The entire platform at TLA is dedicated to maxing out health, performance, and longevity. Rooted within this focus are a number of first principles. And among those are strength and hypertrophy. Both matter. They are complementary. And they are to some degree inseparable.
Strength is the ability to produce force, and it’s usually quantified in maximal amounts. Hypertrophy is muscular development represented by an increase in the cross-sectional diameter of muscle fibers. It’s universally accepted that every athlete needs a certain amount of strength and muscle mass to do their sport, or fitness pursuit…optimally. And it is also widely recognized that longevity, functional independence, and quality of life are integrally linked to both strength and muscle.
Strength gives us the capacity to meet challenges in sports and life, particularly with respect to heavy lifting and anti-gravity movements. It also exists on a percentage basis with regard to daily function. The more strength you have, the less likely you are to max out your limits (or come up short) during general daily activities. It’s good to have a reserve or surplus.
Muscle has many attributes beyond the aesthetic ones. It acts as a metabolic “sink” for glucose management. It significantly enhances our basal metabolic rate. It correlates highly with bone density, organ weight, and efficient thermoregulation.
Genetics aside, strength and hypertrophy come from RESISTANCE TRAINING. Every single person in this community appreciates this fact. That training can take on many, many forms…some more “official” than others.
You can train specifically to build strength. Use heavy (yet safe) loads, lower rep ranges (2-6 in your working sets) high intention (approaching failure, RPE 9, or RIR 1), and long rest periods between your sets (as much as 3-5 minutes) to recharge your CNS. Focus on major compound movements that are highly functional (large application or transfer to life and sport). Just don’t be surprised if you also build some muscle using that approach.
You can also train in bodybuilder fashion, and prioritize hypertrophy. Use a variety of training splits with high workload (volume and intensity), rep ranges from 8-15 (although higher can work as well), and targeted recovery. You’ll make some gains and you’ll still get stronger also.
For Lifetime Athletes, the real key is that we consistently do resistance training. As long as it is safe (works for your unique body), it almost doesn’t matter what you do. At least too much. Sure, we can be fancy in program design and very goal-specific — and that is indeed worthwhile — but it’s most important that we have a regular, life-supporting, training habit.
We use a balanced Annual Training Plan in our Training Tribe programming. This features block periodization in which the year is divided into 5 blocks of 2-3 months each. Every block places an emphasis on one of the 5 Capacities of Athleticism. Those are strength (and hypertrophy), speed, power, agility, and endurance. The primary focus is the enhancement of the block’s named capacity. But we also perform secondary amounts (in varying ratios) of the other capacities. You build one thing while not losing the others. The application is simple but the background design elements are highly evidence-based and relatively complicated. Members don’t have to sweat the details. That’s my job. They just have fun and get results.
If you’d like to learn more about how we do things in the Training Tribe, check out the T2 page at thelifetimeathlete.com. Or just go ahead and download The Lifetime Athlete App. The basic app is resource-rich and totally free. You can explore it a bit and decide if you’d like to subscribe and become a member to access all the Tribe content, courses, daily fitness tips, weekly challenges, and MasterClasses.
We’re running the Summer Longevity Training Series on The Lifetime Athlete Podcast. The first episode on Strength training for older athletes, and the second one on Power, were very well received. I got some great feedback and that included some questions on how resistance training can be leveraged for strength versus hypertrophy. The answers are in the episode I’ve included here for your convenience.
Thank you for joining me today and as always, reach out to me if you have questions or comments.