in their lengthened ranges (i.e. the stretched position) will likely lead to more muscle damage, and thus potentially more growth, but this gets a little bit into the weeds and you can be led down some strange paths with this thinking (you will often see people suggesting that we ONLY need to train at the lengthened ranges, for example).

Training muscles throughout their full ranges is just good training practice. So the lengthened range will get trained in a good program. We must also remember that muscle damage is generally quite sore. Anyone who has felt severe delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) will likely have experienced that severe DOMS due to training in lengthened ranges (or from doing excessive volume). So we don’t want to get too focused on targeting muscle damage.

So, when we are using resistance training to build muscle, we are generally going to optimise our training to ensure we target the mechanical tension vector. Metabolic stress and muscle damage get touched on sufficiently with good training practices that target mechanical tension. So we don’t need to be too worried about targeting metabolic stress or muscle damage.

Strength

Strength is the other major goals of exercise. Strength can be thought of as the ability of muscles to generate force against resistance. We often think of strength in terms of resistance training and the ability to lift heavy weights, however, strength is essential for performing activities of daily living (walking up the stairs or standing up require strength, as does lifting boxes or moving furniture require strength) and sports performance (most sports benefit from a stronger body). 

So it is probably better to think of strength as “what your muscles/body can actually do, as opposed to how big your muscles are or how your body looks”.

It is also important to realise that there are different “types” of strength. While most people in the fitness realm tend to think of strength as it relates to maximal strength, usually in the form of 1 rep maxes, and usually in the 3 exercises that are tested in powerlifting (the squat, bench press and deadlift), there are actually other types of strength.

Some of the most common types of strength include:

• Maximal Strength: Maximal strength refers to the maximum force a muscle or muscle group can generate during a single maximal effort. It is typically assessed using exercises such as the squat, bench press, or deadlift, with heavy loads lifted for one repetition maximum (1RM). Maximal strength is important for tasks requiring maximal force production, such as powerlifting or lifting heavy objects near the limit of your strength. 
• Relative Strength: Relative strength is your maximal strength relative to body weight. It is often expressed as strength per unit of body weight (e.g., strength-to-weight ratio). Individuals with high relative strength can generate significant force relative to their body size and weight, making it particularly relevant in sports where body weight affects performance, such as gymnastics or combat sports.
• Muscular Endurance: Muscular endurance refers to the ability of a muscle or muscle group to sustain repeated contractions over an extended period without fatigue. It involves the capacity to resist muscular fatigue and maintain force output during prolonged or repetitive tasks. Muscular endurance is essential for activities requiring sustained effort, such as long-distance running, cycling, or endurance events.
• Explosive Strength (Power): Explosive strength, also known as power, is the ability to generate force quickly and produce rapid movements. It involves the combination of strength and speed and is crucial for activities requiring rapid acceleration, jumping, or throwing. Explosive strength is often expressed through exercises such as the vertical jump, sprinting, or Olympic weightlifting movements like the clean and jerk or snatch.
• Speed-Strength (Rate of Force Development): Speed-strength refers to the ability to rapidly develop force during a muscle contraction, known as the rate of force development (RFD). It emphasises the quickness of force production and is essential for tasks requiring rapid changes in direction, agility, or reactive movements. Speed-strength is particularly relevant in sports such as sprinting, jumping, or combat sports.
• Isometric Strength: Isometric strength is the ability to generate force without a change in muscle length or joint angle (i.e. the body looks like it isn’t moving, but the muscles are actively contracting in that position). It involves static contractions where muscles exert force against an immovable object or maintain a fixed position against resistance. Isometric strength is important for activities such as pushing or pulling against a stationary object, holding onto an opponent in grappling or maintaining posture.
• Functional Strength: Functional strength refers to the ability to perform “everyday activities” and movement patterns efficiently and safely. It involves the integration of strength, stability, mobility, and coordination to carry out functional tasks such as lifting, carrying, pushing, pulling, and reaching. While different people have different definitions of what functional strength is, you can think of sports like Strongman as being an expression of functional strength. Some people like to think of it in terms of isolation exercises versus exercises that require the coordination of multiple muscles. So a quad extension exercise wouldn’t be considered a functional exercise, but a squat would be. This thinking can be a bit misguided, as all strength is functional in that it allows for force generation from muscle(s), but this thinking can be helpful as a mental shortcut. 

These different types of strength can be developed and improved through targeted training strategies that emphasise specific performance characteristics and training adaptations. So it is important to understand what you actually mean when you think about strength. 

It is important because strength is generally specific. There is a huge skill component to strength and while working on getting stronger more broadly will generally improve a lot of the different types of strength, you do still have to practise the skill of expressing the type of strength you wish to express. 

For example, improving your maximal strength won’t necessarily improve your isometric strength, and vice versa. Training your strength endurance likely won’t have as big of an impact on your maximal strength or explosive strength as would training those types of strength specifically. 

So, while there is some degree of generalisability from just getting stronger, you do actually have to train the specific skill of strength expression. People make this mistake all the time where they go from training with heavy weights near their limit for low reps (i.e. practising maximal strength), to training with lighter loads for more reps to build muscle. After training like this for a number of weeks, they then try to lift heavy again and they find that they have gotten weaker! Well, the reality is that they likely didn’t actually get weaker, they just haven’t been practising the skill of lifting heavy weights as much. So it is important to remember that strength is specific, so our training needs to be targeted to the specific adaptations we wish to elicit. 

However, to discuss every single type of strength really would be beyond the scope of this article. Most people are also just concerned about getting stronger in a more general sense anyway. So we are going to mainly discuss developing your strength more generally, and not focus too much on any specific type of strength. This broad focus will develop the overall strength of the body, but do be aware that if you have specific strength goals, there may be better ways to organise your exercise program.

There are many things that influence strength, and we must remember that strength in a specific exercise is the result of multiple different processes. Some of these are trainable or modifiable, while others are just innate (i.e. you are born that way). 

Some of the factors that influence your ability to express your strength include the following:

• Muscle Size and Composition: Muscle strength is closely tied to both muscle size and composition. Larger muscles typically possess a greater ability to generate force due to the increased number and size of muscle fibres they contain. Moreover, the ratio of fast-twitch (Type II) to slow-twitch (Type I) muscle fibres plays a crucial role in determining strength capabilities. Fast-twitch fibres are particularly adept at producing high-force, explosive movements, whereas slow-twitch fibres are better suited for endurance-related tasks.
• Neuromuscular Efficiency: Neuromuscular efficiency is crucial for optimal strength expression, requiring efficient coordination between the nervous system and muscles. By efficiency I mean the nervous system’s ability to recruit motor units and synchronise muscle contractions effectively. Enhanced neuromuscular efficiency leads to improved force production and movement coordination during strength-related tasks. Strength gains are largely attributed to neuromuscular adaptations, which involve enhancements in motor unit recruitment, synchronisation, and firing rate. As a result, you get increased motor unit activation and coordination, ultimately contributing to increased force production (i.e. you can contract harder) and improved movement efficiency (i.e. you are better at the skill of expressing that strength). 
• Anatomy and Biomechanics: Anatomy, joint mechanics and biomechanical factors play a crucial role in determining how effectively muscles produce force across various movement patterns and joint angles. Factors such as muscle leverage, tendon stiffness, and joint stability significantly influence force production capabilities and movement efficiency. Strength levels can vary depending on the joint angle and muscle length during a movement. Muscles may exhibit different force-production capacities across different joint angles due to variations in leverage and muscle activation patterns. As a result, the range of motion required for a specific exercise or task can also influence strength expression. Strength levels may differ at different points within the range of motion, and while this is fairly generalisable (i.e. we all have very similar anatomy), there may be significant differences for some individuals in some movements that either reduce or increase their ability to express their strength. 
• Energy Systems: Energy systems within the body supply the fuel needed for muscle contractions during physical activity, and their optimisation can lead to increased ability to express strength. In strength-related endeavours, especially those demanding maximal or near-maximal effort, the phosphagen system is primarily utilised, although the glycolytic system is also used. These systems rapidly supply energy for short-duration, high-intensity activities, however, it is the aerobic system that allows the rapid recovery of these systems, which is important for strength activities that must be performed multiple times (i.e. repeated sprints or multiple sets of an exercise).
• Psychological Factors: Psychological factors, such as motivation, confidence, focus, and arousal levels, all play a crucial role in an individual’s ability to express their strength. While the body does the lifting, the mind does actually need to believe it can do the lifting if we are to actually express our true strength. 
• Training History and Programming: Training history and programming significantly impact strength capabilities. Past training experiences and adaptations influence an individual’s potential for strength development, and someone who has never performed an exercise or performed a 1 rep max is unlikely to be able to express their true strength potential. The design of the training program and the adaptations targeted play a crucial role in strength gains, with variables such as exercise selection, intensity, volume, frequency, and progression model all greatly influencing training outcomes and thus someone’s strength. 
• Genetics: Genetic factors also play a significant role in determining an individual’s potential for strength development. This includes stuff like variations in muscle fibre composition, muscle architecture, tendon stiffness, and to some extent hormone levels, along with many other more obvious things (i.e. stuff related to your physical body). But genetics do also play a role in the more psychological stuff too, and you may have the best genetics for strength but if you have genetics that serve to make you unmotivated, lazy or to struggle with adherence to a plan, then you likely won’t achieve your ultimate strength capabilities. There are also some less obvious genetic factors, such as androgen receptor density and binding affinity, along with various other biochemical differences that determine your strength capabilities. 
• Hormonal Factors: Hormones such as testosterone, growth hormone, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), and cortisol all play roles in regulating muscle protein synthesis, muscle repair, and recovery from exercise, and thus your ability to express strength. You can really go down the rabbit hole with this, as even within the broader category of hormones, there are thousands of little variables that can actually affect your strength capabilities. Some of this is dictated by genetics, while a lot of it is dictated by your overall lifestyle habits.
• Lifestyle: It goes without saying that your overall lifestyle also affects your ability to get strong. If your nutrition, sleep and stress management aren’t dialled in, you likely won’t achieve your strength potential. Similarly, there are many socioeconomic factors that also contribute to your ability to reach your ultimate strength potential. 

Overall, strength is multifaceted and is influenced by a multitude of factors. It is important to keep this in mind, as very often people will engage with the exact same training program, but get vastly different outcomes from it. The reality is that some people just aren’t built to reach the upper echelons of strength, and other people are going to get recklessly strong despite not trying that hard. Everyone wants to believe that they are a unique individual, but as soon as they are somewhat different to the norm, suddenly they feel like they have been hard done by. 

The important thing to keep in mind is that you can get stronger, even if you won’t be the strongest human alive. It is all relative, and you should really only compare yourself to your past self and seek to improve over time. Having coached hundreds of people, I know it is very easy to get stuck in a bad mindset where you fall victim to comparing yourself to others. This generally just leads to demotivation and poorer progress, and is why they say “comparison is the thief of joy”. 

The true goal is to find joy in the journey, not the destination. You don’t listen to your favourite song just to get to the end of it and say it is finished. Instead, you listen to your favourite song because you enjoy it. The people who make the most progress with their strength are generally the ones that learn to find joy in the actual process of getting stronger. It is rare that this joy is reached through comparing themselves to others. So don’t fall into this trap.

Using Resistance Training To Get Stronger

Strength is a little bit more complicated than building muscle. It is largely something that is controlled by your neuromuscular system, and as such, there is both a muscular component and nervous system component to consider. However, very broadly, we can say that building strength via resistance training is facilitated by training that targets a few key areas.

• Mechanical Tension: Like hypertrophy, mechanical tension plays a crucial role in strength development. When muscles are subjected to resistance, it creates tension within the muscle fibres. Over time, this tension stimulates adaptations such as increased recruitment of motor units, synchronisation of muscle fibres, and improved neuromuscular coordination, leading to greater force production.
• Neuromuscular Adaptations: Strength gains are heavily influenced by improvements in neuromuscular function. This includes enhanced motor unit recruitment, firing rate, and coordination, which allow for more efficient muscle contractions and force generation. With strength training, the nervous system becomes better at activating the appropriate muscle fibres and coordinating their actions to produce maximal force.
• Motor Learning: Strength development also involves motor learning, which refers to the acquisition and refinement of movement patterns and techniques. Through practice and repetition of strength exercises, individuals become more proficient at executing the movements with optimal biomechanics, leading to more efficient force production and greater strength gains over time.
• Muscle Hypertrophy: While we tend to think of hypertrophy primarily as referring to an increase in muscle size, it does also contribute to strength gains. A larger muscle cross-sectional area provides a greater potential for force generation due to the increased size of muscle fibres. Strength training protocols that induce hypertrophy can lead to improvements in maximal strength. 
• Structural Adaptations: Strength training can induce structural adaptations in the overall musculoskeletal system, including increased tendon stiffness, bone density, and connective tissue strength. These adaptations provide a more robust framework for transmitting and withstanding forces, allowing you to actually express your strength.

The actual training methods that we use to target all of these don’t actually differ massively from the methods we use to build muscle. However, understanding how to target each of these key areas is helpful in understanding how to design your training program.

Mechanical tension is required to trigger the adaptations we want. This is the same for muscle gain and strength gain. However, with strength gain, rather than focusing that mechanical tension on specific muscles, we are going to instead focus on spreading that mechanical tension across a larger amount of muscles. The goal isn’t to isolate specific muscles, the goal is to use as much muscle mass as possible to lift a weight.

This isn’t always the case (as we may want to really focus on strengthening a specific muscle). However, in general, when training to improve strength, we are trying to spread the tension across a larger number of muscles. We still follow the same protocols we follow with muscle building, in term of optimising mechanical tension.

To optimise mechanical tension for strength building. We want to perform exercises that actually place the tension on the target tissues (this is taken care of by proper exercise selection and exercise execution), and use a weight that is sufficiently heavy to actually be challenging enough on the target tissues (this is taken care of by using the appropriate rep range, taking the reps sufficiently close to failure, and performing the reps with an appropriate tempo that allows you to actually keep the tension on the target tissues). We then also need to apply a sufficient volume of stimulus (this is taken care of by optimising the number of sets you perform for a given body part), along with sufficient rest and recovery (this is taken care of by appropriate rest intervals, along with an appropriately structured weekly/monthly training program). Again, we will touch on this more in a moment.

Note that I said target tissues rather than muscle. This is because strength does rely a lot more on other structural components such as tendons and ligaments, rather than purely muscle. With muscle building, we are trying to get the muscles to do as much work as possible, but with strength building, we are generally trying to strengthen more than just the muscles.

As a side effect of optimising mechanical tension, we do actually build muscle and create structural adaptations. We don’t necessarily need to focus on these too much, as they just happen by virtue of good strength training practices. However, there are some cases where specific muscular and/or structural adaptations may need to be targeted specifically, to allow you to continue getting stronger. This is why you will very often see powerlifters doing blocks of training dedicated to building more muscle. However, in general, this stuff just happens as a natural consequence of executing the movements effectively, with a training program that optimises mechanical tension.

The more “neuro” side of things (basically the nervous system stuff), is a bit more complicated in theory. There are many neuromuscular things that go on behind the scenes that lead you to being able to lift heavy weights. You very often see relatively skinny individuals, who don’t look like they are very strong, lifting ridiculously heavy weights. This is because their nervous system is very efficient at getting their muscles to contract. If they had more muscle, they would be even stronger.

Now, while the actual behind-the-scenes stuff with the nervous system is actually quite complicated, how we go about targeting it with resistance training isn’t all that complicated. The nervous system side of things can be effectively targeted by virtue of treating lifting weights as a skill. When you view lifting heavier weights as skill acquisition, you can better appreciate what the nervous system is doing.

The nervous system is basically improving your ability to execute the movement. So to target the nervous system side of things, you basically just need to actually practice the skill of lifting. This means you have to master the execution of that specific exercise. You are not going to be able to express your true strength if you have never actually done the movement before and you haven’t worked out all of the kinks. Your nervous system isn’t going to coordinate the contraction of the muscles in the most efficient way possible the first time it performs a movement. It takes time to actually become skilful at performing that movement.

So, your training should generally be centred around executing the movements you want to get strong at with perfect form. While you can get away with a bit of sloppy technique when training for muscle building, when training for strength, this is heavily discouraged. You want to execute the lift with perfect form, and engrain perfection.

For most people, this means staying away from failure (so fatigue doesn’t cause you to use crappy form to just get the reps) and likely doing more sets of that exercise (so they can practice the movement more).

The only wrinkle in this is that generally, you are going to have to lift relatively heavy weights to elicit the desired strength adaptations. What most people tend to read this as is that they need to be doing heavy weights and going to failure. But this is not the case.

You need to use heavy weights, as you need to actually practice the skill of lifting heavy weights, but you don’t actually need to go to failure. This is where concepts like RPE (rating of perceived exertion) and RIR (reps in reserve) become vital tools in the toolbox. Lifting heavy weights with perfect form, not going to failure and getting lots of practice (multiple sets and performing that exercise frequently), is how you optimise your training for strength gains.

Overlap and Differences Between Training For Size Vs Strength

As you can hopefully see, there is significant overlap between both resistance training for hypertrophy and strength. However, there are some key differences too.

For hypertrophy, we ideally want to optimise technique and execution to ensure tension is on the target muscles. 

For strength, we ideally want to optimise technique and execution to allow us to lift the most weight possible. This may mean less tension is placed on a specific muscle.

For example, for developing hypertrophy, we may use a bench press technique where we only arch the low back enough to provide a stable base. However, for strength, we may really develop that lower back arch to its maximum, so we can reduce the range of motion. 

However, you kind of want to be inefficient when lifting for hypertrophy. By this I mean, you want all the tension to be on the target muscles, and this will generally mean you can lift less weight. You don’t want to use any other structures to help with the movement (i.e. connective tissue), you want the muscles contracting at all times.

Whereas for strength development, as it is more neurologically driven, you want to be as efficient as possible. You want to lift the weights in a way that allows you to lift the heaviest weights possible. This generally means you will generally try to get the tension off any specific muscle and spread it across more muscles. 

For example, someone using the squat to develop the quad muscles may hold the bar higher up on the back and try to initiate the movement by pushing the knees forward and sitting down in between the heels. This technique will usually mean more tension is placed on the quads. Conversely, someone squatting to lift the heaviest weight possible will generally hold the bar lower on their upper back, and they will initiate the squat by pushing the hips back. This way, the load will be spread across a larger amount of muscles, notably the strong hip musculature, and thus it allows for more weight to be lifted.

You will generally use higher rep ranges for hypertrophy, and lower rep ranges for strength. However, this isn’t as clear cut, and it depends on what you mean by strength. Of course, if you are training for 1 rep max strength, then you will need to use heavier weights and lower reps, however, if you are training for “functional strength” you may use very similar loading rep ranges as you would for hypertrophy training. We will discuss this more in future articles.

With strength training, you are also generally more concerned with targeting myofibrillar hypertrophy rather than sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Whereas for muscle building, it really doesn’t matter whether the hypertrophy is myofibrillar or sarcoplasmic. All that matters is that you are getting bigger. This difference is why you rarely see strength athletes doing more “pump” work (higher reps for example). Generally, unless they have to move up a weight class or they actively want to build more muscle to look better, the vast majority of a strength athlete’s training is going to be dedicated to training that doesn’t lead to much sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.

We will be discussing this in more depth in upcoming articles, but it is helpful to have an understanding of the difference between how you train for muscle gain versus strength gain.

For muscle gain, we are generally going to use higher reps ranges, while for strength gain, we are going to use lower reps.

Now, while there are some differences, and the exact programming does look different, there is actually quite a lot of overlap. The most significant overlap is the fact that for both developing strength and hypertrophy, we need mechanical tension. If we optimise mechanical tension, we will have ticked a lot of boxes for effective training. So it is important to be a bit clearer on what this means if we want to use resistance training for muscle and strength gain.

Optimising Mechanical Tension

Mechanical tension refers to the force or stress applied to muscle fibres during resistance training (and in other forms of physical exercise). During resistance exercises, muscles contract against an external load, creating tension within the muscle fibres. Over time, the repeated application of mechanical tension, coupled with proper recovery and nutrition, results in the growth and strengthening of the muscle fibres (and other supporting structures such as tendons and ligaments). Effectively, the muscles adapt to the tension being applied to them and get bigger and stronger so that level of tension is no longer so disruptive to them. It is the key driver of hypertrophy and strength development. 

As a result, we need to optimise our resistance training around principles that allow us to apply the most amount of mechanical tension to the muscles. The exact specifics of this will change whether we are trying to optimise for more strength development or hypertrophy, but the broad strokes apply to both. 

We optimise mechanical tension by first selecting exercises that target the muscles we want to develop, and then we perform those exercises in a manner that keeps the tension where we want it. We ideally also want to perform the exercises through as full a range of motion as we can control and our anatomy allows for.

To some extent, exercise ordering does also factor into this, as the exercises you perform earlier in a workout do affect your ability to perform exercises later in the workout. For example, doing bicep curls before training back may mean you are not able to maximise the mechanical tension for your back, as your biceps are too fatigued to allow you to train the back effectively. 

The rep ranges we use are also influenced by our desire to maximise mechanical tension, although the rep ranges we choose are also influenced by whether we are biasing more strength or hypertrophy (and we also may manipulate the rep range to ensure we are still paying our dues to metabolic stress). How close to failure we perform our exercises is also influenced by our desire to optimise mechanical tension, as going to complete failure for a muscle early in a workout may compromise our ability to apply sufficient tension to the muscles later in the workout (i.e. you fatigue prematurely). The manner in which we perform the reps also matters, and there is a clear difference between a rep that takes 5 seconds to complete and a rep that barely takes a second to complete. This is generally called the tempo of the exercise. 

The rest periods we use between our sets also must be factored in, as you aren’t going to be able to maximise mechanical tension without adequate recovery between sets. Doing a hard set of 8 reps and then trying to do the same again after only taking 30 seconds rest is a very different experience than if you were to take 3 minutes rest in between sets. 

We can also manipulate the overall mechanical tension on a muscle by manipulating the number of sets of an exercise we perform, along with the number of sets for a given body part we perform in training sessions and across the week. There is clearly a difference between performing a single set for an exercise or body part, and performing 10 sets for it in a given workout. There is a further difference between doing 10 sets for the whole week in a single exercise/muscle in a single session, and doing 10 sets spread across multiple sessions. There is a further difference between doing 10 sets per week and doing 20 sets per week.

Finally, you can’t just apply the same stimulus all the time and hope for better results, you have to apply progressively more stimulus over time if we are to maximise mechanical tension. You see, your body will adapt to a given stimulus, which means you will be able to lift more. Which means you need to lift more to keep adapting, as using the previous training parameters will simply mean you are training below your actual capabilities. This is generally called “progressive overload”, and it is why gym goers are generally very concerned about adding more weight to their lifts over time, as this is one of the easiest ways to ensure you are progressively overloading the muscles. 

However, you can’t always be pushing training hard and progressively overloading everything. Sometimes you will need to allow the body more time to recover. Sometimes you will want to push yourself to new levels, and other times you will want to ensure you are not fatigued and are able to fully express your strength (such as before a competition). Similarly, you may want to progress towards multiple goals, but understand that you can’t do it all at once. To do this, we generally use some form of periodisation, where we break our training up into distinct periods or blocks of training where we are focused on a certain goal or adaptation. 

Resistance Training For Muscle And Strength Conclusion

Training for muscle gain and strength gain is actually quite a nuance conversation. Understanding all of the little intricacies can feel overwhelming. Hopefully, this article has cleared up some of your confusion, however, this certainly isn’t the whole story of how to use resistance train for muscle and strength gain. To really understand how to use resistance training to build muscle and/or get stronger, we do actually have to dive into the specifics around exercise programming.

So, if this is something you are interested in learning about, then please do read up on our exercise content by interacting with our exercise hub.

If you would like more help with your training (or nutrition), we do also have online coaching spaces available. You can further build your knowledge on all things exercise by interacting with our free content. We recommend reading our foundational nutrition article, along with our foundational articles on sleep and stress management, if you really want to learn more about how to optimise your lifestyle. If you want even more free information on exercise, you can follow us on Instagram, YouTube or listen to the podcast, where we discuss all the little intricacies of exercise.

You can always stay up to date with our latest content by subscribing to our newsletter.

Finally, if you want to learn how to coach nutrition, then consider our Nutrition Coach Certification course and if you want to learn to get better at exercise program design, then consider our course on exercise program design. We do have other courses available too. If you don’t understand something, or you just need clarification, you can always reach out to us on Instagram or via email.

The previous article in this series is about the exercise guidelines and the next article in this series is about Exercise Selection, Variety and Ordering, if you are interested in continuing to learn about exercise program design. You can also go to our exercise hub to find more exercise content.

Paddy Farrell

www.triagemethod.com

Hey, I'm Paddy!

I am a coach who loves to help people master their health and fitness. I am a personal trainer, strength and conditioning coach, and I have a degree in Biochemistry and Biomolecular Science. I have been coaching people for over 10 years now.

When I grew up, you couldn't find great health and fitness information, and you still can't really. So my content aims to solve that!

I enjoy training in the gym, doing martial arts and hiking in the mountains (around Europe, mainly). I am also an avid reader of history, politics and science. When I am not in the mountains, exercising or reading, you will likely find me in a museum.