Weekly
Topic
Weekly
Topic
Jim Cipriani's
2008
Total Body Transformation Journal
Week 1
Weekly Topic
Week Ending: Saturday, February 9, 2008
The Importance of Strength
The old saying "only the strongest shall survive" is as true today as it was 10,000 years ago. Though we no longer need to capture and kill our food, physical strength is no less important. Even with the comfort of modern amenities, every physical task that you engage in will be significantly easier and more efficient if you are strong.
Strength is what separates those that make major progress in the gym with those who don't make any at all. And, no, this is not advice geared to the so call "gym rat" or "meat head." The misinformation out there regarding exercise has done nothing but add to masses of people joining health clubs with a lack of strength and lack of discipline it takes to make gains. They either try to improve their bodies and fail, or they never have the knowledge and intestinal fortitude to try at all.
There will be days where you will be encountered with the decision of making the decision of behaving like the masses. Maybe it's going out drinking with friends instead of going to the gym. Or maybe you just had a hard day at work and you will want to blow your workout off. Don't fall victim. If you were satisfied with being average, you wouldn't be reading this. Train, eat, sleep, read this blog, and stay the course. In no time, you'll be in elite company with the progress you make.
Now I know that some of you may be thinking to yourselves right now, "I just want bigger muscles, less fat, or both. I don't care about getting strong." This is an approach that will make you fail.
There are a few different ways to make progress in your workouts;
- You can increase the load (lift heavier weights),
- You can increase the density (do more work in the same time frame),
- You can even do the same amount of work in less time.
Unless you are training to increase anaerobic fitness or increase work capacity, only one of these methods makes any sense and works every time, and that is to increase the load.
I guarantee you that if you are still using the same weights today that you were using two years ago, or even two weeks ago, you are not making progress. You simply cannot make progress without getting stronger. A 225-pound squat is still a 225 pound-squat, no matter how many supersets you add, how little you rest between sets, or how many sets you can pile into a sixty minute workout.
Now, it's true that no one can keep adding weight to the bar or machine indefinitely. But there are far to many of you that never max out your strength potential.
Tons of people lift weights on a regular basis; many of them would even consider themselves bodybuilders. But why aren't more of them significantly bigger? Why do so many people who use light weights and pumping workouts not possess respectably muscular, lean physiques? I'll tell you why; its because the only way to make real progress is with heavy weights.
The bottom line - - if you only take a few ideas from this blog - - it is the fact that you must continually strive to get stronger and constantly be adding weight to the bar or machine if you ever want to make real progress. The two go hand in hand and you absolutely can make the progress you are looking for without getting stronger.
Have you ever seen someone who can bench press four hundred pounds or squat five hundred that didn't have a good amount of muscle? Probably not, because not too many of those people exist. Getting stronger is the most efficient way of getting results.
Take control. Only the strong survive.
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