BOOK EXCERPT

Serious Strength Training
Periodization for building muscle power and mass
By Tudor O. Bompa, PhD & Lorenzo J. Cornacchia

Types of Strength and Their Significance in Training

Various types of strength training are needed to build and sculpt the most muscular, symmetrical and injury-free physique possible.

"General strength" is the foundation of the entire strength and bodybuilding program. It must be the sole focus of training during the early training phase of an experienced lifter, and during the first few years of an entry-level strength training or bodybuilder. A low level of general strength might be a limiting factor in overall progress. It leaves the body susceptible to injury and, potentially, even asymmetrical shape or a decreased ability to building muscle strength and size.

"Maximum strength" refers to the highest force that can be performed by the neuromuscular system during a maximum contraction. It reflects the heaviest load that an athlete can lift in one attempt, and is expressed as 100% of maximum, or one repetition maximum (1RM). It is crucial, for training purposes, to know one's maximum strength for each exercise, since it is the basis for calculating loads for every strength phase.

"Muscular endurance' is defined as the muscles' ability to sustain work for a prolonged period. It is used largely in endurance training and also plays a crucial role in bodybuilding and strength training, where it is used extensively during the "muscle definition" or "cuts" phase of training.

Muscular Adaptation to Bodybuilding and Strength Training

Systematic training results in certain structural and physiological changes, or adaptations, in the body. The size and definition of the body's muscles indicate the level of adaptation. The magnitude of these adaptations is directly proportional to the demands placed upon the body by volume (quantity) of training, frequency of training and intensity (load) of training.

Training is beneficial to a strength training and bodybuilding only as long as it forces the body to adapt to the stress of physical work. In other words, if the body meets with a demand greater than that to which it is accustomed, it works to adapt to the stress by becoming bigger and stronger. When the load is not high enough to challenge the body's "adaptation threshold," the training effect will be nil or minimal and no adaptation will occur.

Types of Adaptation

Various body systems adapt to strength training in different ways. Muscles get bigger, bones get stronger or weaker, depending on the load; the central nervous system becomes more efficient at recruiting muscle action, and motor skills become more refined and coordinated.

Hypertrophy

One of the most visible signs of adaptation is the enlargement of muscle size - hypertrophy. This phenomenon is due to an increase in the cross-sectional area of individual muscle fibers. Conversely, a reduction in size resulting form inactivity is referred to as atrophy. Strength trainers and bodybuilders will experience two kinds of hypertrophy.

"Short-term hypertrophy" as the name implies, lasts for only a few hours and is the result of the "pump" experience during heavy training. This "pump is largely the result of fluid accumulation (edema) in the muscle. Heavy lifting results in an increased amount of water being held in the intracellular spaces of the muscle, making it look even larger. When the water returns to the blood a few hours after training, the pump disappears. This is one reason why strength is not always proportional to muscle size.

"Chronic hypertrophy" is the result of structural changes at the muscle level. Since this is caused by an increase in either the number or size of muscle filaments, its effects are more enduring than those of short-term hypertrophy.

Individuals with a larger number of fibers tend to be stronger and show more size than those with fewer fibers. The number was thought to remain constant throughout one's life because of the genetically determined number, however, controversial theory now suggests that the heavy loads used in strength training might provoke "muscle splitting" or hyperplasia. If this is the case, hypertrophy might be partly induced by a possible increase in the number of muscle fibers. The theory is base don animal research and the results have not yet been duplicated in human subjects.

Strong evidence suggests that individual fiber hypertrophy accounts for most of the gains in muscle size.

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Taken from pages 10-12 of Serious Strength Training by Tudor O. Bompa, PhD & Lorenzo J. Cornacchia
Copyright Tudor O. Bompa, PhD & Lorenzo J. Cornacchia
Publisher Human Kinetics

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