Sunday, June 5, 2016

A Graphical Representation of Strength Gains over Time



Over your time lifting you may have noticed that the gains just don’t come as easily as they used to, if you are a more experienced lifter and have been lifting for a number of years. Younger lifters numbers are quick to go up and they have the ability to do practically anything in the gym and get stronger. After a couple years have gone by and doing the same thing every week has stopped working, it can be frustrating when strength gains only come in 5-10 pound personal records every few months. Getting stronger is not a linear relationship (figure 1). If it was there would be a lot more 1,000+ pound squatters in the world. In reality, getting stronger more like what is depicted in figure 2. You get stronger fast! Then, as the years go on the amount of time and effort it takes to get even stronger returns marginal gains. 

 Figure 1: Not how strength increases over time.


Figure 2: How strength gains over time actually looks, and the range of marginal gains.

Don’t be discouraged if this you are in the range of marginal gains. This is when you can start using more advanced training methods and mixing it up to add more variety to your training, which can be very effective! Having a good idea about where you fall can give you a better understanding of what to expect as you continue to try and get stronger. It all comes down to how much time and effort you are will to put into the task. That decision is up to you.

Ryan Goodell, CSCS

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