Why Building Strength Should Be Your Main Goal

by Caleb Lee on September 15, 2008

If you are wondering why I focus on strength training so much and think you should too… then this article will tell you why.

Read this article now to discover some good reasons why I think building strength should be your number one goal (even if you just want to build a lot of muscle and burn a lot of fat)…

1. Strength Training Is More Functional:

Ever needed to lift something heavy? Move furniture? Pick your girlfriend up and pin her against the wall for a steamy make out session? All those things required strength, not necessarily muscle size.

In fact, sometimes having excess muscle is not useful — it weighs more so if you have to run or walk long distances… takes more calories to maintain, meaning you have to eat more…

2. Building Strength Takes Less Time:

Most professional bodybuilders spend up to 6 days in the gym and some even do twice a day workouts. If you’re like me (or most people) then lifting weights isn’t your full-time job.

You can become super strong training 3-4 days a week, and spend no more than 20-30 minutes in the gym each time — DoubleYourGains’ 3-5 Program takes 30mins/3x week. That means you could be spending 2 hours in the gym vs. 12. It doesn’t take long to develop strength.

3. Building Strength Is Motivating:

Most people don’t have any goals when they go to the gym, they think “I want to look better” but that’s vague and undefined. Knowing you want to add 5lbs to your deadlift every time you go into the gym though is VERY motivating.

Plus, watching the weights build and seeing how far you’ve progressed over the course of time is very motivating and makes you want to keep going back to the gym.

4. Strength Makes It Easier To Build Size:

Most bodybuilders today don’t understand that guys like Arnold and bodybuilders from his day all did powerlifting routines early in their careers to build high starting levels of strength and power.

They had a unique “dense” look to their physiques from all this heavy weight training. And were able to use heavier weights when it came to doing traditional bodybuilding style set/rep schemes — so it was much easier for these strong lifters to build muscle.

5. Better For Health:

There’s been a lot of recent research that shows strength training helps to prevent age related diseases and degenerative diseases.

In a nutshell: Losing muscle mass is an inevitable result of aging, but strength training in particular will tell your body to “hold on” to muscle mass because it needs it to continue lifting heavy stuff.

Plus, your bones will get stronger too to support your framework of muscle mass.

6. Self Confidence Booster

There’s nothing better than KNOWING you can pick a heavy weight off the floor… or press a heavy weight up over your head. Or knowing that you have the strength to pull yourself up and over a wall… up and over the edge of a cliff… and things like that.

Knowing you are as strong as you look is a major confidence booster.

7. Strength Training Is Better For Sports

Strength is the basis for all other physical qualities. Increasing your strength increases your power, explosiveness, speed, agility, endurance, etc…

Plus, a lot of sports — especially martial arts — require athletes to have high relative strength. They need to be very strong for their size because they have to stay within a certain weight class.

There’s nothing worse than putting on 20 MORE pounds of muscle you have to carry down the field, or move around the ring to avoid getting knocked out — and that 20 pounds of muscle is doing you no good.

8. Strength Training Is Better For Women

Most women don’t want to look like the hulk. They don’t want to put on 20 pounds of muscle. They just want to get “toned”. As I mentioned before, strength training is the best way to get the toned look.

So if you’re a girl you can get strong very quickly and improve your health and quality of life without taking away from your femininity in the least.

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Powerlifting V.S. Bodybuilding - What’s The Difference? | CST Free Weight Exercises By Scott Sonnon
February 15, 2009 at 11:06 pm

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