Physical activity is one of the fundamental requirements to achieve healthy lifestyle habits, along with adequate nutrition. Both factors help reduce and prevent weight changes, such as overweight or obesity, very common problems in today’s society, since there is a clear tendency to sedentary lifestyle and poor nutritional habits. It is very important to combat these disorders, as they can cause other pathologies such as cardiovascular diseases or diabetes.
One of the ways to get regular physical activity that has gained the most followers in recent years has been exercising in the gym. There are different types of training, depending on the objectives to be achieved, but what many people do not know is that both the objectives and the training sessions are intimately related to the types of muscle strength that exist and that determine the capabilities of the person in the time of exercise. In oneHOWTO we explain what are the types of muscle strength. Discover them!
What is muscle strength
When we start training in the gym, the first thing we think about is the objectives we pursue. In some cases it is the gain of muscle mass, in others the toning and definition. Also many people want to combine both goals, first with the increase of muscle and then with the reduction of body fat. In all cases there is a basic component that causes us to achieve our goals when we exercise: strength.
An easy and understandable definition of strength can be the ability of each muscle that our body forms to produce a voltage acting against a resistance. This concept is totally generic and refers to all types of strength, but it can be said that there are three more specific types of strength that are closely related to the way we exercise. If we have developed one of these types more, it will be easier for us to do a certain type of physical activity, but if we want to improve in one in which we do not have as much practice, we can also work on it by developing the type of strength that is related to it.
Pure force or maximum force
Logically, the more strength we have, the more weight we will lift and the greater the capacity to develop muscle mass we will have. We can generate more force with training, and if our main objective is to gain strength so that later we can increase muscle, the most advisable thing is to increase the pure or maximum force.
To be understood in a simple way, pure force is that which we are capable of producing when we perform a single repetition of an exercise. That is, we are going to use practically 100% of our strength to do a repetition with the maximum possible weight. By training in this way you will gain more strength that you can then use in subsequent training sessions to achieve the rest of your goals. Keep in mind that when training maximum strength you cannot count on the help of a partner to perform the only repetition that you must do. Can you do three or four sets of one rep, depending on muscle exhaustion.
Explosive force
To this kind of force it is also called power. It is defined as the speed at which our muscles can move a weight. With this type of force what we gain is explosiveness and speed in movement, as well as muscle mass.
If you want to work on these goals, your training has to be based on three or four sets of maximum 6 repetitions. You must also choose a weight that is between your 70% and 80% strength, so that you arrive tired to the last repetition. It is one of the workouts chosen to develop muscle mass and to gain muscle power, since it is usually quite effective in both upper and lower body.
Resistance force
The last type of force refers to the amount of time that the force may be acting, that is, the amount of time that a muscle can be generating that tension to act against a resistance. This type of force is the one that corresponds to toning workouts, since it involves performing more repetitions with lower weights.
To work the resistance force do four sets of twelve reps with weights that correspond to 60% of your strength. In this way you will be strengthening and toning the muscle and eliminating fat.
Now that you know what the types of muscle strength are, you may be interested in this other article on How to do strength training.
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