Everything You Need To Know About Getting Stronger
Do you have the ultimate goal of getting stronger this year?
Maybe you have a love of squatting or deadlifting?
Or perhaps you have that elusive first pull up in sight?
We’re sure all of us love the feeling of becoming physically stronger.
Adding some more plates to each side of the bar, or going from being unable to hold a plank to hitting double digit reps on press ups, are the easiest ways to spot that increase in strength.
However, this takes time.
So we wanted to help you take notice of 5 other signs, that you’re strength is on the up!
1. YOUR TECHNIQUE IS BETTER.
Technique is key. It’s one of our key principles at M3 Perform. It can become all too easy to get carried away with adding more weight to barbells and dumbbells, whilst losing sight of your own technique.
It’s also a really great indicator of strength.
Take a deadlift for example. Sure, you might be able to get 100kg from the ground and stand up straight, but could your technique improve?
Could there be less rounding of the shoulders? Could it come up slightly faster and with less visible struggle?
It’s worth remembering that for a lot of the big moves inside a gym, there are a lot of muscles at work. Therefore, a lot of areas where strength can be increased.
So keep an eye on your form either through a coach or fellow gym goer, or even through recordings from your phone, to spot every possible sign that you’re becoming stronger!
2. IT JUST FEELS EASIER
Quite often we use something called RPE to determine how hard someone is working during a set.
RPE = Rate of Perceived Exertion.
In other words, how much effort are you having to place into each rep.
1 = No effort at all.
10 = I think I saw heaven..
It obviously depends on just how far along you are in your lifting journey to really nail down exactly where about on this scale you should be working.
Generally the more experienced at lifting you are, the higher you’re safely able to go.
Somewhere between 6-8 out of 10, is usually a safe bet.
It’s worth considering where you feel you’re working on your sets.
Did that press up feel like a maximal effort 10 out of 10?
Perhaps next time it’ll only feel like a 6 or 7? An awesome sign you’re getting much stronger!
3. YOUR RECOVERY IS BETTER
Let’s just assume that we’ve all been there.
The day after a big workout, or if you’re really unlucky, multiple days, where you first place your feet on your bedroom floor, and instantly feel the soreness everywhere as you take your first stand of the day.
Whilst soreness isn’t necessarily a direct indicator of any kind of major progress, it’s more often than not there to serve as a reminder of the fact we worked out hard!
However the more we adapt to training, the less intense this can become. That doesn’t mean you didn’t work hard either!
As mentioned before, getting stronger also leads to, for lack of a better phrase, less effort required to perform a specific exercise. This will also be shown in your bodies ability to recover much faster in the days following a workout.
So, if the soreness and stiffness is becoming less and less intense after your sessions, chances are, you’re getting stronger!
4. YOU CAN DO MORE REPS
If you’ve gone from 1 press up, to 20 press ups, you don’t need us to tell you that you’ve become a lot stronger!
The jump in reps doesn’t need to necessarily even be that dramatic either.
If you’ve been deadlifting your bodyweight for around 5 reps, and all of a sudden can safely and efficiently execute a 6th rep. Boom! You’ve gotten stronger!
Similarly to point number 3, you don’t even really need to be able to perform those extra reps either.
Sometimes you’ve have a set where you feel like you couldn’t have done anymore, yet 3 months later, perform the same exercise at the same weight for the same reps, and walk away feeling like you really did have another 1 or 2 reps in the tank.
Just even knowing that means it’s probably safe enough to assume you’ve experienced some big strength gains since last time.
5. YOU CAN LIFT MORE WEIGHT
Saving the most obvious until last..
For most of us, whilst not the ONLY sign of strength going up, this can certainly be the most pleasing and rewarding.
We’re talking triple digit Instagram likes kind of rewarding!
In all seriousness though, we can’t get away from the fact that being able to lift more weight, is a definitive sign of increased strength. As long as it’s done safely.
However, it can be helpful to remember the aforementioned points made, as simply sticking more weight on the bar or dumbbells every week, isn’t really going to lead anywhere longer term.
Look out for your technique improving.
Look out for your recovery becoming much faster.
Look out for just simply feeling like less effort was required or that you felt you had a few extra more reps in the tank.
If all of that is pointing you in the right direction, then it’s only a matter of time before the weights you’re lifting follow suit!