This starts our series on building foundational strength. This series is going to get down in the weeds a bit all about building strength. First, let’s look at what strength is and what goes into it. Per ACSM, strength is the ability to exert force. Simply put, how much weight you can move. This is regardless of speed so this is different than power, as power is a different metric referring to how quickly mechanical work is done over time. They often coincide based on the strength velocity curve at certain points but to keep it simple we are focused on purely strength. In order to build strength, we need to have a solid foundation, Alex Bromley speaks about this in his book Base Strength and his content about base building. I highly recommend his content and won’t spoil his book which I thoroughly enjoyed. What this means in a training application is before we hyper specialize in strength training at high intensities and low repetitions we need some foundational qualities such as muscular hypertrophy, muscular endurance, as well as basic coordination. This is often referred to GPP or general physical preparedness (sometimes people will throw in other things in that soup as well). When you see individuals plateau in strength, they take the next 16 weeks and conduct a hypertrophy block often we will see that strength shoots up next time they peak for maximal strength. Why is this? They are building their base, their foundation so to speak and allowing for more vertical growth.
Key points
1. Build a solid foundation of hypertrophy, muscular endurance and movement coordination before seeking to push maximal strength.
2. If you are plateaued in your strength progression consider revisiting and building your GPP again.
Moving forward we are going to get into the weeds of movement selection, body weight based strength goals, different progressions and much more.