Relative Strength Training

May 3, 2011

It’s been shown that we adapt to a given exercise in 6 workouts or less. We need to always try and introduce a new type of stimulus on the body, or ultimately gains fail and at best you are just maintaining. There are many ways to extend a good routine. Such as, play with different tempos and maybe add a pause in the stretched position or the contracted position. You could also shorten your rest intervals, which would give you more of a growth hormone response. A good approach to take is to alternate hypertrophy training with functional and relative strength training. This would prevent adaptation from occurring.

Lets talk about some training principles regarding relative strength training. Relative strength is the maximum force a person can generate per unit of body weight. It’s ideal for the people who are looking for increased strength, but want to limit body composition. It’s also good for gymnasts, or for those involved in sports with weight classes, such as wrestling, boxing, and judo.

Training relative strength and the nervous system requires optimal rest. A good approach would be to select a pair of agonist/antagonist exercises (ex. Chest/back). It has been shown that the nervous system needs 3-5 minutes between sets to fully recover. For example, you could hit the bench press and rest 2 minutes and than proceed to a pull up and rest another 2 minutes. When you return to the bench press you would have received adequate time for the nervous system to be at its strongest for another grueling set. Its also a good idea to keep your time under tension under 20 seconds during a relative strength phase. If you exceed and go beyond this you will begin to train your musculature and ultimately put on muscle. So, if it takes you 3 seconds to lower the bar and 1 second to raise the bar that is 4 seconds a rep. Try selecting a weight heavy enough so you cannot perform more than 5 repetitions (5 X 4 = 20s).

Be smart when choosing your workout routine, or many times all you are doing to spinning your wheels and increasing unneeded cortisol. A weight-training workout should never exceed an hour, for it would be causing more harm to the body than good.

“A exercise is only as good as the time it takes for the body to adapt to it.“
–Charles Poliquin


Please feel free contact me at nklein@ehac.com for help with achieving your goals.