Strength training can mean different things to many people. The way a weight lifter looks at strength training is completely different to how a football player looks at strength training or someone in a Pilates class. There are many different ‘strength types and having a great understanding what these different strength methods are and more importantly what type is most suitable to your goal is critical in achieving the results you are looking for. Most people use a typical 3 sets of 10 reps approach which really is a body-building type program to build muscle size more than muscle strength. To improve strength to its absolute potential you must work with a much higher intensity using what is known as a maximal strength program. There are many questions surrounding this approach with the first one being is this good for everyone to do and is it too risky? There is also several other important questions needing answers such as what exercises should you use? How many sets and reps should you use? Do you need a weight belt and wrist straps? And how many times per week is best? To answer all these questions and more I asked our trainer Nathan Fejes to give us his thoughts as he regularly uses this type of training himself and often lifts weights of 150kg with deadlifts and squats and 45kg with Turkish get ups!

What are the Different Types of Strength Training?

Before jumping into answer all the questions you might have here is a quick summary of the different types of strength training you can use.

Muscle Size 

This is the most common form of training used in gyms today. Focus is obviously on creating larger muscle size and methods used are often 3 sets of 8-12 reps with slow tempos to create time under tension and muscle fibre damage. While this improves muscle size and strength to some degree, it does not improve maximal strength as this method does not recruit more motor units within the muscles which we will explain shortly is of most importance for strength.

Strength Endurance 

This methods is where you see fitness become a component of the training and is great for most sports people and people looking for athletic fitness. This type of training gives you the ability to develop muscles’ ability to produce repeated contractions under conditions of fatigue. A combination of slow-twitch & fast twitch fibres are used here. Great for building a foundation on which to build power and greater maximum strength. This type of training is used a lot with many group programs like F45 and Crossfit.

Power

This is another area used extensively in sports requiring that explosive burst of speed. A much more complex style of training and not often used by many amateurs due to the high level of skill and expertise. Exercises with medicine balls and plyometrics make up a big part of this training with a real focus on fast twitch fibre development to enable fast and powerful movements to be produced.

This is an area many people do not understand very well and often use loads too great which reduces power development. Power training requires lighter loads than maximal strength in order to move explosively as most athletic movements do not involve slow contractions at near maximum force, but require more mid-to-high velocity. Read our detailed article about Power training for more information on this if you play sports.

And lastly this brings us to.....

Maximal Strength 

As the name suggests this is training to lift as heavy as possible and places massive amount of stress on the nervous system which is why you often see your arms or legs shake during exercises with this intensity. The big difference between maximal strength and muscle size is this type of training recruits more motor units within the muscles as opposed to damaging muscle fibres. The more motor units you have, the stronger you become. You may not even improve muscle size that much but your overall strength will be much greater.

Multiple sets between 4 and 10 are often used with the reps always between 1 and 5. To ensure quality of work and not compromising the load lifted long rest periods between each set are essential. As with power this has a real focus on fast-twitch muscle fibres and is really only for experienced lifters with great technique as this training comes with obvious risks due to the extreme loads.

When I am training for maximal strength I do it for that reason, to improve my strength ability to its maximal potential in a single movement. Part of using this is for my ego to be the best I can be, but a big part of using this is I know I need to lift heavy things all day as part of my job. I regularly work with male clients much bigger than me who require me to spot them and assist in lifting loads. If I am not strong enough to handle these loads I could very easily get injured.

If however I was an office worker sitting all day this might not be a good type of training to use and most likely injure my back.

Another great part of this type of training is once you’ve reached plateaus and are finding it hard to progress further in your training maximal strength can smash through these obstacles. I have often been stuck on a certain weight for ages using normal strength endurance and muscle size methods to use some maximal strength programming for a month or so and instantly go up to the next level.

Who Should Use Maximal Strength Training?

Improving your maximal strength is great for people of all ages but it does come with serious risks. If your technique is perfect and it is relevant to your goals it is an amazing type of training to use and you will notice significant gains.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want to be stronger so it makes sense to use this method in your training. You just have to acknowledge that this type of training can be very dangerous. When lifting something 8-12 times the first few reps are not that difficult and you can get away with a mistake or two. When it comes to lifting loads in the rep range of 1-5 you don’t get away with any mistakes. NONE! The very first rep is hard and your body shakes as your nervous system senses the danger to the joints. If you have any technique weaknesses you will pay a price.

Technique is everything and if you are not 100% confident in your form do not try this training.

The next thing to consider is if it is relevant to your goals. 

Sure, being stronger is great but it may conflict with what you need.

For example with endurance activities like cycling or long running it can make you a bit heavier if not used wisely and compromise your training goals. If used for short periods of time at the right point in your training plan it can be an excellent way to improve work economy, meaning you can push stronger reps over a given period of time, which means getting to the finish line quicker! You just would not use this all the time but at strategic points in the season.

Lastly a big factor to consider is STRESS. Without a doubt stress is a big saboteur of any health program but it can be a real problem if you use this training method. As maximal strength methods place massive stress onto the nervous system you must be sure you are getting good sleep and rest and not overly stressed out from work or lifestyle factors. More stress on top of more stress will exacerbate problems and have a negative impact on your body.

Again I will say that technique is CRITICAL.

Great Training Method for Females

And yes lifting heavy weights can be used with females and provide significant gains.

And don’t worry girls you are not going to get bulky as it is very difficult for females to build size like males for you lack the single most important ingredient to do this - testosterone. Females have approximately one tenth the amount of testosterone compared to a male in their system making it virtually impossible to build size. The other thing you need to do to build muscle size and bulky is to eat huge amount of food, in particular protein. And this is where almost every girl who is going to the gym will not do. Some girls may eat too much carbohydrates but rarely will you see them stuffing down a steak at lunch and dinner with protein shakes in between.

In my 15 years of training hundreds of females the more they lift the stronger they become and more toned as a result. If anything they actually shrink in size, not get bigger! And I am pretty sure most girls would love that.

Read this article to see more - 7 health and fitness facts every woman should know

What is Best Choice of Exercise for Maximal Strength?

Exercises you use in maximal strength programs must be very simple. This reduces the chance of mistakes and allows for greater execution of perfect technique. If you increase the complexity of the exercise it can either lead to injury or compromise your ability to lift a heavy load as there will be too many joints and moving parts involved increasing the chance of mistakes.

Good exercise choices are listed below with a link to a You Tube video explaining the technique required.

1. Barbell squat (front & back) – You Tube video
2. Deadlift (straight bar & trap bar) – You Tube video
3. Barbell lunge or Bulgarian split squat – You Tube video
4. Single arm dumbbell row - You Tube video
5. Chin up - You Tube video
6. Barbell bench press - You Tube video
7. Shoulder press (barbell or dumbbell) - You Tube video

As these exercises are very isolated and can create excessive compression it is wise to use a complementary program that includes less intense and complex exercises like wood-chops and single arm and leg movement. That way you can have the best of both worlds.

I suggest downloading the Functional Training FREE Report below that gives you a breakdown of the technique required for each of these key movements.

5 Things you must include in your program:

Before jumping right into your training there is several things you need to know so you do not hurt yourself.

1. You MUST use Warm up sets

This is non-negotiable.  Warm up sets are important to slowly wake up the ligaments, tendons and muscles that work in the particular movement you are about to do. Getting blood flow and firing up all the muscles within the area doesn’t happen straight away so doing this is crucial! And yes not just 1 set, it can take almost 2-4 sets to get your optimal temperature so to speak!  It can be time consuming but it is well worth it! Do not push yourself too hard too early as too heavy too quick will either result in injury or you not being able to lift it, speaking from personal experience! Later we will discuss how many sets to do in the workout.

For good mobility warm ups make sure you read our article – Best warm up routines prior to your strength workout

2. Technique MUST be perfect

It is very wise to use a spotter when training with heavy loads as this will preserve your technique and minimize the risk allowing you to work more safely with the huge loads being lifted.

As we have stressed many times ALL exercises must be performed with perfect technique as you will not get away with mistakes when the intensity is this high. If you are lifting heavier loads with the joints in dangerous positions you have a high risk of damaging your joints! If you cannot lift the weight your chasing for with good technique, but can or have lifted it in the past with poor technique, do not risk it again, it isn’t worth the ego! Having the right technique of certain exercises is a whole new topic on its own. Below are some videos discussing optimal form with exercises like deadlifts and squats.

Another thing to consider here is adjusting exercises to accommodate the loads.

For example the deadlift might be less risky if based up on blocks. Not everyone can lift from the height of weight plates. The taller you are the more risky it is to lift from this height as the levers of your limbs pose many problems to your body to provide stability to the lumbar spine.

A simple adjustment of sliding a block under the plates might make all the difference and enable you to increase your lifting weight with no risk of injury. This is not cheating, it is acknowledging your body’s requirements which differ from person to person. Remember the height of the plates are not determined by scientific evidence of the right height to lift from, this is determined for manufacturing purposes. Also it goes without saying that you MUST learn how to brace correctly when lifting maximal loads.

Watch the videos below where we explain these in more detail.

How Many Times Per Week Should You Train?

This is where we begin to see big mistakes made.

I am going to go against a lot of studies out there saying that more is better, with many claiming that 3-4 days per week of heavy strength training works. I have been there and done that, it caused me serious trouble! My belief is to do more in a “single session”, rather than “more sessions” throughout your week. The human body naturally cannot be put under heavy loads regularly, even with perfect technique the stress of the weight is literally crushing your joints no matter what position it is in! Too much with not enough rest just causes problems.

Focusing on one heavy loaded session is enough per week is enough. When you consider that most of have to work full time, have commitments, kids, partner & hobbies outside of the gym this is realistic and not overly aggressive on your body.

If you are a professional full time athlete with an entourage of support staff with nutrition and recovery and no other full time job more sessions per week might work great for you. Everybody’s situation is different, the more stresses in life you have, the less your body can regularly handle this training. Again, speaking from personal experience and making many mistakes I found that my results from only doing one heavy session worked much better than two. Sometimes less is more!

Occasionally I can get away with 2 heavy workouts in a week but most of the time I will only do one massive workout and then use more functional lighter loads on other workouts. The times I kept pushing myself to fit in two or even three workouts I felt my body was getting overly sore, I was constantly tired, and I was excessively stiffening up in my lower back and shoulders. Also other fitness components I enjoy like my running and balance training became worse as I was too sore to focus on that training which affected my energy levels.

Make sure you read the full article about training volume and understanding how to break up your rest and recovery with training – How many times per week is best to train?

By limiting my maximal workouts to one per week and combining this with a more functional routine and fitting in my run I am lifting heavier loads now than ever! I make sure I only do this for a short period as I will explain next.

How Long Can I Continue This training For?

Doing maximal strength training consecutively over a long period of over 3 plus months can start to put too much stress on your joints so you have to use short bursts to avoid creating excessive damage.

I like to do maximal strength training for 8-12 weeks straight as I find 8 weeks or less does not give me enough time to make adequate improvements. After 12 weeks I start getting too stiff and sore and notice my other fitness components starting to drop off.

I like to change up the exercise choice every 2-3 weeks along the 12 week cycle if I want to work on a bit of everything, however, if there is one or two specific exercises I want to focus on like the deadlift or squat I will only change the exercise once or twice throughout the 12 weeks.

Recovery is just as important as the training. If I really spend the time to do the right things between sessions my body adapts much faster and allows me to keep going. Again this is another area often neglected by many people.

Make sure you read this article for great ideas on how to improve your recovery. Best foods and tips to speed up recovery

What Sets, Reps and rest to use?

This is very important as we discussed at the beginning for if you do too many reps you will not increase the maximal strength via activation of the motor units. Having said that it can also vary depending how good you are with a particular exercise.

For example, I have done a lot of work with the trap bar deadlift and very confident with my technique. I quickly adapted to the intensity and got used to the heavy loads so much that I could easily get through a session consisting of 8-12 sets with loads of 1-5 repetitions.

The Turkish Get Up I also spent some time with and even used 12 sets of 1 rep to get to a weight of 45kg using a barbell! See video below.

The barbell back squat on the other hand is one of my weaknesses and this approach backfired as I injured myself following the same method I used for the deadlift.

This means I had to adjust my program to much less volume of only 5-8 sets and monitor my fatigue. If I feel it is not a good day I just avoid this and work on lighter technique session instead. This has been a good starting point for focusing on my technique to be perfect every time and not overdoing it, as I know my body tires quickly in the squat and it only takes one rep to cause pain!

The rest time is something else that I vary a lot depending on the exercise. It can be very long, especially once you have gradually reached to the heavier loads, can be between 90 seconds to 5 minutes between sets! Very time consuming I know, but that is what it takes to get the results, and being able to do a lot of sets of heavy lifting requires a lot of rest between each one!

There are many different workouts I use. Pyramids, wave loading and simple sets are some of my favourites. For a complete break up of all these workouts make sure you get the Little Black Book of Training Secrets below that provides you with everything you need to know about strength training.

Click here to see more about this awesome resource and get your copy instantly.

Workout gear for heavy lifting?

This is a controversial topic and an area I feel strongly about. Very often you see people lifting heavy weights with equipment like weight belts, wrist straps or strapping. I prefer to avoid the use of these for several reasons.

Firstly in real life when you need to lift something heavy you are unlikely to have these tools nearby. If you have taught your body to rely on them and now you don’t have it the chance of disaster is close. By teaching yourself to lift differently using these tools you are not engaging your muscles, breathing and joint positions the same as lifting the weight without them.

Here is a summary of each of these tools.

The Weight Belt:

If you are an Olympic weightlifter this is fine to use and absolutely essential. Just remember these people are elite athletes and their technique is precise with their understanding of breathing and positioning the best in the business. I have no issue with people using belts for this training. My issue is with the guy who goes to the gym at night and tries to crush heavy deadlifts without the weightlifters skills and knowledge. They skip this part and use a belt to do all the work.

The reason people wear this is to have the belt to protect the spine when lifting a really heavy load. This creates a problem if have not spent the time to know how to create good spinal stability using your breath.

When you breathe in to build intra-abdominal pressure your stomach expands for the first inhale and then slightly widens but does not push out, doing this recruits the abdominals, obliques and transverse abdominus (the core muscle that attaches and protects your spine). When you put a belt around your stomach you teach yourself to push out into the belt which is a different technique, this still recruits your abs and obliques but not the transverse abdominus, the one that attaches to your spine! Therefore, if you don’t have your belt and you are lifting heavy and you have taught yourself this way of breathing, this can increase your chances of injuring your spine.

Read our article – Do you know how to breathe correctly when you exercise?

Wrist Straps:

When something gets too heavy to hold you lose your grip and let go of the load. This is common to deadlifts and chin ups that require huge grip strength. To overcome this problem people use wrist straps to keep going with the exercise. The problem with this is that the reason you lose your grip is not just because your forearms cannot hold the weight anymore but because other joints like the elbow and shoulders are no longer able to hold and stabilize the load.  By forcing your body to do something it is not capable of exposes the elbow, shoulder, and neck to serious injury.  

There is a reason your body wants you to let go and it is not wise to ignore this.

Joint Strapping:

Very similar to wrist straps, if your joint cannot take the load, then don’t lift it! Instead slowly week by week ease into the number your chasing for without the strap to teach the weak joint/s to become stronger gradually through the weight bearing load. Strapping can slightly help with joint stability through exercise but it cannot protect you entirely.

Read this article for more – Do knee sleeves really work in preventing injury?

My approach is to do what your body can naturally handle and in doing so it will slowly strengthen the joint’s weight bearing ability.

Summary

In summary, maximal strength training is a great alternative to improve your strength for your current training, however it must be given great respect and care. The key things to remember are

• Keep your exercises simple.
• You must have perfect technique to prevent injury.
• Always use a lot of warm up sets with gradually increasing the weight throughout the session.
• Use this training no more than twice a week to allow for your muscles and joints to recover.
• Only using a maximum 12 week cycle with the same exercise focus.
• Avoid using weight belts and wrist straps if possible.

Follow these principles and you will enjoy the training, feel stronger than you have ever been and remain injury free. Maximal strength training is a great training method but it must be treated with upmost respect.

For more ideas and information on specific topics I may not have covered in detail be sure to check out our INDEX PAGE on the website that has over 300 of our best articles. These are all sorted into categories for quick reference so you can find what you are after more easily. You can also subscribe to our FREE fortnightly newsletter by clicking here.

If you do need specific help with your exercise program please feel free to reach out to me for help and we can set you up with your individualised program.

About The Author

Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 14 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specializes in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.

References

• Movement - By Gray Cook
• Athletic Body in Balance – by Gray Cook
• New Functional Training for Sports – by Mike Boyle
• Bending the Aging Curve – by Robert Signorile
• Corrective Exercise Solutions - by Evan Osar
• Diagnosis & Treatment Of Movement Impairment Syndromes - By Shirley Sahrman
• Low Back Disorders - by Stuart McGill
• Anatomy Trains - by Thomas Meyers
• Motor Learning and Performance - By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
• Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance - By Vladimir Janda
• Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course - By Paul Chek
• Advanced Program Design - By Paul Chek
• Twist Conditioning Sports Strength - By Peter Twist
• Twist Conditioning Sports Movement - By Peter Twist
• Twist Conditioning Sports Balance - By Peter Twist