When it comes to strength training, what comes to mind first? Lifting weights, perhaps? That’s totally a legit answer, but technically, there are seven different types of strength you can train your body to build, and not all of them require picking up a pair of dumbbells in order to master. Is your mind blown yet?
Understanding the differences between the various types of strength(and their benefits!)doesn’t just come in handy when you’re trying to lift heavier, but also when you’re doing everyday tasks like carrying your groceries up a flight of stairs, or improving your endurance so you can run faster. (Yep, endurance strength is one of the seven types.)
Not only that, but working on different types of strength training can also help you prevent injury by doing things like improving your reaction time (i.e. your ability to catch yourself from falling, for example). Taking a holistic approach to building strength can also help you achieve major gains in a shorter amount of time. That whole, well-rounded athlete, thing, ya know….
The cool part is you’ve probably been working on some of these types of strength training without even knowing it, and some exercises can work more than one type at once. So, don’t worry that you’ll have to overhaul your entire fitness routine. A few slight adjustments will do, and you’ll enjoy being able to switch up your usual get-sweaty sked.
Here’s a little bit about the different types of strength training, their benefits, and what fitness pros suggest you should do to work on each.
1. Agile Strength
You know when you watch a football game and the players are running in all sorts of directions as they try to get the ball across this line. That’s agile strength, says celebrity trainer Autumn Calabrese. “Agile strength is the ability to move and change directions quickly, with precision and power, and to move with controlled acceleration and deceleration in response to something or someone around you,” she says. Agile strength is important because it keeps you safe and prevents injuries by allowing you to quickly respond to your environment.
How to work on it: To improve your agile strength, Calabrese suggests doing exercises that require you to quickly move side to side or forward and back like skaters, shuffles, and shuttle runs.
2. Endurance Strength
Endurance strength (or muscular endurance) is your ability to move lighter loads for longer periods of time, says Calabrese. One way you can test your endurance strength is by seeing how many squats or pushups you can do in one minute, adds Kim Schaper, CPT. (The more reps you can bang out the better your endurance.) The benefit of working on your endurance strength is increasing the amount of time before you experience fatigue while exercising. Being able to perform for longer periods of time without breaking form is the key to progressing and taking your fitness to the next level.
How to work on it: The best way to work on your endurance when it comes to strength training is by focusing on high rep-low weight workouts that require either just your bodyweight or light weights. “When incorporated into your regular routine, these exercises simultaneously increase your strength and stamina, enabling you to work for longer periods without fatigue,” says Calabrese, who also adds that another great attribute of this training style is that you can do it almost anywhere.
3. Explosive Strength
This is basically your muscles’ ability to exert the maximum amount of force they can in the shortest time possible. When it comes to explosive strength, you should think about force and velocity, says Calabrese, like when you see a sprinter explode from the starting blocks, or when an Olympic lifter dynamically lifts a very heavy barbell off the ground before getting under it for a snatch.
How to work on it: Plyometric training (a.k.a. jump training) like a box jump workout is your best bet for building explosive strength. But, Calabrese also suggests working on yours by tackling moves like tuck jumps and burpees. “When performed, ‘all-out’ moves like these will increase your explosive strength as well as your agile strength,” she says.
4. Maximum Strength
Maximum strength refers to the most weight you can lift for a single rep of an exercise like a bench press (to test upper body strength) or deadlift (to measure your lower body max strength).
How to work on it: Calabrese says building this kind of strength usually isn’t protocol for the average person who’s looking to improve their health and overall fitness. But if you’re looking to improve your maximum strength the key is going for heavy weights (as much as you safely can), while completing a minimal number of reps (1–4 ideally).
5. Speed Strength
Speed strength is basically how fast you are. This kind of strength comes in handy when you’re participating in a team sport or something like a race by giving you the upper hand in a competition, says Schaper. Working on your speed strength can also improve how quickly you react to something like someone throwing a ball at you.
How to work on it: You can work on your speed strength by doing sprint workouts, or going through reps of bodyweight exercises paying special attention to get through your reps as fast as possible (with proper form, obvs).
6. Starting Strength
Starting strength refers to how much power you can build up right when you start moving from a stationary position, so think about a track start, or a football linemen in his stance before the ball is snapped and then getting up from a seated position, says Schaper. It’s basically how much power or force you can achieve without any momentum to push you through, like when you get up from a chair after being seated for a while. People with weaker starting strength might have trouble doing this.
How to work on it: To work on your starting strength, Schaper suggests trying compound moves like squats and lunges, which require you to generate power without using momentum to give you an extra oomph. You can try completing those moves with light weights, and gradually progressing to heavier ones.
7. Relative Strength
To put it simply, relative strength is your strength-to-weight ratio, or how strong you are for your size. This changes from person to person, says Schaper. “For example, someone who weighs 150 pounds and can squat 300 pounds has greater relative strength than someone who weighs 200 pounds and can squat 350 pounds.” Your relative strength basically puts a number on your gains, so having it go up is a sign your performance is improving.
How to work on it: To calculate it, Schaper suggests hitting your max on an exercise and then dividing that by your weight. “If that number increases during your training program, your relative strength is improving,” she explains.
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