Strength training: hard work and integration

Let’s see how to increase physical strength, how to train, and which supplements to focus on

Are you working out and would like to focus on increasing strength? Have you started going to the gym to get in shape, and now that your physique is well defined, would you like to raise the bar? Or do you already practice weightlifting and would like to increase the load? In this article we will tell you about strength training, the different types of strength training, and what kind of nutrition and supplementation to take if you want to achieve great, long-lasting results.

According to a study by Istat, Italy is a country of sportsmen and women: an estimated eighteen million people are members and frequent gyms and sports centers assiduously. While many do it to get fit and stay healthy, a great many others experience sports as a challenge to test themselves and push their limits, both mental and physical. And strength training is a real challenge that pushes the athlete to ever greater efforts with progressively more intense training programs.

Types of strengths

Strength is the ability to overcome or oppose resistance through the development of tension by muscles. It is possible to distinguish different types of strength, but in sports there are mainly three:

• Maximum strenght: the highest force that the neuromuscular system is able to generate with a voluntary contraction. Each muscle or muscle group has its own specific maximal form.
• Resistant strenght: is the force to which the body resorts in order to resist fatigue during training; that is, the ability of a muscle to exert effort for a very large number of repetitions or otherwise for a very long time.
• Rapid strenght or fast strenght: the ability of the neuromuscular system to overcome resistance with maximum contraction speed.

Strength training

Strength training requires identifying one’s ideal maximal load to use during workouts, that is, the maximum weight that a person can lift for only one time and for a given exercise. This is determined through a test that involves performing several trials with increasing loads until the maximum load is identified. Now let’s look at how to train the three different types of strength:

• Maximum strenght: few repetitions at high intensity. For maximal strength development, it is advisable to use a weight that varies between 85 % and 100 % of the maximal weight and follow the 5×5 pattern for repetitions: 5 sets of 5 repetitions each, with rest time ranging from 2 to 5 minutes.
• Resistant strenght: lots of repetitions at low load. Resistant strength training is achieved by using a load corresponding to a low percentage of one’s ceiling from 30 to 65 percent, performing a high number of repetitions at a slow, controlled pace.
• Rapid strenght: this type of strength training is achieved through the use of light loads, between 30% and 45% of one’s maximum load, performingmovements at maximum speed excecution until it decreases.

Nutrition and supplementation

In addition to perseverance, great commitment and effort, the basis of strength training is also proper nutrition and adequate supplementation of specific nutrients useful to facilitate the work to our body. Therefore, it is very important for those who want to develop strength to pay as much attention to workouts as to food and right supplements.

The recommended daily macronutrient breakdown of at least 6 meals per day is:

• 50-65% carbohydrates, the main source of energy, which should be sufficiently distributed in all meals
• 20-30% protein, essential for muscles, it is recommended to take about 2g of protein per kg of body mass; preferably white meat and fish
• 15-25% fat, especially unsaturated fatty acids, which promote the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins.

Alongside a precise diet, the most suitable supplement during strength training is creatine, a naturally occurring amino acid in the body that is essential for muscles to produce ATP.
CREAFos by Sprintade® is the perfect sports supplement to increase strength. In fact, due to its high creatine and fructose 1,6-diphosphate content, it can be consumed regularly for the purpose of increasing muscle creatine and phosphate reserves, meeting the needs of fitness, body building and endurance sports such as cycling.