How Can I Get Stronger?

I’m willing to bet that if you are reading this blog, the question “How Can I Get Stronger” has crept into your mind more than once.

Also it seems to go hand in hand, but the stronger you are, the more Gladiator-esque physique you have.

Today I’m going to give you the top 10 things you need to know in an effort to make sure you are able to dominate your training so you can get stronger and build muscle.  These include tips to ranging from training in the gym, nutrition, and things you need to be doing outside the gym to maximize your strength and physique gains. 

All without getting complicated, super scientific or sounding like a crazed mad man.

We will cover the basics that when applied, will get you on track making sure nothing stands in your way between you and your goals.

None of the BS, over-hyped, give me all your money, guru type crap.

Just the truth about what really works for those who have ever asked the question “How Can I  Get Stronger?”.

So let’s get to it…

Here are 10 Tips to Make Sure You Get Stronger:

1) Use Heavy, Compound, Multi-Joint Exercises

Screw those weeny isolation type exercises or machines.

If you aren’t going to move big heavy weights using your entire body, then you are not going to get stronger. 

You must make compound, multi-joint exercises the bulk of your program if strength is your goal.

These exercises allow you to use the most weight and will help you build muscle faster than any other way.

• Squats
• Deadlifts
• Military presses (with barbells or dumbbells)
• Bench presses (with barbells and dumbbells, flat or incline)
• Bent over or chest supported rows (with barbells or dumbbells)
• Farmers walks

2) Get In, Get Warm, Train, & Get Out

If you’re in the gym longer than 45-60 minutes, then you are there to watch the ladies (or dudes…) on the cardio equipment more than you are to get stronger.

The body loves a great training session, and when you keep it around the 45-60 minute window, you will receive a nice testosterone spike. 

Unfortunately with all great things it must come to an end, and after 45 minutes it starts decreasing and around an hour, cortisol actually starts increasing.

Cortisol is bad when it comes to packing on strength and muscle so you want to be in and out.

3) Don’t Train to Failure

For 90% (it’s actually probably more), training to failure with things like drop sets, negatives, forced reps, or over shooting your weights and totally failing a lift, are probably the biggest issues that are holding someone back from strength and size gains.

When you force the body into forced reps, or failing a lift consistently, all that is truly happening is that they are taxing their CNS (central nervous system), which leads to strength loss, and the need for longer recovery times between workouts. 

Not to mention it crushes your ego and mental toughness so the bar feels heavier and heavier every week.

At Genesis Athletic Performance, we do all our heavy lifts in what we call a sub-maximal environment (unless we are maxing out which does happen every few months).

We typically try to leave 1 or 2 reps in the tank during each set, so our spotter never has to touch the bar or help and we never fail a rep.

4) Sleep 7-9 Hours Per Day

There are a lot of things you can do to improve your recovery and thus your ability to increase your strength and build muscle.

However, none of them are as important as sleep.

When you are sleeping your body repairs itself. This is the time when your muscles grow.

If you don’t sleep enough your testosterone levels will decrease, your cortisol will rise and your energy and strength levels will take a huge dive.

This is probably the easiest thing to correct, but no one (especially athletes) tend to follow this guideline.

5) Eat to Grow & Recover

If your body s going to get stronger, then you need to give it the energy needed to move heavier weights and train hard.

Picture the most bad ass muscle car or sports car you can think of.  I’m talking the kind with 800000 horse power that just scream power when the engine turns over…

Do you fill up that cars gas tank with basic fuel?

Only if you hate that car and want to sacrifice getting the most out of it.

You fill that gas tank up with Super Ultra Premium fuel so that car is able to function 100%.

The same with your body… If you want to build a body that is the equivalent to a jalopy then fill the tank with those types of foods: candy bars, soda, fast food, chips, etc.

Or if you want to build a body that is powerful, strong, and stacked with pounds and pounds of muscle, then fill the tank with performance based foods: lean cuts of meat, vegetables, healthy fats, and tons of water.

6) Live Off Of Bodyweight Exercises For Your Assistance Lifts

If you really want to pack on strength and muscle, then the majority of your assistance exercises should be done with bodyweight exercises.

Adding resistance to bodyweight exercises like push-ups, dips, and chin-ups is a great advanced variation and still falls in the above guidelines.

Take a male gymnast as a great example of just how well bodyweight exercises work to get stronger and jacked.

These guys are huge and stronger as an ox even though they don’t ever touch a weight.

I remember reading about a strength coach who wanted to see just how strong male gymnasts were, so he took his school’s gymnastics team into the weight room, and was blown away as he watched these gymnasts who had never touched a weight or bench pressed in their life, cranked out reps of 225lb like it was nothing.

These exercises have been proven for decades to build muscle and strength, faster than any type of machine you could ever use:

• Do bent barbell inverted or ring/blast strap/TRX rows instead of machine rows to get a bigger stronger back
• Do single leg squats, pistols, and glute ham raises instead of leg presses, leg extensions or leg curls to get bigger stronger legs
• Do dips, hand stand push-ups, and other push-up variations instead of cable tricep push-downs, chest flyes, or a seated machine military press to get strong and jacked chest, shoulders, and triceps.
• Do chin-ups or reverse grip bent over rows instead of pull downs to develop bigger lats and biceps

7) Every 4-6 Weeks Get Out of the Gym

If you are training hard, intensely, and heavy, then you start getting beat up, worn down, and fatigued after just a few weeks.

Taking a week or at least 3-4 days off and staying totally out of the gym is one of the best things you can do to make sure you always continue to get stronger.

By taking an off week your body gets a chance to heal, rest, recover, and grow.

If you have been in this game for any extended period of time, you learn that your strength and muscle gains happen outside of the gym.

What this means is that all your gains happen while your body is repairing and recovering from the damage done to the muscles during your time in the gym.

If you never take an extended period of time off from the gym, then your body never fully gets to recover and repair.

This cuts into your progress both in getting stronger, and building muscle.

I have been doing this for over 10 years now and I always come back stronger, fresher, and looking better after a week or two off from the gym.

You can still do other stuff… Don’t just sit on your couch and catch up on Jersey Shore episodes.  Get out and be active taking walks, riding a bike, and performing a ton of mobility work.

Cycle Your Exercises

Don’t get caught up in just getting stronger in one lift.  This happens to a lot of people and they end up getting stuck at the same weight week in and week out getting nothing but frustrated.

Cycle out your strength exercises every 3-7 weeks.

This isn’t as hard as it sounds…

It could mean just picking a different variation of the same lift, swapping it out totally, or even just changing the type of bar you are using (ie using Fat Gripz) to help keep your body constantly progressing.

Here are a few variations you can use for the bigger compound lifts to make sure you never plateau:

• Bench Press: Floor Press, Low Incline Bench, Neutral Grip/Multi-Grip Swiss Bar Bench, Fat Grip Bench, Kettlebell Bench
• Deadlift: Trapbar Deadlift, Snatch Grip Deadlift, Deadlift Off Mats, Rack Pulls, Sumo Deadlift, Farmer Walk Variations
• Squat: Front Squat, Box Squat, Zercher Squat, Goblet Squat, Kettlebell Free Squat
• Overhead Press: Fat Grip Military Press, Neutral Grip/Multi-Grip Swiss Bar Press, Double Kettlebell/Dumbbell Press, One Arm Kettlebell/Dumbbell Press

By cycling these variations in as your main strength movements every 3-7 weeks, you will continue to get stronger and pack on muscle without getting bored or hitting a plateau you just can’t bust through.

9) Balance Out Your Body

If getting stronger and building muscle are your main priorities, then you have to stay balanced.

So many athletes and gym rats only train what they see (chest, shoulders, arms, quads, etc) and forget about the other muscle groups that are just important (back, posterior chain, glutes, etc).

For most people this gets a ton better after they get on a solid program, but everyone still has issues.

Now you have to make sure the body is balanced by performing smaller exercises to keep joints healthy, and antagonistic muscle groups balanced.

For example, every athlete, dude, gym rat, etc press and push way more than they pull.  It is just human nature to do that, and it causes imbalances.

Ever seen a guy benching or walking around the gym with his shoulders rolled forward looking like they are squeezing the life out of his chest?

This guy has an imbalance, and unfortunately until he gets it corrected, his strength and ability to pack on muscle is going to be hindered.

What is his imbalance? His chest and front delts are a ton stronger and more developed than his upper back and rear delts.

By balancing this out, his upper back will get stronger and pull his shoulders back.  This will allow his shoulders a better range of motion and give the chest room to actually grow.

To balance out your upper body, you want to perform things like band pull-aparts, seated db power cleans, bent over db rear flyes, and scapula push-ups.

To balance out your lower body, you need to be performing tons of mobility drills, and hip and glute stretches.

10) Stretch, Foam Roll & Ice

Stretching especially after a workout or after a shower on the days when you are sore, will help alleviate soreness and allow your body the need to recover less between training sessions.

Use a foam roller and lacrosse ball on sore, tight, hot spots in your muscles and tissues. 

This will break up any trigger points, scar tissue, and glued muscles, allowing for greater blood flow to that area and improved recovery.

Finally, treat sore joints and injuries from the gym just like you would a sports injury.  Far too often a joint will be sore or slightly injured, but since it didn’t happen during some sort of game or practice, we typically ignore it and think it isn’t a big deal.

Any injury, sprain, strain, or worse, is still an injury no matter how or where it happens.

Be sure to ice the injury and realize that if you aren’t physically healthy you’ll never be able to train optimally and therefore will never get the results you’re after.

So there you have it 10 tips that you can start using today to help you get stronger, build muscle, and allow yourself to train harder and more intensely each time you step into the gym.

Thanks again for reading and I would love to hear any feedback or questions you have regarding these 10 tips so just comment below.

Also if you know of someone who you feel would benefit from these 10 strength tips please share by clicking on the Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus button below to pass it along.

Hopefully by using these 10 tips, you will never have to ask the question “How Can I Get Stronger?” again.

DC