What’s your main goal, to get stronger or to build bigger muscles? Depending on what it is, you may want to approach training differently.
Although lifting weights accomplish both things to some degree, there are a few nuances.
When trying to get stronger, we really want to be efficient. So we want to have great coordination between the different muscles accomplishing the task, we want to be fast, powerful, in a way that we can increase the load we’re lifting and therefore, get stronger. Usually for that we take longer breaks between sets, so that the muscles are well recovered and ready to perform.
If the main goal is muscle hypertrophy, on the other hand, the approach changes a bit. It becomes a lot more about challenging the muscles, and a lot less about efficiency. Here we usually want to be less efficient. So we use slow speeds, increased time under tension, less rest between sets, in a way that the muscles stay fatigued for longer. We don’t lift as much weight with this approach, and therefore don’t get as strong, but the muscular challenge promotes hypertrophy like anything else.
We believe that they complement each other really well. Getting stronger is obviously more important for functionality, aka to be prepared for daily tasks (carrying kids, groceries, being able to move with ease, etc) but building muscles is important too, not just to look good, but also for health purposes. More muscle mass usually means better stability for the joints, diminished risk of developing sarcopenia, and a faster metabolism, which everyone benefits from.
What’s your jam? Moving weights or challenging your muscles?
Willian Alba
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