Benefits of Muscular Strength
1. Makes everyday life easier, helping us to carry heavy objects, climb stairs and even get dressed.
2. Stronger muscles make bones stronger reducing the risk of fracture in old age
3. Increased muscle mass helps maintain good metabolic health.
4. Physical strength has been linked with better mental health outcomes; it can help to alleviate stress and increase feelings of self-worth
5. Improved sports performance.
6. Resistance training is often recommended by doctors for people experiencing problems with fatigue or low mood
7. It can contribute to weight loss; increasing lean body mass which will burn more calories overall than fat tissue will
8. It is associated with greater confidence and enhanced self-esteem
9. Improved breathing capacity, posture, and joint function.
stronger muscles reduce the risk of orthopedic problems such as osteoarthritis
11. Muscular strength can be improved using very little equipment or space, so it’s an easy addition to any home workout routine.
12. Muscle mass requires lots of fuel to maintain itself; this further contributes to better metabolic health for those who are already physically active, making them even more resistant to diseases like type 2 diabetes.
13. Weight training has been used in medical rehabilitation programs following injury or illness.
14. Resistance training has also been shown to be beneficial in helping women recover from breast cancer treatment.
15. Stronger muscles improve an individual’s ability to prevent falls, often a source of injury in the elderly.
16. Resistance training can be used as a form of stress management to counter the negative effects of daily life.
17. Improved athletic performance – increased speed, power, and agility
18. Strength training may also help with weight loss by increasing lean muscle mass which naturally burns more calories than fat tissue does on its own.
19. It helps control blood glucose levels in people with diabetes or pre-diabetes conditions
20. Improved body composition; strength training is great for maintaining or building muscle mass while simultaneously losing fat tissue.
21. Improved aerobic capacity – the ability of the heart and lungs to supply oxygen, allowing us to exercise for longer before becoming fatigued
22. Reduced risk of osteoporosis in later life because bones are constantly being broken down by weight training which can help to prevent their depletion or loss
23. Reduction in blood pressure levels
24. Blood lipid profiles are improved
25. Strength training has been linked with lower rates of cancer mortality
26. It’s associated with increased functional independence in older adults
27 Weight training can also be used as an effective supplement therapy to treat depression
28. Resistance training is very time efficient; it doesn’t take much time each week to produce significant improvements
29. Muscle strength increases faster when performed at high intensity.
30. More efficient neuromuscular function; the communication between the brain and muscle cells is enhanced by resistance training which can help to prevent injury and reduce disability in older adults.
Types of muscular strength:
Table of Contents
1. Absolute strength:
This is the maximum amount of force that a muscle can produce.
2. Relative strength:
This is the relative relationship between two muscles or muscle groups, e.g., how strong one muscle group is compared to another. For example, if you were to arm curl 100 lbs (45 kg) for reps with your right arm and 120 lbs (55 kg) for reps with your left arm, your left biceps would have more relative strength than your right biceps. Your right biceps are stronger in absolute terms, but not when compared to their antagonist on the other side of the body.
3. Explosive strength:
Also called power, this is how quickly a muscle can contract concentrically (shorten) or how quickly it can overcome the inertia of a weight that is moving.
4. Strength endurance:
This refers to how many reps you can do with a given load before fatigue set in. For example, if you were capable of doing 10 chin-ups with 30 lbs (14 kg) hanging from your waist, but only 2 reps with 60 lbs (27 kg), then your relative strength endurance would be much lower at 30 lbs than it is at 60 lbs.
5. Coordinated strength :
According to the late sports scientist Mel Siff, this is “strength without co-ordination” and it requires a high degree of practice and understanding of technique so as to rely almost on the type 1 fibers which have a low resistance to fatigue.
In order to train for coordinated strength, the maximum number of reps should be used with 50% or less of 1RM and this is much more applicable in sports requiring a high degree of coordination such as baseball, basketball, etc.
Muscular strength and endurance:
These are the adaptations of the muscles to the stimulus of exercise.
1. The stronger a muscle becomes, the greater its resistance to stretch and contract against loads resulting from that new strength.
2. The more endurance a muscle develops, the better it is able to withstand fatigue during repeated contractions or during continuous work over an extended period. Endurance will depend on the ability of both slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibers within a given muscle group to tolerate lactic acid accumulation and its effects on surrounding tissues such as tendons and aponeuroses (the fibrous connective tissue sheath surrounding whole muscle groups).
A strong endurance component in a particular sport usually reflects the good aerobic capacity for supplying energy needs over a long time frame, together with the well-developed lactic acid tolerance of the muscles themselves.
Muscular strength, muscular endurance, and muscle hypertrophy:
a) For every motor neuron there are a number of muscle fibers which it innervates. As a result, any given neuron will have a certain amount of contractile tissue under its command this is one reason why you can’t simply increase muscle size by directly stimulating individual fibers with an electrical impulse the current would spread too quickly to allow selective stimulation.
In order to cause hypertrophy, you need to subject a large area of the body’s musculature to sufficient tension over an extended time frame using either heavy resistance or high repetitions with lighter weights. This results in systemic changes within the body, including hormonal fluctuations, an increase in muscle glycogen storage, etc.
b) For muscular endurance, you need to shorten the time period over which tension is applied. Since fatigue sets in relatively quickly under most circumstances, very high reps can be used with lighter weights or resistance.
c) Muscle strength is the least discriminating of the three adaptations because it results in pretty much every fiber within a given muscle group becoming stronger to some extent. This growth range falls somewhere between hypertrophy and muscular endurance on the one side and explosive power on the other side of the spectrum.
Size and strength:
It is a common observation that bodybuilders or athletes in sports requiring bulk and weight (such as wrestling, American football, and rugby) tend to be more muscular than those engaged in activities requiring more speed and less weight (long-distance runners, distance swimmers, etc.) This has led some people to the conclusion that heavier body weights result in stronger muscles.
Muscular strength and endurance exercises:
1. Strength training:
This is the time-tested and true method of developing overall mass and strength by using low reps and high resistance with many sets of exercises to failure or near-failure.
2. Hypertrophy:
This form of exercise uses higher reps and lower resistance with a focus on increasing blood flow to the muscles, leading to an increase in muscle fiber size (hypertrophy) without concurrent increases in strength.
Typically, there are not enough heavy loads available nor does it create localized muscular fatigue such that you need only achieve momentary muscular contractions for this purpose.
3. Muscular endurance:
This involves very short rest periods, high repetitions, relatively light weights, and a lot of cardiovascular conditioning. It is used primarily to increase the amount of work that muscles are capable of doing over a given time frame, which can improve muscular endurance for sports requiring quick bursts of power or strength in short areas followed by periods of low activity or rest.
4. Powerlifting:
This form of exercise uses maximal loads lifted explosively over only a few repetitions to complete muscular fatigue with the goal being increased power and strength rather than increased size or endurance.
It can be dangerous if not done properly so should only be attempted under the guidance of a qualified trainer who understands proper lifting technique and spotting procedures.
What are the effects of testosterone on muscle mass?
Testosterone receptors have been found in various muscle groups including cardiac tissues that may account for individual variations in specific organ system performance, however, there is also evidence that systemic changes occur from chronic steroid use such that the development of both cardiac and skeletal muscle fibers is increased.
In addition, steroid use results in better nutrient partitioning with a greater tendency for carbohydrates rather than fat to be stored within adipose cells which confers an enhanced ability to gain lean mass.
Testosterone use results in improved protein synthesis within the muscle cells, allowing for rapid recovery of damaged fibers and increased production of enzymes responsible for glucose uptake which further enhances recuperation.