I want you to be strong. It’s fun to be strong.
You feel better. You move better. You’re more confident.
One of life’s games you can choose to play is seeing what you’re physically capable of. And strength is a great place to start.
This post isn’t intended to be prescriptive. If you’re wanting a great strength program, there’s better places to look than some random dude’s Substack this post.
Instead I’ll tell you how I personally think about strength and incorporate it into my weekly rhythm.
Strength gains happen via progressive overload + time. It’s the intentional increase of weight and reps over time.
That’s the main thing to understand. We get stronger when we’re regularly approaching our maximum strength, which triggers our body to adapt by building more muscle.
The best part?
You control the adaptation. If you want to get stronger, you spend more time at the edges of your strength. That means heavy weight and low reps. And this is where most people get strength wrong. They will spend a lot of time lifting lighter weights at higher reps, and end up frustrated that they haven’t seen the results they were hoping for. It’s the workout equivalent of being busy, but not productive.
I like to keep things simple when it comes to working out. So I focus on big movements, at low reps, and high weight.
—> Deadlifts. Bench press. Shoulder press. Squats.
These are the foundation of my workouts. They’re big movements, using our largest muscle groups. If you’re strong in these movements, you’re strong in life.
With those movements as the foundation of my workouts (let’s assume doing each once per week), I am typically doing 5 sets of 3 reps, 4 reps, or 5 reps. Rarely less than 3 reps. And rarely more than 5. And every single one of those reps should be challenging.
The beauty of this simple structure is it’s easy to tinker with your weight and your reps to drive adaptation. Here’s an example.
Let’s say you did 5 sets of 3 reps on bench press at 200 pounds. It was heavy, but you felt good. You felt strong. And you didn’t fail any reps. The following week you can drive adaptation by:
-increasing your reps to 5 sets of 4 reps at the same weight (200 pounds)
-or doing the same 5 sets of 3 reps but increasing your weight to 210 pounds
Both increasing weight and increasing reps are contributing to adaptation, and you always have those 2 variables to play with.
I don’t overthink it. If I want to get stronger, I’m messing with those simple variables in those same confined rep ranges.
If you’re new to strength training or have been away from it for a long time, you will gain a lot of strength in a short amount of time. It’s the beauty of being a beginner.
Those strength increases become harder to achieve over time as your body settles into its stronger self. When that happens, it can feel like there’s strength ceilings you can’t break through. A few strategies that have reliably worked for me to break through those ceilings:
-Adding a 20 rep max at end of my sets. It’s hard. It’s exhausting. And it works.
-Taking extended rest. Ideally 2+ weeks. When you train a lot you don’t realize how worn out your body really is. Take a few weeks off, and my guess is you will come back feeling stronger than ever.
-Switch it up. Take a couple months to mix up your workouts. When I want a break, I’ll switch to more bodybuilding style training. Or Crossfit. Or running. It’s hard to grind it out on a barbell every day. Mixing it up for a bit makes it easier to come back to the work.
If you just did the lifts above once per week, using heavy weights at low rep ranges, and consistently increasing your weight or reps to drive adaptation, your body will transform. And that’s without any extra fluff of supersets, complimentary lifts, or our beloved core work.
It goes without saying, but anyone lifting heavy weights should prioritize form over everything else. There’s no sense in being strong but constantly injured. That’s where great coaches and programs make the difference.
Come play the strength game.
It’s a fun one, and you’re the ultimate winner.
Your strong future self is already thanking you.
If you find value in the things I publish here, it’d mean the world if you’d share it with someone else. It’s the only way this space and community continues to grow.
✌️ and ❤️,
Adam Griffin