When it comes to a sport, physical expression, or a job that requires a large amount of physical effort, improving your strength in the gym will benefit you no end and is true for males and females of every age. Results such as increased confidence, an ability to function more powerfully in any physical aspect, and a feeling of self empowerment will spill over into many aspects of your life for a long time to come.

Where Strength Comes In Handy
Every sport, by the nature of the physicality involved, uses strength to a greater or lesser degree. In boxing the power comes from your feet, through your legs, transferred through your back, down your arms, and on to the end of your fist. In football there are many dynamic movements involved in all the muscles of your legs and your back helping to keep you upright while controlling the ball throughout play. What about table tennis, swimming, athletics, and any other Olympic or competitive sport? Even bowls, typically involving players more mature in age, uses strength in subtle ways.

Muscle Within Muscle
It’s important to realise that many muscles in your body serve as 'stabilisers' when performing certain movements. These are muscles that anchor a part of your body giving scope for another to move. For example, when trying to keep your balance while kicking a ball, muscles in your abdominal section (the transversus abdominis and internal abdominal obliques ) will be working to maintain your overall stability so that you don’t fall over. These can be thought of as support for your major muscles, but should not be overlooked in terms of development. Many modern training techniques using Swiss ball methods are now thought of as mandatory in contributing to the increases in athletic performance.

Load Lifting Jobs
Do you realise having a strong lower back and legs to lift a weight from the floor would help you not only in lifting, but in preventing back ache so commonly felt by adults on a daily basis? As most people know, picking things from the ground should be knees bent first, pushing up through the legs and into standing position. This movement is exactly the same as performing dead lifts in the gym, a basic exercise often overlooked in favour of pretty lower back exercise machines. There’s a reason why Austrian, Russian and Polish athletes have succeeded in strength competitions over the years - they have basic exercises that have been used for decades to improve their strength levels. Of course, most of us reading this article won’t want to become the world’s strongest man or woman, but if you have a physical job and want to increase your ability to perform, or just want to see better results in the gym, I’d suggest taking a leaf out of their book.

How Do You Get It Up?
As mentioned above, sometimes the oldest methods are the best. Simple exercises like dead lifts, bench pressing and squats can increase your overall body strength in a matter of weeks. These basics can encourage your body to develop in synergy where all major muscle groups are concerned. In other words, these simple compound exercises prevent muscular imbalances that can develop from focusing on too many isolation movements. Where I say compound, I mean exercises that involve more than one body part. Tricep push downs may well increase the performance of your triceps, but a basic bench press incorporates use of your triceps, chest and shoulders. It even uses your back for support as the weight comes down.

Functional Training
I have heard this phrase banded about by many people involved in the fitness industry. Many times gym instructors will decry and criticise basic compound movements in luei of fancy wobble board training. Now please don’t misunderstand, I am a firm believer that most kinds of training have a place in a routine and can be beneficial. Let’s not forget the basics though. I read an article a while ago by a well respected strength training expert (Charles Staley, Olympic athlete coach) functional exercises would:

-Providing greater strength
-Leading to a better physical appearance (increasing self esteem thus increasing abilities in everyday life)
-Promote Less risk of injury

So increasing your strength through training that is functional which will increase any of the above factors are all relevant. In short, don’t confuse fashionable training with stuff that works!

Inner Strength
Of course your physical strength is just one half of your strength development. The strength of your mind will be one of your greatest assets not only in the gym, but outside the gym too. For me personally, completing an exercise routine even though it may be hard has taught me to follow things through in my personal life. I can remember going through tough times in work situations when all I really wanted to do was give up. The ability to continue through physical pain gave me a strong grounding to face other hardships in my life and continue through those. This is what builds strength of character, and allows you to always remind yourself:

If you can improve one area of your life you can improve another.

If you can improve the strength of your body in the gym, you can improve it in your mind. Remember that.

In Summary:

• Include basic compound exercises in your routine.
• Lower reps and heavier weights will lead to strength increases.
• Don’t neglect stabilising muscle exercises.
• Learn the difference between fashionable training and stuff that is useful!

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