Total Strength

          What makes you physically strong? This is often a source of constant debate and there are many differing opinions as to what constitutes a strong person. That is because there are a number of different types of muscular strength.
What are the different qualities of muscular strength and what is best type to have? Or do we have to train in all aspects of the strength game. If so, what ratio between the different strength types should we aim for?

          In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries the common measure of strength was a 200lb press overhead, these remember were the days before the squat and bench had come into existence. 


Relative Strength
 
Relative strength shifts the question from “How much can you bench?” to “How much do you weigh and how much can you bench?”
In the interests of not filling this article full of scientific jargon and technical malarkey, what is the best layman’s definition for relative strength? The easiest way to explain it is the ratio between the total weight being lifted and the total bodyweight of the lifter. The easiest example is a 200lb lifter bench pressing a 300lb barbell. In this case the ratio is 1.5, that is to say, the lifter is bench pressing 1.5 times their bodyweight.

Explosive Strength
 
Explosive strength is best explained by the Oxford Dictionary of Sport Science & Medicine. Their definition: “The ability to expend energy in one explosive act or in a series of strong sudden movements as in jumping, or projecting some object (e.g. a javelin) as far as possible.” So our bench press question becomes, "How fast can you push the bar from chest to lockout in the bench press"

Muscular endurance
 
In short, muscular endurance refers to the ability to sustain a number of muscular contractions over a sustained period of time. So to use the bench question again it shifts to, "What is the most amount of reps that you can bench for a set period of time?" or just "How many reps can you continuously bench?" Bodybuilders who utilize high volume, high rep training with reduced time between sets certainly have a certain amount of muscular endurance.
 
What aspect of physical strength should we focus on?
 
As old school trainers, relative strength should always be a primary focus. Depending on what aspect of the iron game you are focusing on, you need to balance out the other three types of strength accordingly. Most importantly do not ignore any of them to your peril. Old school muscle men essentially liked to take a generalist approach to strength and then developed a specialty interest within this. These days, trainees tend to specialize from the outset which leads to imbalances in overall physical strength.

 Workout 7-25 (The Test)

Run 1 mile

3 sets of pushups till failure

Max situps in 1 minute

run 1 mile

Max distance lunges in 1 minute

Wall walk ups

run 1 mile