Pure strength

[Lou Schuler]

Guys, thanks for all the great responses on the other thread, the one about bench-press maxes.

New questions:

1. How often, if ever, do you think about pure strength as an element of your workout regime?

2. Have you ever gone on a program designed to increase pure strength?

3. If you're currently working out for hypertrophy -- bigger muscles -- how important is your strength to you? Do you correlate increased strength with increased mass, or consider them separate pursuits?

4. Do you enjoy logging your workouts and keeping track of your progress, or do you consider it a distraction, something that makes your workouts more tedious or stressful?

Thanks again for your help!

[chris_f]

1. How often, if ever, do you think about pure strength as an element of your workout regime?

It's the root of my workouts. Strength first, hypertrophy second (being a "hard-gainer" , its easy for me to dismiss growth in favor of strength)

2. Have you ever gone on a program designed to increase pure strength?

Yes. high weight, low reps, low sets

3. If you're currently working out for hypertrophy -- bigger muscles -- how important is your strength to you? Do you correlate increased strength with increased mass, or consider them separate pursuits?

Like I said, it's the root of all my programs.

4. Do you enjoy logging your workouts and keeping track of your progress, or do you consider it a distraction, something that makes your workouts more tedious or stressful?

I like it a lot. Its how i keep track of my progress!

[Jimbo]

1. I absolutely think about increasing strength. I love piling on more weight from week to week. I know there are other ways to progress...less recovery time between lifts...more reps...etc...but for me..I like adding more weight. Gives me a feeling of accomplishment.

2. Never. Always have kept hypertrophy as an important objective.

3. I don't consider them seperate pursuits...course...I could be wrong.

4. I'm not maticulous about my logs...but I do write down the weights I use for various lifts and I do pay attention to gains. I hate paperwork, so I guess I think it's a bit tedious...but my memory is not good enough anymore to remember from workout ot workout what I did...so it's a necessary evil.

Lou - Why do I get the feeling that you are leading up to something? Hmmmm. These are interesting posts.

[gobbla]

1. As soon as I unassed my head, a great deal.

2. Started one for the 1st time this past monday.

3. n/a

4. Organization makes the difference in logging. Trying to do it on a scrap sheet of paper is a nightmare. Doing it on a long term spreadsheet is alot cleaner, easier, and becomes more motivating than intimidating.

[Lost Dog]

Originally posted by Lou Schuler:
1. How often, if ever, do you think about pure strength as an element of your workout regime?

1. Rarely. It's nice to feel that I'm getting stronger, however.

Originally posted by Lou Schuler:
2. Have you ever gone on a program designed to increase pure strength?

2. No. So far, either hypertrophy or fat loss workouts.

Originally posted by Lou Schuler:
3. If you're currently working out for hypertrophy -- bigger muscles -- how important is your strength to you? Do you correlate increased strength with increased mass, or consider them separate pursuits?

3. I understand that they go hand-in-hand. If I get stronger, I can lift more, which should lead to bigger muscles. When I'm done with my fat-loss phase, I plan to try something stength and hypertrophy related. Like Berardi's "Best Workout Ever" or something to that effect.

Originally posted by Lou Schuler:
4. Do you enjoy logging your workouts and keeping track of your progress, or do you consider it a distraction, something that makes your workouts more tedious or stressful?

4. I really do enjoy it. I use a spreadsheet on my Palm PDA for tracking workouts. I've tried all sorts of dedicated applications, but have never found one that's worth using. At least none were better than a spreadsheet yet. None let me easily enter/track data while in the gym, I just put it in afterward. The scheduling part of the software was always weird. You often have to enter basic data over and over and over again. The spreadsheet's just easier and more obvious.

On the nutrition side, I've used CalorieKing.com's software on my Palm for over two years. I track everything I eat, very easily. They've got web software, too, but since I have my PDA with me most times, this way is preferable.

[Deserve]

I think stregnth and size gains go hand in hand.

[laxcdn]

1) almost never
2) No
3)I don't care about the strength as long as the muscles get bigger. I think of them as different pursuits
4) Since HGM I log all my workouts. I won't do a workout without downloading or creating a log.

[Lou Schuler]

Originally posted by gobbla:
1. As soon as I unassed my head ...

Gobbla, I hope you won't sue me when I use that line in something. I'm still laughing.

[Kaiser]

1. Occasionally

2. Occasionally.

3. Strength is important, even to hypertrophy seekers. When you have more strength, you can lift more weights, breaking through a plateau and inducing more hypertrophy. At least that's what Ian King says and he designs his hypertrophy program periodization with alternating strength and hypertrophy micro-phases (different from training for pure maximal strength, though). And I believe your co-author Lou - he knows more than I do.

4. I enjoy it and am meticulous about it. Oddly enough, since I have gone from a computer worksheet to a small spiral notebook, my ease in finding weights and lifts from the past has increased. I like this archaic method better.

[OldGuy]

1. Mostly do strength routines.

2. Yes.

3. As I get stronger I get bigger (providing the diet is in order).

4. I always log workouts. Being old [img]smile.gif[/img] I need it to remember from one workout to the next.

[Lou Schuler]

Originally posted by Jimbo:
Lou - Why do I get the feeling that you are leading up to something?

I'm not good at playing coy.

I've been thinking for a long time about doing a book focusing on pure strength. There isn't anything like it on the market that's as accessible as the book I have in mind.

The big, open question is: Is there a reason why there's no popular, readable, immediately useful book on strength? Even if I wrote a good one with a creative and talented strength coach, would anyone want it?

So I'm using these threads to get a feel for other lifters' attitudes and assumptions about the subject.

I know I want to write it, and I'm confident it would be interesting and packed with new information. (Otherwise, why bother? There are easier ways to make a living.)

What I don't know is if you guys would respond to that book the way you have my others. I'm pretty sure I could write it and collect a paycheck, but it's not worth my time and energy if it's not a book you guys want.

[GqArtguy]

Originally posted by Lou Schuler:
Guys, thanks for all the great responses on the other thread, the one about bench-press maxes.

New questions:

1. How often, if ever, do you think about pure strength as an element of your workout regime?

All the time. Strength is a high priority.

2. Have you ever gone on a program designed to increase pure strength?

Yup.

3. If you're currently working out for hypertrophy -- bigger muscles -- how important is your strength to you? Do you correlate increased strength with increased mass, or consider them separate pursuits?

Why gain size if you cant move more weight? Strength is very important whether Im bulking or cutting. You can train for both, and more mass can make you stronger, but it depends on your setup.

4. Do you enjoy logging your workouts and keeping track of your progress, or do you consider it a distraction, something that makes your workouts more tedious or stressful?

I do it so I can track my progress and know what to aim for in the next session.

[Torque]

1. Often, particularly in specific areas like squats
2. Not yet
3. I see them as related
4. Always log my workouts. Without my logs it feels like I'm wasting my time.

[eastcoastsurfer]

1. Generally strength first. Start every workout with a low rep, high weight power exercise (bench/squat/deadlift/row/etc) . I would always prefer to be stronger than bigger. It's a great feeling to seee a "big" guy come in and struggle with weight you can throw around withe ease [img]smile.gif[/img]

2. My current program is a personal adaptation of maxOT which seems to mainly focus on strength.

3. I've always figured that as long as I'm getting stronger, I'll eventually get bigger and I have

4. I log them in my head pretty well at this point. I've looked for some easy to use software before, but couldn't find anything I liked.

Overall I've always been pretty ok with how I looked so it's been easy for me to do strength first, mass second. Probably would've been different if I was super skinny or bigger from the start.

[JMR]

1. Never. Haven't done it in years. I leave that for the younger guys.

2. Sure.

3. Not important at all. Although I've gotten stronger while moving big loads for low reps while carrying more bodyfat, it has always seem to equalize when dieted down to a better appearing and healthier package so I just don't worry about it anymore and I don't put on the fat like I used to in pursuit of strength or hypertrophy.

4. I log my workouts during specific times of the year for the data but I pretty much know what works now. I've found it more important to track my diet since my metabolism has apparently took a core dump in the last few years.

[commutator]

Originally posted by Lou Schuler:
Guys, thanks for all the great responses on the other thread, the one about bench-press maxes.

New questions:

1. How often, if ever, do you think about pure strength as an element of your workout regime?

I probably consider strength to be the most important part. I don't complain if I get bigger in the process though.


2. Have you ever gone on a program designed to increase pure strength?


I've done HGM and I'm currently doing BoM, both of which have significant strength components.


3. If you're currently working out for hypertrophy -- bigger muscles -- how important is your strength to you? Do you correlate increased strength with increased mass, or consider them separate pursuits?


4. Do you enjoy logging your workouts and keeping track of your progress, or do you consider it a distraction, something that makes your workouts more tedious or stressful?


Thanks again for your help!

I enjoy it, and also find it necessary, since there's just no way I could commit a BoM workout to memory, especially at 6 am!

Commutator

[BamaDave]

[quote]Originally posted by Lou Schuler:


1. How often, if ever, do you think about pure strength as an element of your workout regime?

That's essentially what I use as my gauge, since I am a runner and have no intentions of massing up anytime soon. I'm primarily trying to preserve strength or make small gains. Big gains in strength would be great, but they don't happen with my running/strength training combo.

2. Have you ever gone on a program designed to increase pure strength?

As far as pre-written programs... most of the programs I have done (Ian King's and Homegrown) have strength-building phases.

3. If you're currently working out for hypertrophy -- bigger muscles -- how important is your strength to you? Do you correlate increased strength with increased mass, or consider them separate pursuits?

n/a for me

4. Do you enjoy logging your workouts and keeping track of your progress, or do you consider it a distraction, something that makes your workouts more tedious or stressful?

I have logged every workout since I started losing weight and weight training in Winter/Spring 2002. I also have old logs from weight training periods from a few years before that. I also always have a written workout plan for the session before I start, including the amt of weight I plan to lift, target reps, number of sets, etc.