New Lifter Tip #6: Get Strong. Then...get STRONGER!

New Lifter Tip #6: Get Strong. Then…get STRONGER!

*For all previous New Lifter Tips, go to my ‘Beginner’s Guide to Lifting’ section, here.

As a beginner, spending the majority of your time and focus on gaining strength (in all forms, on all lifts) will pay huge (pun intended) dividends down the road when it comes to building lean mass or helping you achieve virtually any goal. While it’s true that hypertrophy most commonly occurs by training with sub-maximal loads for higher volume, consider how much more muscle you’ll be able to gain if your sub-max loads begin to far surpass what your maximum loads were earlier on in your training.

Put another way, if you start out squatting 95 lbs. for 4 sets of 6, but by focusing on strength, progress to squatting 225 for 4x6 down the road, which scenario do you think will build more muscle or have a more positive effect on creating change within your body? Pretty obvious, right? So, before worrying about applying specific body-building principles and focusing solely on muscle growth or getting a shredded “six pack”, put your energy and focus simply into getting stronger, week after week, month after month. Before you know it, you’ll easily be repping what was previously your max, and your body will show it.