Bulding Functional Strength

A lot of people today train mainly in order to gain muscle and look good and therefore there are a lot of tips online of how to accomplish these exact steps. However, if you are training in order to gain strength and explosiveness you have to take a totally different approach than the one the regular fitness guys take.

You might want to start training for strength and explosiveness because you compete in a sport where these two attributes will help you, or you might just be more interested in having a lot of functional strength instead of just looking strong. When you train for muscle strength the diet is one of the most important aspects, just like it is when you train in order to gain muscle.

You really need to make sure that you are feeding your body with enough protein, carbohydrates and a lot of calories. Doing intensive strength training really takes its toll on the body and therefore you want to make sure your diet is perfect and feeds your body everything it will need in order to rebuild your muscles stronger each and every single time.

A great supplement to use when training for strength is creatine, just by the regular type as this will do the job just fine. Don’t fall for the fancy looking brands and “fast” releasing stuff. Creatine is creatine and it doesn’t need to be released fast, which is also the reason why you have to load it into your muscle for 2 weeks before you start seeing the real effects. Unless you eat a lot of meat having a whey protein supplement really is a must to make sure you get enough protein and all the different amino acids necessary.

You want to train very heavy and perform your lifts explosively; 2-5 reps for each exercise and of course stick mainly to the compound exercises like dead lift, squat, bench press, military press, bent over rows and pull ups. It can also be a really good idea to incorporate kettlebells into your training regimen and do crossfit 1-2 times week in order to keep your cardio at a very high level while gaining muscle, strength and explosiveness.  Being super strong and explosive won’t help you if you have really bad cardio and are breathing really heavy after just a couple of minutes of moving your body and exercising.