7 WAYS TO GET STRONGER (WITHOUT UPPING THE WEIGHT)

You don’t need to lift heavier to make progress if you tweak other key metrics

No one wants to hear it, but the truth is that training has to get harder over time if you want to keep making progress. If you do the same exercises, with the same weights, with the same number of reps, week in, week out, your body will adapt to the stress imposed upon it, and you’ll stop making progress.

If the stress generated by training doesn’t increase over time, you’re treading water. In physiological terms, it’s called homeostasis. It’s also why squatting 80kg will always feel heavy if you only ever squat 80kg. Get your squat up to 110kg however, and 80kg will feel lighter, simply because you’ll be that much stronger.

THE COACH

Clearly there are genetic limits to strength development. There’s also the question of how strong you need to be for mountain biking.

In the October issue we outlined some key performance metrics that every mountain biker should aim to meet. The strength component was a 1.5x bodyweight strength test that combines your three-rep max barbell back squat with your three-rep max deadlift, where the combined weight of both exercises should meet or exceed 1.5x your body weight. So if an 80kg rider works up to a 60kg squat for three reps then after some rest they then work up to a 90kg deadlift for three reps, the combined total from both lifts is 150kg. So almost 2x body weight. That’s well above our 1.5x minimum but there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

And while incrementally upping the weight on the bar is one way to increase the stress of an exercise, there are other ways to make strength exercises harder. You can increase volume by doing more sets, or up the number of reps. Setting new rep–range PRS is also a great way to increase the stimulus and stay motivated. Extending the range of motion of an exercise, changing the tempo, or doing 1.5 reps all have their place too.

So if your strength training is stuck in a rut and you’ve not made any serious progress in the last six months, rather than a drastic change of approach, you could try some of these methods to kickstart your gains.

DEFICIT PUSH-UPS

The push-up is a fundamental exercise with great carry over to mountain biking. But once you can bang out 15-20 strict reps, with your chest on the floor in the bottom position, it’s time to make the exercise more challenging. Do that by increasing the range of motion. Simply elevating your hands on blocks, books or bumper plates, not only makes the exercise harder, you also get a really good stretch on the chest muscles in the bottom position of the movement.

TEMPO SQUATS

Altering the tempo of an exercise can be a powerful driver of change. So rather than just raising and lowering the barbell at the same speed, try lowering it for a count of three and raising it in one second. Increasing the length of time in the lowering (eccentric contraction) phase will make the exercise noticeably more difficult. Also, slowing the movement down is a great way to improve your technique as you are much less reliant on momentum to carry you through the movement. Tempo work isn’t restricted to the squat, but can be applied to all exercise movements.

TRAIN CONSISTENTLY

Much as we all love exercise variation to spice things up, nothing trumps consistency when it comes to strength training. Programming, exercise selection and rep ranges all have their place, but they are not as important as simply turning up and doing the work, week in, week out. And because strength takes time to develop, it’s a very stable adaptation, so you won’t lose it as fast as your aerobic fitness. With as little as two strength sessions per week, you can make long-term gains on and off the bike.