Increasing your strength happens in 4 major ways.
First is neuromuscularly, meaning the body’s nervous systems gets better at contracting muscles at the right time to make lifting more efficient.
Second is by progressive overload, meaning over time the weight you use is heavier and the body adapts by hypertrophying the muscles or by being able to recruit more motor units, meaning being able to use more of the muscles full potential to lift.
Third is form. The more efficient you are at moving a weight in a straight line, the more weight you will eventually be able to move effectively and more importantly, safely.
Fourthly, and where I am going with this whole post, is the ability to create tension throughout a lift. This could be part of good form but you can have good form without creating ideal tension.
Tension is what triggers the body to get ready to lift a weight. It also protects the body by bracing otherwise unstable areas, like the back for instance. Tension essentially tells the body’s nervous system to tell the muscle to get ready to lift a weight. Without tension you will not have optimal muscle recruitment and will end up not being able to maintain optimal form under heavier loads.
I wrote a great post over at Stack.com about how to create tension and gave a few of my favorite exercises to teach creating tension.
Give it a read CLICK HERE.
Much love,
JW
