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Off-Season Strength Training Strategies You Need to Try

Strength Training Strategies

While many people will focus on cardio and how that will help keep them strong and doing well, you will also need to consider whether strength training as part of your routine makes a lot of sense. Strength training can be done to make the muscles stronger and will ensure that you will be able to get up and down and move around for many years to come. 

People will choose to do strength training for a lot of different reasons. But you need to pick out the right strategy to help you see the best results with some of your strength training activities as well. But where do you get started? Some of the strategies that you can choose to help make it easier to see results include:

 

Take the Time to Warm Up

Never forget to spend some time warming up to build your strength as well. Building strength is important, but if you go while the muscles are weak and not doing your best, then you will end up with a lot of trouble and the potential for injuries as well. The first thing that you should do during each of your sessions is to warm up the body. 

There are different warm-up exercises that you will be able to utilize. This can include some light aerobic activity, a lighter set of weights, and even some dynamic warm-up exercises that would include things like windmills, leg kicks, and arm circles. You don’t have to spend a lot of time doing the warm-up, but give the body time to loosen up. 

 

Focus on the Form

Strength Training Form Focus

As you do some of the strength training, you will need to focus on your form. If you try to do the lifts without the best form, there are a few problems that can come into play. You will end up getting fewer results because you aren’t working the muscle the way that you want. And you could increase your chances of injuries along the way. 

You need to make sure that you have the best form possible when you do the work. If you are lifting so much that it becomes impossible to maintain good form, then you are doing too much. Lower the weight and do less of it until you can do it with good form and then increase to more later on. 

 

Consider Progressive Overload

Strength Training Strategies using Progressive Overload

You can also choose to do what is known as progressive overload. This is going to help add some more weight to the muscle slowly, giving you better results if you are able to stick with it for the long term. The idea is to increase the volume of your repetitions in order to improve your strength

There are some steps that you can use to help out with this one. You can do it by keeping the weight heavy, about 80% or more of 1RM, and then increase the number of sets to three or five to help work the muscle until it is tired. 

 

Variable Resistance Training

One strategy that you can use is known as variable resistance training or VRT. This is a simple concept that is going to utilize elastic resistance training. It means the resistance that you feel will change as you do the exercise through a full range of motion. The resistance will increase when you reach the end of the movement and decrease when you go back to the start. 

The resistance bands that you may see with many workout programs are a great example of this. You will be able to choose between a few different bands to make sure that they are strong enough for the workout that you are going to do. When you stretch out the band, it will provide more resistance to you, making the muscle work harder than before. 

This is a little bit different from the free weights that you use, which would be considered constant resistance training. You will have the same amount of resistance at all parts of the workout for that one. You can do this kind of workout through resistance bands or with the method of attaching chains to barbells. 

 

Consider the Compound Exercise

Many people who work on strength training will find that compound exercises can be their friend in this process. It is also a good option for those who are pressed for time so that they can work on more than one joint to help get more muscles in one. A squat and bench press or push-ups to core exercises, for example, will be able to help you out with this. 

You do need to use some caution when choosing to get this done. You will be able to get more than one muscle done at a time, giving you more power than before and ensuring that you will get several muscles done in no time. They can be way more effective compared to some of the single-joint isolation exercises that you will want to try. 

 

Stay Consistent

The final thing that you can consider doing is to stay consistent. It is best to continue with your strength training plan to make sure that you get the best results. If you only do strength training on occasion, then it is going to fail and you will not see the strong muscles that the body will need. 

For the best results, doing these strength training workouts three times a week can help. you can do the total body during those times or split it up between the upper and the lower body to mix things up and give you the best results. Also consider hiring a qualified strength coach, or endurance coach who specializes in strength training.

 

Choosing the Best Strength Training Strategies

 There are many great strength training strategies that you are able to choose for helping build strong muscles and keep you going hard with each workout. You just need to find the right type of strategy for your needs. Take a look at some of the best strength training strategies above to help you see amazing results.

Tyler Tafelsky Gravel Cyclist
Head of Content at Better Triathlete | Website

Endurance athlete, professional off-road cyclist, and avid blogger, Tyler Tafelsky participates in long-course multisport and cycling events. Today, Tyler competes in ultra-distance cycling races at the professional level. Since starting Better Triathlete in 2014, he has been the head of content for the site's editorial team. Learn more about Tyler