Strong Enough?
Can we ever truly be strong enough?
Personally, I’d have to argue YES / & / NO. It should be noted that the context of every individual situation is key to this claim. Let me explain below…
Each of us have different goals and aspirations we ultimately want to achieve. But along with this, each of us are in a situation that also dictates what should be recommended when in comes to building strength. Lets break that down:
An elite level male footballing athlete, whose sole purpose is to improve their sporting performance, utilises strength & conditioning modalities to reach (what I label) a “good enough” level of strength. Trying to improve their deadlift 1RM is not their goal, rather, getting “strong enough” in that lift (for example) so that it transfers the horizontal force producing capabilities of the lift over to their sporting performance, is. Could they, or should they, continually aim to improve their strength – I’d argue yes! – However, if they are pulling around, or over, 1.8x their body weight consistently and performing well in competition weak in, weak out, is chasing the extra 5kg – 10kg necessary? Probably not. So in this situation, yes, I’d argue that the athlete is “strong enough.”
Similarly in another situation, if you have standard general population individual who’s daily living requires strenuous work, hard labor, being on their feet all day, carrying equipment, performing constant house work, etc. they would also benefit from getting stronger in order to perform their jobs or task more proficiently and with more ease. Do these people have the goal to be as strong as they can be, probably not, but should they aim to continually improve their strength levels (especially as age becomes an influencing factor), I’d argue yes.
Now, it must be noted that each individual is inherently subject to a genetic predisposed limit. Genetically linked factors have been associated with specific performance abilities and establish the boundaries for adaptation (8). From a sporting context, considering the unique physical requirements and components of each individual sport ultimately will distinguish how, and what, genetics will influence performance. Elite athletic status results from the interaction of an optimal combination of genetically driven physical and mental traits with the ideal training environment (6). Genetic factors and variation can influence muscle mass, strength and trainability (5). This means that people will inherit genes that affect traits such as strength (5). Examples of inherent genetic differences associated with strength-power athletes include: muscle fiber type profile, adaptability to resistance training, somatotype, resting testosterone concentrations, the protein alpha-actinin-3 and enhanced motor control abilities at fast speeds (8). It’s noted that a study which was carried out saw a strength training program implemented on 500 young untrained individuals resulting in greatly varying muscle size and strength adaptations (5).
So obviously, inheritance will play a role in how strong an individual can become, but in saying that, athletes (and the general population) should aim to continually build strength, or at least work hard to maintain strength > as with ageing comes muscle atrophy. Ageing is associated with sarcopenia, where we see a loss in muscle mass that results from a reduced number of muscle fibers and atrophy of remaining fibers that’s accompanied by increased infiltration of non-contractile tissue (1). Strength training in the elderly results in reduced rate of muscle atrophy, improvements in functional capacity and elicits improvements in neuromuscular function (1).
Like the elderly, a problem that many athletes face from various sporting codes is also atrophy during the competition period. They work hard during the off-season and pre-season to bulk, and build the foundations to be robust and prepped for competition but then struggle with the maintenance of their hypertrophy and strength gains. A key point in a hypertrophied muscle is that it’s not in equilibrium and will atrophy when the training stimulus is lowered or removed (5). It’s seen that the cessation of training negatively impacts muscular performance by decreasing muscular strength, maximal force and maximal power (4). Therefore it’s crucial that we continually aim to develop and/or maintain strength levels.
Athletic performance is dominated by the combination of strength, power, speed and endurance, which are all bio-motor abilities (3), however, strength underpins all our bio-motor abilities. Strength is defined as “the ability of the neuromuscular system to produce a force against an external resistance”(3, 8). Strength influences bio-motor abilities such as: Agility, Endurance, Speed, Maximal Strength, Power and Muscular Endurance. This effectively establishes that greater strength levels are significantly and directly related to improved sporting performance (3). But a question posed my many S&C and high performance professionals is; “how much should we focus on getting stronger and building strength, at the cost of potentially negatively affecting an athletes performance?” Because the stronger we get, the harder it is to get even stronger. This goes to show that there may be a point in an athlete’s pursuit of strength, which will result in diminishing returns.
From navigating the CAMBERED website, you may have seen my explanation on power, and it’s importance to sporting performance. Power is effectively the defining aspect between elite and sub-elite athletes for many sports, Power equaling Force x Velocity. Force, being a product of strength, suggests that maximum strength is the basic quality that affects power (7). Strength and power underpin levels of performance, and we see this in American collegiate football where athletes from Division 1 (top division) have higher measures of strength and power related variables, testing with better vertical jump (VJ) heights and quicker sprint times (7). In a Division IAA university team, max strength also played a roll in “starters” vs. “non-starters” within this football team, where “starters” had a higher 1RM squat (174kg’s Average) to “non-starters” (154kg Average) and stronger players experienced a higher VJ height (7). By this we can make the assumption that by improving an untrained or ‘less’ trained individuals strength levels we will systematically improve their power/speed potential, which would result in improved performance. But once again, if an athlete develops and reaches an average level of strength for their sport, is it truly necessary to aggressively push the athlete to reach yet a further marginal gain in their relative strength levels? I’d argue no (unless they’re a strongman or powerlifter where improvements in strength are crucial to performance). This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pursue improvements in strength, it just means that the athletes primary focus is getting better at their sport, development of strength in the gym is secondary to that.
Here is a summary of some key points made by some S&C professionals which I stumbled across during a search of the literature (2):
Sara Wiley – “Because of the close relationship between max strength and performance in speed/power sports, strength is a variable that should continue to receive attention... Athletes who possess significant levels of strength clearly need to shift focus onto other areas such as speed… although work directed to max strength is still included just not the focus goal in the cycle”
Ronnie McKeefrey - “It is the S&C coach’s job to train athletes to reach their genetic potential and to reduce the risk of overuse injuries…And I encourage athletes to train to be as strong as they can genetically be.”
Kevin Yoxall – Poses the question of ‘should we be pushing athletes to strive to improve squat max training poundage’s in order to enhance their athletic or sporting abilities?’ and follows up with the answer: “Yes.”
Mike Stone – “you’re never strong enough”
To conclude, we want to be able to get the most out of our bodies for as long as we can, and building physical strength should be a lifelong goal of every individual, especially as we age and we gradually lose muscle tissue, and essentially strength. The benefits of being strong always outweighs any variable of not being strong. But as you can see, more often then not, the goal of a person dictates whether or not they within themselves need to constantly strive to be physically stronger. Should we always strive to be stronger, yes, I believe we should. Is it essential though for all of us to push hard and strive to reach our genetic ceiling, well, probably not.
References:
Aagaard P, Suetta C, Caserotti P, Magnusson SP, and Kjær M. Role of the nervous system in sarcopenia and muscle atrophy with aging: strength training as a countermeasure. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports 20: 49-64, 2010.
Bennett S. How Strong is Strong Enough? Strength and Conditioning Journal 29: 25-27, 2007.
Bompa TO and Haff G. Periodization : Theory and Methodology of Training. Champaign, IL.: Human Kinetics, 2009.
Bosquet L, Berryman N, Dupuy O, Mekary S, Arvisais D, Bherer L, and Mujika I. Effect of training cessation on muscular performance: A meta-analysis. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports 23: e140-e149, 2013.
Cardinale M, Newton R, and Nosaka K. Strength and conditioning : biological principles and practical applications. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2011.
Guth LM and Roth SM. Genetic influence on athletic performance. Current opinion in Paediatrics 25: 653-658, 2013.
Stone MH, Moir G, Glaister M, and Sanders R. How much strength is necessary? Physical Therapy in Sport 3: 88-96, 2002.
Stone MH, Stone M, and Sands B. Principles and practice of resistance training. Champaign, IL ; Leeds: Human Kinetics, 2007.