Look Strong vs. BE STRONG?

 

One of the most basic struggles we have in the gym is the ego’s battle over size vs. strength. Most of us tend to judge a book by its cover and assume that as we become more muscular, great strength will follow.  This idea can be a bit misleading. 

In my previous posts, I eluded to the fact that many of the biggest guys in the gym may not necessarily be the strongest. 

Less experienced lifters are often fooled into thinking that the bigger you are, the stronger you are.

It is not uncommon to find average looking people that perform specific exercises well beyond the capacity (or at least the same level )of their larger counterparts.

This is because even though a larger muscle carries the potential to be stronger than a smaller one, it is the nervous system that innervates the muscle, which is responsible for its display of strength.  Wouldn't everyone like making the muscles they already have even more powerful?

Still, the majority of gym-goers seem trapped in a sort of groupthink.  In the gym you may regularly hear “He was small and I called him shorty …what is someone his size gonna do?” and the ever popular “Look man.  They only see how good you look on the beach.  They can’t see how strong you are.”

While this is the routine with younger males in the gym, it isn’t a leap to state that most people (of either sex and regardless of age) care about looking good more than they do being strong or even being healthy.  To be honest, it seems that in our society looking good ranks first and pretty much everything else comes second.  There are exceptions to this superficial sounding rule, but you must admit that there is substantial proof that a majority of people think this way even if they deny it outwardly. 

So I am going to take this chicken or the egg scenario and try to make everyone see it from a different angle.

I believe that everyone wants to be strong.  I can tell by the way they stare and talk about strong people.  Even the haters that start throwing excuses and accusations still have a deep-rooted desire to be strong and not just be pretty.  The good news is that size can also follows strength.  It just doesn’t follow it as quickly as it does training for muscle.  If you are feeling a bit confused by that just wait and I’ll explain.

To shed a little more light on this, we need to talk about what strength really is and how it functions.  I promise to keep things simple and practical so it will be less boring to learn.

In the next few posts, we’ll cover the different flavors of strength and some basic training principles.  And I’m not talking about the principles you read about in fitness magazines.

Despite popular culture we actually have in-depth texts on strength training.  Strength coaches call some of these books Bibles.  Names like Dr. Siff, Dr. Verkoshanky, and Dr. Hatfield spring to mind.  There are many others and anyone that majored in this stuff will be upset that I didn’t mention some obvious, dominant author in this field, but the point is the information is out there.  You just have to seek it out.

Anyway, I recommend you keep checking the site if you would like to better understand the basic principles of strength and maybe display some sick feats of strength all the way through your midlife and beyond.