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building muscle strength

The Ultimate Guide On Building Muscle Strength

While not so often focusing on strength is very important to health, you needn’t be ‘buff’ or ‘ripped’ but strength is important for many normal daily tasks. Carrying groceries, getting out of bed, making dinner, etc., you need strength. 

Many people will turn to Fitness Fahrenheit to know how to work on their strengths and make goals for what they need. However, many of us need to learn how to build strength. 

Lifting weights is not always the necessary way to build up strength, building strength is about more than weights, deadlifts, and bench presses. Strength is about routine, action, and self-awareness. 

But, how do you build strength, and what do you need to know about the process of doing so?

How Long Does It Take To Build Muscle Strength?

Building strength depends on where you are currently at, what your goals are, and how you are progressing. 

Building strength for someone who is just getting back into being active after a long period of being bedbound will need a different approach and timeframe to someone who wants to increase strength for a sport, or simply because they want to be able to lift more.

On average, it generally takes 6 to 15 weeks before you might start to see any real strength gains. However, you might still experience strength gains within the first few weeks of training, which is linked to your brain being adapted to such. 

These immediate strength gains are most often found in those who are not trained, rather than those who are. 

Building music and building strength are also very different. Muscle building is a goal to increase muscle size, but this is not always the case if you want to build strength.

Set Yourself Goals

Setting yourself goals is important. Strength is most often done through weight training, and this has many benefits, beyond strength increases. These benefits include power, endurance, and muscle building. When building strength, understand your goals for all of these factors.

Your Strength Goals

Strength training has the primary goal of building strength to help your body be more acclimated to lifting heavier loads. To judge whether your strength has increased you can test if your 1 re max lifts on a specific type of mention improves. 

If you were to do squats, you could test to see if you could perform your squat reps with increased loads over time. 

As you work on this, set a goal for yourself, knowing where you are when you start and where you want to be. For example, you may be able to do 20 squats with 5 lbs added, but you wish to be able to do 30 squat reps with 10 lbs in 3 months.

Having goals can help you a great deal, as they help to motivate you.

Hypertrophy Goals

Hypertrophy is the increase of muscle mass, which does not necessarily require maximal lifting. A study found that hypertrophy can occur with loads as minor as 30% of the 1 RM, but gains can be 60% or more. 

Studies show that muscle mass usually increases when participants perform 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps to muscular failure. 

If you wish to gain muscle, be aware you need to rest between sets for 1 to 3 minutes, much like with strength training. Set your goals and be aware of where you are now, and where you want to be.

Endurance Goals

Endurance is important, and muscular endurance allows you to be able to move a load without muscular fatigue being problematic. You should use loads between 40% to 60% of your 1 RM, this helps to improve your muscular physiologic efficiency. 

You can push your body for longer. For endurance jogging and swimming are often popular. 

Set yourself goals here too, in the amount of time for you to be able to move a heavy load.

Power Goals 

Power includes activities such as slam-ball, jumps, sprinting, and discus. The training load depends on the exercise for this. Reps for this depend on speed and strength, and you should avoid training to failure. 

Set goals here to motivate you along.

Building Strength

While all of these are separate in their way, they are also interlinked as well, training them all together can help you get into a great and healthy shape. You will feel a great deal better over time. 

Just remember to warm up, focus on your form, prioritize progressing your loads while trying compound exercises, and most of all, be consistent in your training.

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