Get Big, but Get Strong First

All the time in the gym we see guys doing curls, leg extensions, leg presses and other bodybuilding style exercises, either with free weights or on the machines. While I admire these guys for their dedication to the pursuit of fitness and bettering themselves, I am somewhat of an “iron snob” When it comes to strength training. For whatever reason - most likely my participation in competitive sports – I am a firm believer in performing lifts that will give you “real world” strength. By that, I mean exercises that train your body in a way similar to how it performs daily activities, from running to boxing. How often to you play a sport and only use one muscle? You don’t.

So then, why would you lift that way? Movements such as the ones I mentioned above are called isolation movements; they only focus on one muscle. Such training is not conducive to preparing to play a sport, so teams usually depend on Olympic movements to build the necessary strength and size for their sport.

Robert dos Remedios, recipient of the 2006 Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Professional of the Year award shares my sentiment. “Look at that guy on the leg-extension machine,” he says while watching a gym patron, “you never isolate muscles like that in the real world. . . .”

Remedios bases his training regimen around 5 basic principles: Training for strength, not size, progressive overload, working opposing muscles equally, utilizing unilateral exercises and explosive training. “By training like this, not only are you going to look strong, but you’re also going to be strong,” says Dos Remedios. “And you’re going to see your performance improve. Follow these principles and you’ll become stronger, bigger, and leaner.”

Written by: Donnell Peavy