One of the most popular goals for people who go to the gym is to build strength. Stronger muscles mean you can lift more weight, perform everyday tasks more easily, and even improve your posture and weight-bearing abilities. But if your workout efforts aren't paying off, there could be a number of reasons why.
Developing maximal strength (which means making significant strength gains) and increasing the appearance of lean muscle mass are two different concepts, so you'll program workouts differently depending on what goal you're aiming for.
For example, strength training builds the strength and power of your muscles, while hypertrophy training (the process of building muscle) increases the size of your muscle fibers.
To explain more and help you understand why you're not making progress, we spoke with strength and conditioning coach Luiz Silva. Here's what he told us.
Luiz Silva is a certified personal trainer, fitness coach and spinning instructor. He is currently the Fitness Manager at Castle Royle.
Hypertrophy versus bodybuilding
First, it’s essential to distinguish between strength and hypertrophy before programming your workouts. Weight lifting and any form of resistance training are great for your overall health, helping you maintain and build muscle mass, get stronger, improve bone and joint health, and reduce your risk of injury.
However, like everything in life, results come from specific variables and stimuli, so unless you are genetically gifted, throwing weights will not guarantee success.
Many people think that muscle growth means that the muscle becomes significantly stronger and vice versa, but it's not that simple. Science tells us that muscle hypertrophy falls into two categories: sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar.
To put it simply, sarcoplasmic fluid is contained in the muscles, which is also an energy resource (glycogen), and sarcoplasmic fluid hypertrophy Myofibrillar hypertrophy refers to an increase in fluid volume, which makes muscles appear larger. Myofibrillar hypertrophy refers to the number of myofibrils present in muscle fibers, and when these increase, muscles become stronger and denser.
Resistance training can help people harness both, but there are rules to follow to prioritize muscle growth over strength. Think Olympic weightlifters, where many athletes aren't sculpted or muscular like sprinters or middle-distance runners, but can lift incredibly heavy weights.
While you will get stronger by lifting weights regularly, increasing the size of your muscles will not significantly increase your force production. No matter what approach you take to training, your muscles need to be challenged enough to force adaptations to grow and strengthen.
With that in mind, Silva reveals three common problems you might face and we discuss how to solve them.
1. Lack of progress
“To get stronger, we need to get out of our comfort zone, so our muscles can adapt,” Silva explains. “These adaptations come in the form of increased muscle fiber recruitment, muscle cell growth (hypertrophy), and muscle cell multiplication (hyperplasia).”
Strength training works on the central nervous system (CNS) and develops neuromuscular benefits. Activating large muscle groups to perform powerful movements creates more powerful muscles. It does not require muscle fibers to grow in response, but the brain becomes more efficient at recruiting muscles, improving neural pathways and their contractions.
“The more fiber a muscle has, and the larger those fibers are, the stronger the muscle needs to be,” Silva adds. “People looking to get stronger should try to ‘go the extra mile’ by doing an extra rep or set when they feel like they’re running low, or by adding that extra weight on the last set.”
Silva says completing three sets of 10 reps and still having 10 more in the tank won't get you anywhere if your weights haven't increased over months or years.
2. Poor hydration
If you're wondering if there's a lot of water in muscles, the answer is yes.
“A dehydrated muscle is a poorly recovering muscle,” Silva explains. “More than half of your muscle cells are made up of water, so if you don’t have good water intake, protein synthesis, muscle recovery, and elasticity will be affected, which will affect your overall performance.”
Sure, your first thought might be nutrition—the best time to drink a protein shake or whether to eat before or after a workout—but your hydration strategy should also be considered.
Water is abundant in the human body, and according to a study published in the journal Nutrients, it makes up about 76% of muscle mass. As we age, total body water decreases, as does intracellular water, “along with an age-related loss of muscle mass and strength.”
The Mayo Clinic pulled data from the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which recommends a daily intake of 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) for women and 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluids for men, based on healthy adults. Factors such as climate, age, gender, activity level, health, and diet all impact how much fluid you need daily.
Our fitness editor isn't one to turn down a challenge. She drank a gallon of water a day for a month and shared her findings with us. It all goes to show the importance of staying hydrated and keeping one of the best water bottles nearby during your workout.
3. Lack of planning
“A good strength and conditioning program should be built around a good cycle to ensure you continue to progress,” Silva recommends.
“You need to cycle through volume, intensity, form, and recovery so your muscles and body can continue to adapt and progress. Spending a year doing the same workout routine will not only be very boring, but it will also accelerate the stagnation of your muscles and results.”
Submaximal resistance training and gradually increasing volume over time, known as progressive overload, can help if you're struggling to build muscle in the gym, while maximally loading your muscles will help if you're planning on your one-rep max or looking to lift much heavier weights in the gym.
Working with a coach is a great way to learn how to program properly, but there are plenty of free resources that can help you get started. We even asked Chat-GPT to create a 4-week program based on fitness goals, lifestyle, and biological factors. Our Hypertrophy and Bodybuilding Guide can help you decide on load, sets, and reps.
Relative strength versus absolute strength
We've focused primarily on strength training with weights and maximal load, but there are other ways to build strength, such as bodyweight training, athletics, and pound-for-pound strength in a weightlifting context. Relative strength.
When we talk about relative strength, we like to use the example of a gymnast or someone who is an expert in calisthenics. These athletes have high relative strength, meaning they are strong relative to their body size and weight, or their strength at equal weight. But this can also apply to a weightlifting session.
On the other hand, Sports magazine defines absolute strength as the maximum tension a muscle can produce—think heavy weight lifting and one-rep-max weightlifting. Regardless of a person's muscle or size, it's the maximum force you can exert for a given action.
People who exercise with heavier body weight (and “bigger” people) tend to have higher levels of absolute strength. But before you start programming, it’s worth reading up on the differences between relative strength and absolute strength first.