Real facts about gaining strength and how easy it isn’t!

As a personal trainer for nearly 20 years now I’ve seen some pretty crazy gym crazes.

Back when I started in the industry, women lifting weights wasn’t really a thing. The dumbbell side of the gym was fuelled by male dominance, and it definitely wasn’t something that was promoted. In actual fact weights were seen as a way to make you bigger and more masculine. Boy how that has changed!

Let me emphasise that you will only build strength through two things: loading up to failure and recovering well through rest and nutrition.

Lifting those 1kgs probably won’t build anything unfortunately. Obviously we all have different baselines with where we start and how much we “can” lift which is why you have to look at lots of factors. This includes:

• Your weight
• Your job
• Your lifestyle

These will all affect your current strength levels.

From power plate to vipers to kettle bells and TRXs, I’ve seen it all with new ways to get us to load our bodies up. The focus on any gym plan in my opinion should always be to get stronger. I’ve heard of lots of people saying it needs to be 12 reps or it has to be 10 reps. There is no real number of reps you should be doing!

Your effort level is what you should be looking at. If you’re working off 10 reps and 5 sets – the last set should be failing! Failure is something you HAVE to do unfortunately.

So, if you’re doing shorter reps such 3-5 reps then the idea of this concept stays the same. You will probably just need to go heavier and the last set should always be failure.

This process has to have periodisation in place – that means planning, recovery weeks, loaded weeks. If you lose a week due to laziness, illness or you just don’t have enough time, you will go backwards.

As a PT I often work with higher numbers of reps  than this (although this obviously changes from client to client). Why? Because the higher number of reps you go, the better cardio effect you will get. And if there’s one thing I know, we all have a need to do cardio. However, this will NOT affect your strength. And a reminder you can still build strength from cardio as can you still gain weight from doing hours of cardio.

Building strength is the BEST way to burn fat. FACT!

Strength training may even help you live longer: A meta-analysis published in February 2022 found that people who perform resistance training are less likely to die prematurely than those who don’t even if aerobic workouts aren’t part of their routine.

So you are doing your strength training, what now?

You need to eat, recover and repair.  Calories, proteins, carbs. You need to ensure you’re fuelling your body. Post big sessions it is essential to ensure you’re recovering as well as you should. If this window is missed, you will not be able to come back better.

How often each week should you be training to see a strength improvement?

Here’s what’s worked for me. Strength focused sessions:

• Legs 3 x per week
• Abs and core can be done daily
• Upper 2 x weekly (chest potentially 3 x if done methodically)
• Recover work and cardio around this as well
• Make sure you’re sleeping well too. Sleep is one of the most underrated tools to improve strength.

Remember the process of getting strong isn’t easy.  

Ladies especially: lift those weights!

Natalie Bhangal is a personal trainer who has a passion for health, fitness and strength training. She trains beginners, athletes, pregnant and postnatal women, those with injuries and injury prone clients. For more information email natalie@graftfitness.co.uk