Chapter 5 - Improving Muscular Strength and Muscular Endurance

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Muscular Strength
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- What is Strength?
Strength may be
defined as the ability to exert
maximum force against either a
movable or immovable
resistance. Most weightlifters
define it as your one-repetition
maximum (1-RM). Now here
is something you may have
noticed if you watch Popeye a
lot. Big isn‟t always better. Just
because an individual has larger
muscles than another person, it
does not mean that he is
stronger. How many times did
Popeye kick Brutus‟ butt? Trust
us on this one, it wasn‟t the
spinach. Is it possible that
Popeye was stronger even
though he was a lot smaller?
The answer is…YES!
Two muscles that have the same circumference may differ in strength because of the amount of fat
tissue they contain. Although fat adds to the circumference of the muscle, it lacks contractile power and limits
the contractibility of the muscle. Most likely, Brutus was carrying a lot of body fat.
Also, the arrangement of muscle fibers determines the force with which a muscle can contract.
Research has revealed that when muscle fibers run at oblique angles, they can exert greater force than when
they run parallel to the long axis of the muscle. Thus, two muscles could be the same size, but have different
contractile power because of the arrangement of the muscle fibers. Popeye‟s muscles, although small, were
more contractually efficient than Brutus‟.
On the other hand, all factors being equal, the larger the muscle, the greater the strength. Indeed, the
absolute strength of a muscle is directly proportional to its circumference. In brief, there is a linear
relationship between strength and muscle size and/or mass. In general, the stronger you get, the bigger your
muscles will get. If you want mass and/or big muscles, you will need to strength train.

- Evaluating Your Strength

There are a number
of valid methods for ∞ WELLNESS FOR LIFE ∞
evaluating muscular strength. __________________________________________________________________

However, all of these

methods require some type
of equipment. Perhaps the
most commonly used
method is to determine your
1-RM. This is accomplished
by finding the maximum
amount of weight you can
lift one time in a particular
exercise. For example, if
you are doing a bench press,
you first warm-up with a
1- RM.
Only one percent of the men in the world can bench-press twice their
body weight and less and one percent of the women in the world can bench-
press their body weight.
Interestingly, Chris “The Machine” Confessore bench-pressed 742
pound at a body weight of 242 pounds. That is 3 times his body weight. Not
impressed? So listen to this. Bev Francis, a female world-class powerlifter,
bench-pressed 425 pounds at a body weight of 165 pounds. That is
approximately 2.6 times her body weight. Who said women are weak?
 Chapter 5 - Improving Muscular Strength and Muscular Endurance
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weight you can easily handle for 8-10 repetitions. Rest for approximately five minutes and then do another
warm-up set with a weight you can easily lift for 5 repetitions. After these initial warm-up sets, load the bar to
approximately 70 percent of what you believe to be the maximum amount of weight you can bench press and
do three repetitions. Rest and load the bar to 85% of what you believe to be the maximum weight you can lift.
Do one repetition. After resting between lifts, do one repetition with the bar loaded at 95% maximum, and
finally at 100%. Do we need to say don‟t try more than 100%? Okay, don‟t try more than 100%.
Here is something else you need to consider when evaluating your strength. There is no single
exercise that correlates very highly with total strength. This is probably due to the fact that strength is body
specific. For example, just because your arms are strong does not necessarily mean that your legs will be
strong, or vice versa. Therefore, in order to measure total body strength, each muscle group would have to be
tested independently. To do this, you first find an exercise in which the muscle you want to test is the prime
mover and then simply determine your 1-RM in that exercise.
The most common exercises used for evaluating strength are the bench press, curl, squat, deadlift and
leg press. The scores on these four lifts are generally considered a predictor of total body strength.

- Absolute and Relative Strength

Here is something that
might interest you. A couple of
months ago Michael Jackson and
Oprah stopped by our office.
They were having this big
argument. You know how
celebrities are…just like the rest
of us, only more so. Anyway,
Michael said that his chest was
stronger than Oprah‟s. Of course
Oprah didn‟t agree. She was
positive her chest was stronger
(remember though, big is not
always better). In fact, Oprah was
so upset that she threatened to
straighten out Michael‟s nose
once and for all. As you have
probably guessed, they wanted us to determine who was right. Actually that was no problem. We knew that
the muscles primarily used to perform a bench press are the pectoralis major and minor… the chest. So we
simply determined Michael‟s and Oprah‟s 1-RM in that exercise. Michael did a solid 1-RM with 100 pounds.
Very impressive! Oprah though, surprised everyone by pumping out 120 pounds for her 1-RM. When Oprah
made that lift she let out a scream…the kind that would scare Stephen King. She was so excited!
But did this mean that Oprah‟s chest was stronger than Michael‟s? Watch out here, this is a trick
question. The answer is yes and no. You see, there are two types of strength, absolute and relative.
Absolute strength can be defined as the most weight you can lift (1-RM) regardless of your body weight.
Relative strength can be defined as the most weight you can lift relative to your body weight.
For example, let‟s
say we have two lifters. One
weighs 150 lbs and the other
weighs 200 lbs. Suppose the
150 lb. lifter‟s 1-RM in the
bench press is 300 lbs while
the 200 lb. lifter‟s 1-RM in
the bench press is 310 lbs. In
this instance, the lifter who
weighs 200 lbs. is said to
have greater absolute strength
(in this exercise) because he
lifted more weight.

Relative strength – Stanazek squatted 638 pounds at a body weight of

114…That is 5.6 times his body weight.
 Chapter 5 - Improving Muscular Strength and Muscular Endurance
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Conversely, the 150 lb. lifter is said to have greater relative strength because he lifted more weight per body
pound. The 150 lb. lifter lifted twice his body weight, while the 200 lb. lifter lifted approximately 1 1/2 times
his body weight. The question is, “Which is more important, relative or absolute strength?” Another trick
question! Actually, it depends on the activity you are engaging in. If you were being tested for physical
fitness, relative strength would obviously be preferred. However, if you were participating in a competitive
sport where there are no weight classifications (such as football, track and field, or sumo wrestling) then
absolute strength would be more important.