Strength Vs Muscle Growth
When someone goes to the gym they usually have a goal in mind, whether it’s to shave some weight off, add to their bench max, or bulk up. But many people don’t know the best way to train to reach their goal. It’s very easy to get lost in the details when any exercise will give you progress. Working out to focus on strength and focusing on muscle growth (hypertrophy) both yield many benefits, Understanding the differences is key to reaching your goals.
What is Strength Training?
Strength Training focuses on the amount of weight you can push pull or hold. Working to increase the weight of your 1 rep max, or any low rep high weight arrangement is some of the most common strength training done. Strength has a positive correlation with muscle density. Some of the key features of Muscle Growth include:
- Low Rep Range– when training at high intensity it is difficult to maintain the same level of performance at high reps. A 1-6 rep range is recommended based around the intensity you are aiming for.
- High Intensity– Intensity defined as “how hard your body is working during physical activity” is tested and pushed to the limit when strength training. Working at the highest levels of intensity strengthens neural adaptation to the pressure, as well as increasing muscle density
- Specific Movement Focus– Strength training is more than just the ability of your muscles. Even with simple actions such as a squat or bench press, you must practice the action frequently to improve coordination and precision, as opposed to training with a variety of exercises working the same muscle. The same way a basketball player would repeat only the shot they are improving, instead of a variety of shots.
- Longer Rest Times– High intensity means high rest time, typically 2-5 minutes between sets of an exercise. Your intensity also affects the recommended rest between workouts; A recommended 48-72 hours depending on factors like soreness, and lifting experience.
Benefits
Strength Training provides many benefits. With an increase in muscle density, you will see an increase in balance, flexibility, bone health, and of course, strength. With your increased strength you’ll find it helping you even outside of the gym. A study from the CDC shows increase in cognition in children, and reduced anxiety shortly after physical activity. The study promotes the idea that Intense physical activity helps with weight maintenance, and lowers the risk of functional limitation in middle-aged and older adults. Strength training is also the absolute best way to improve the maximum weight you can handle in an exercise.
Hypertrophy Training
Muscle growth or hypertrophy focuses on the visible and measurable improvement of your muscles. While you will gain strength when training with hypertrophy in mind, it won’t be as noticeable as when you’re programmed towards strength. A simple way to distinguish the 2 is remembering hypertrophy as bodybuilding and strength training as powerlifting.
- High rep range – hypertrophy is activated as a product of fatigue, this means you most push the endurance of your muscle with a high rep range, usually within 8-12 reps, depending on the exercise
- Intensity – like strength training, your intensity affects hypertrophy progress. A high rep range, meaning lower weight, bringing you within 0-3 reps of failure, is optimal.
- Balanced Training – Hypertrophy focuses on general muscle development, meaning it’s important to train your muscle groups equally. This is done to achieve a balanced physique and correct any imbalances
Benefits
Hypertrophy similar to strength training, provides a variety of benefits to the body. To start, the reason many people train this way is to improve their physique and aesthetics. Outside of what you can see, improving your body composition has a variety of health benefits including improved bone density, promoting better sleep, better blood pressure, and many more. According to the National Institution of Health, ANY amount of weight training lowers risk of chronic illnesses. In comparison to strength training, hypertrophy is considered better for longevity, as there are less safety risks training at a lower intensity/difficulty. Hypertrophy programming is also simpler than many strength training routines, especially at higher levels of experience.
What Should You Choose?
There’s plenty of things to take into consideration when choosing, but the most important by far are your own goals. If your an athlete, strength training with a focus on explosiveness workouts are your best bet. If your goal is to look bigger or leaner, hypertrophy would be a better way to start out. If you can’t decide, nothing wrong with doing both. Many programs utilize a healthy mix of hypertrophy and strength focused training and see results all around. At a beginner level, the difference matters a lot less. Beginner gains provide quick noticeable strength improvements as well as some visible gains. Lifters with under a year of experience have little to worry about when it comes to programing, and should focus on consistency, form, and understanding of their workouts.
Recomendations
many programs can be found for free online that prioritize different specific goals, simply searching online with your goal in mind is enough to find a suitable program fast for beginners. Another way of creating a routine is with AI, which can generate a workout split for you in seconds. with this outline, some of the best training programs:
Strength
- Wendler 5/3/1
- Stronglifts 5×5
- Stronger by Science
Some strength focused programs are more tailored to certain exercise than others, do the appropriate research before committing. Experience level is also unaccounted for on the surface of many programs.
Hypertrophy
- The Big 3 Program
- Jeff Nippard PPL
- The Arnold Split