Top 5 tips to gaining strength

As a personal trainer in Vienna, one of the most common questions I am asked is how to gain strength. It could be a teenager looking to get stronger, it could be a wife looking to gain strength, or it could even be a senior looking to increase overall strength.  The common thread here is that there is a large cross-section of clientele looking to gain strength. So how do we gain strength? Here's some great tips for you below

Tip number 1: muscular overload. In order to increase strength, it is necessary to break down the muscle and once it recovers it will gain strength. In order to break down the muscle and start this process, you need to give the muscle and overload that it hasn't experienced before. Such an overload will reconfigure that muscle fiber within the muscle and thus will yield muscle hypertrophy and strength.

Tip number 2: assess your diet. As we mentioned, the overload in your workout is the stimulus for the muscle to gain strength. However, once the muscle is broken down, then you need to give the muscle the proper nutrition in order to help it recover and gain strength. When assessing your nutrition in order to allow for muscular hypertrophy and strength, you need to make sure that you have a caloric Surplus and that adequate protein is present.

Tip number 3: rest.  Remember the process for muscle hypertrophy and strength, exercise is the stimulus to break down the muscle, the proper nutrition, and then rest. For that muscle to grow and gain strength that muscle needs to repair itself and recover before that next bout.  Thus it is important to make sure that you are getting proper rest and sleep in order to allow for this recovery to take place.

Tip 4: the proper program. In order to increase muscle size and strength, you need to make sure that you are following the right program. Make sure that you map out the exercises, sets, reps, Etc. and that you are progressing in a linear fashion. Walking aimlessly into the gym will not allow for you to get the proper result.

Tip 5: train heavy. In order to increase muscle strength, you need to train with heavy resistance and force the muscles to adapt to this workload. Keep your rep ranges from 1 to 8 to make sure you hit the proper muscle fiber to add in muscle strength.

So as you can see, above I have listed five tips that I think will help you gain muscle strength. Try to apply these tips to your program and I believe that you will see positive results. As always, if you need help with your program or design, feel free to reach us anytime at Every body's personal trainer.