17 Ways to get Stronger in 2017

The year is new, but your program is the same. And that’s not good if you’re a plateau-bound hardgainer who’s looking for gains. Now’s as good a time as any to examine your routine and make necessary changes to keep your muscles adapting. It’s the only way you’ll see gains. Allow us to help. 

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Repeatedly trying to lift the world in every session may not feel like it has any disadvantages, and a little cumulative volume isn’t bad. The problem is, most lifters forget that training for strength and lifting heavy things has less to do with the muscular system, and more to do with the nervous system. It’s only a matter of time before your neurotransmitters get zapped, and you plateau hard.  If you’ve been in the habit of lifting heavy, week after week, try alternating between a week of higher rep training and a week of heavy stuff. It gives your CNS a much needed break and will keep you sharp. You’re not a competitive powerlifter, after all. 

Strength doesn’t mean pushing your max any time you train it. In truth, a 1RM attempt should have less than perfect form – if it’s true to the exertion. What you can lift 3-5 times using good form is much more transferrable, safer, and allows you to cumulatively lift heavy loads for more reps than attempting 1 or 2 heavy singles will in your workout. You’re still strength training even if you’re not at 95-100% of your 1RM.  

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The stability of your shoulder capsule depends on your rotator cuff. All 4 of those muscles originate on the scapulae. Beefing up the upper back to make it stronger through pullups, row variations, reverse flyes, band work, etc. will bolster your shoulders and have a seriously positive impact on your pressing strength and stability in turn. Taking a phase to do this will surely improve your bench and strict press numbers. 

Take a page out of the Bulgarians’ old school training method and try squatting to a daily max.  Excluding leg day (of course) take 5-10 minutes at the end of your workout to do singles and doubles up to a comfortable max for the day. That means the weight should never attack your lifetime PR, but it should still get quite heavy. Doing this after every lift will be enough volume to stimulate your nervous system, but not enough time under tension to elicit extreme muscle soreness. Your body will begin to adapt thanks to the SAID principle (specific adaptation to imposed demands), and get bigger and stronger to continue dealing with the torture.  

Simply put: This isn’t a cardio session. If you’re not resting for at least 3 minutes between your heavy work sets, you’re doing something wrong. Even when you’re not out of breath, remember that it’s not about your cardiorespiratory system or your muscular system needing the break. It’s about your nervous system. Give it the rest it needs. 

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It’s really hard to stay motivated and get stronger when you’re lifting in a gym full of underachievers. This seems like it doesn’t matter, but your surroundings heavily influence your gains. Find a gym where you’re not the strongest guy; ideally one where you’re not even the 20th strongest guy. Just like a sprinter gets ‘pulled along’ in a race against faster athletes, you’ll be motivated when you’re no longer the big fish in a small pond. And you’ll probably learn something too. 

Deviating from your program is never recommended, but it could be a life-saver. There will be days when you don’t feel 100%, nor anything close. A joint may feel out of whack, or you may just not have the energy to perform at your peak potential. If it happens to the most elite athletes in the world, it will happen to you too.  Overlooking your own physiology just because “it’s leg day” proves nothing to anyone. If you want sustainable gains, remember that no one’s trying to be a hero. Take it down a notch. 

Scheduling your pull workouts first in the order before your push workouts will make the push workouts more effective. The reason I personally like using this setup is because the muscle soreness incurred from pulling will limit the range of motion and flexibility of the scapular muscles – and that’s a good thing. The added upper back tightness will stabilize the shoulder capsule and promote strong, pain – free pressing. I’ve never had a client complain about this method when put to practice.  

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If you’re focusing on your 3RM for deadlifts, then following it up with your 3RM for overhead press, and then doing heavy 5’s with the weighted chinup 3rd, you’re wasting your time. Thinking your nervous system can change focus and still create fresh, maximal neural outputs for all those movements over all that time defies the laws of science.  For optimal results, it’s better to take one big lift, and focus on strength training it and it alone for the particular workout at hand. It doesn’t mean you can’t do other lifts. You just need to ensure you do them for different rep ranges, using lighter loads. 

On a similar note to the last point, it’s important that assistance exercises actually act to assist the performance of the big lifts. At the end of the day, that’s a big reason why they exist in the first place. Loading up for a 5 rep max on the rear leg elevated split squat, or doing a 200 pound face pull defeats the import and purpose of such lifts. Think about achieving full range of motion, higher rep ranges, and perfecting tempo with lifts that aren’t the big barbell movements, and they’ll have a greater effect on improving your strength when it comes to your big primal patterns. 

This one’s important. In short, every person isn’t built for every lift. A long-legged lifter with a short torso and poor hip mobility and lumbopelvic rhythm will probably never get into an admirable barbell deadlift setup, and will always be at greater risk for injury when compared to a trap bar deadlift, where he can keep a more vertical torso and adjust his positioning. Using a variation of a strength move (front squat vs. back squat, trap bar vs straight bar, football bar vs barbell, pulling from the floor vs. a raised platform, pin press vs bench press, and the list goes on) can be a saving grace to your gains, if you’re humble enough to admit that you may not be built for one lift. You’re still getting all the benefits from the exercise. 

Killing the momentum and transfer of force in most major movements creates a much greater demand on your muscles, since you’ve killed the stretch reflex and removed any elastic component from each lift. You’ll notice how much harder it is to move an object from a dead stop for every rep. Even if it means lowering the weight by 10 or 15 percent on your working sets, it’s worth its weight in gold for the true strength benefits. 

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On a related note, slowing your tempo down and resisting the negative rep is a great way to develop mastery over a movement and make a lighter weight, feel heavy. Your type IIB muscle fibers are the strongest ones, and they get taxed the most during the eccentric phase of a lift (it’s a reason everybody can lower more than they can lift). Exploit that by adding more time under tension to the negative rep. Think less about weight, and more about the training effect on the muscles and nervous system. You’ll be glad you did. 

This should go without saying, but having a professional take care of your programming, monitor your technique, make recommendations, and give a much needed push when applicable can be a game-changer for seeing gains. A good trainer will also know when to scale things back as he learns more about your body and its thresholds. 

There’s a benefit and drawback to training at any time during the day. There’s the overall body exhaustion that can come with training after work or in the evening, and there’s the risk to the nervous system and spinal discs not being at optimal function when training very early in the morning. In both cases, a change (if one can be made) may be something the body’s physiology welcomes, especially if you’ve been in a long-term habit of training at a certain time. Doing a 2 rep max deadlift workout at 6AM before work will likely feel different than doing it during lunch hour. 

I don’t care who you are, or how indestructible you feel. If your warm up sets for your big lift don’t start with the empty bar, you’re making a big mistake. Straight up, your warm up should help groove your patterns and start from the ground upwards. Sorry to say it, but that means if you’re already a strong dude, it will take you longer to get to your work sets if you want to stay safe. That’s the hard truth about having a heavy PR. Get your body ramped up the right way, and don’t skip steps. 

Deciding who you train with (if you want to lift with a partner) is as important as any of these other tips. A good partner should also be a good spotter, a smart lifter, and a proper influence over your training. If you’re lucky enough to lift with someone more experienced than you, you’re probably taking a step in the right direction.  It’s easy for distractions to hurt your gains, and someone who keeps his attention on training in a healthy way is a good partner to choose.