What to do for strength training

Strength training essentially trains the body's ability to control resistance. It is neither the stereotype of only training large muscles, nor the maximum weight that can be lifted in a single competition.

I also encountered pitfalls when I first touched the barbell. I thought that if I practiced the isolated movements of the chest, shoulders, back, legs and arms, and increased the weight of the squat, push, pull, and deadlift, I would be perfect. It was not until the deadlift deformed that my waist flashed, and I asked a rehabilitation practitioner for adjustment. I realized that what I had practiced before was "weightlifting ability" with compensation, and it was not true strength control at all.

Nowadays, fitness circles have always had different views on this issue. Fans who follow the competitive route generally believe that strength training is about breaking through the upper limit of resistance. The core is to achieve absolute strength and explosive power, and the goal is to increase the 1RM (the maximum weight that can be lifted in a single rep). I used to know a brother who competed in provincial powerlifting competitions. In daily training, he even had to adjust the angle of his grip on the bar. All auxiliary movements were to increase the deadlift by 5 kilograms during the competition. For them, being able to break through the limits of the body is the core meaning of strength training.

But if you have no intention of competing at all and just want to improve your daily condition through training, another more general statement may be more appropriate - strength training actually trains the body's "fault tolerance." To put it bluntly, I usually carry 20 kilograms of rice up to the sixth floor without losing my waist, carry a three-year-old baby to the zoo for an afternoon without shoulder pain and back stiffness, and as I get older, I can stand upright after two stumbles, and I won’t break a bone when I fall. Several colleagues around me who are over 30 years old started practicing strength training, but their physical examination showed that their bone density was low. After practicing lower limb strength with a coach for half a year, their muscle mass increased by two kilograms, and their bone density directly increased by 0.2 during the review. Even the doctor praised it as much more effective than simply taking calcium tablets.

To put it bluntly, strength training is like installing a safety buffer system for your body. Every standard effort you make, every muscle that grows steadily, and every movement that keeps your body from shaking are patches and upgrades to this system. Some people upgrade to outperform their opponents on the field, while others upgrade to avoid suffering in daily life. No one is right or wrong, it's just that the goals are different and the focus of training is different.