Edited by Emanuele Giuliani
The first thing to highlight is that if pure strength is important in bodybuilding in general, in Natural it is even fundamental.
The transverse section of the muscle is in fact proportional to the force, therefore the more load is used (always within the terms of the correct execution of the exercise) and the more it will tend to put on lean muscle mass.
They say this because they never needed to do it because, in addition to being naturally equipped, they always kept it high thanks to cycles and cycles of anabolic steroids.
But most natural people, having no such genetic heritage and not taking drugs, are forced to constantly make mesocycles of strength, as this is the only way to increase it.
We have said that the force is directly proportional to the transverse section of the muscle, so suppose we have a muscle with a diameter of 7.5cm, thus having an area section of 44.12 square cm.
As we will see later, with certain mesocycles of pure strength, strength gains of up to 50% can be achieved in certain muscles in just two months.
Now, since there is a direct proportionality between the increase in the transverse area and the force, we must deduce that our muscle has also increased its surface area by 50%, which is now 66.18 square cm.
Furthermore, strength work also improves the so-called intermuscular coordination, which is the ability to achieve greater synergy between the main agonist muscles and complementary muscle chains. In the horizontal bench, for example, the main agonist muscle is the pectoralis, but together with it the deltoid and the triceps also work in an important way. Regular work with large loads optimizes this synergy, increasing the efficiency of the nervous system and consequently improving performance.
Strength is the steroid of natural, because it is the only variable that can increase the intensity with an increase in other qualitative components of training. In fact, the intensity of a bodybuilding workout can be increased with various basic features:
- Set increase.
- Increased repetitions.
- Weight gain
- Increase in exercises
- Reduction in recovery times
- Increase in sessions
It is however easy to note that series, repetitions, exercises, sessions and recovery times can be modified up to a certain point, as it is not possible to get out of the extreme margins of training for hypertrophy / hyperplasia. The only method to obtain results and increase the intensity is the progressive increase of the load, as these same loads continue for years never lead to a muscle increase. So strength is the only element that can and must be increased for ever increasing muscle stimulation.
The intensity formula is: I = (kg x repetitions) / time
If you have a ceiling of 120kg and you have to do 3 sets of 8 repetitions with a break of 1 minute and a half, you will have to calculate that with 75% of the ceiling you get about 8 repetitions:
Intensity = (90x24) / 90 = 24
If after the pure strength period you have increased the ceiling to 140kg and try again to do the given exercise with the same variables, changing only the weight, which will be 75% of the new ceiling, you will have:
Intensity = (105x24) / 90 = 28
Training intensity is increased by 4 points, significantly stimulating your workouts and opening new paths to muscle growth.
There are athletes who for years have always stood on the same weights, perhaps believing that their ceilings are impassable. The program of pure strength raises the ceilings with a percentage, ranging from subject to subject, between 10 and 18%, giving these individuals great motivation and a devastating psychological charge.
Strength work is based on a few exercises, average total work volume, long breaks and very rarefied sessions.
Think that many times in some subjects, especially if equipped with long levers, the transition from a traditional training to a training with sub-maximal loads, also causes a marked increase in muscle mass, on average 2-3kg.
This phenomenon is most likely due to the shock induced to the organism by the different approach to intensity and to the greater recovery given by force programming.
For the structuring, in this phase, of the training, only basic exercises will be adopted, which significantly stimulate the neuro-muscular system and which will also be used in the rest of the annual programming.
The frequency of the sessions must be established based on your personal ability to recover.
Normally the three tables alternate 3 times a week, thus concluding the cycle in 7 days, but if you practice other sports, or do heavy work, you can also work out 2 times a week, so you can have an adequate recovery.
Before undertaking this training, which in the BIIO corresponds to the third mesocycle, calculate 90% of the ceiling (a single rise with the maximum weight allowed) on the basic exercises.
We are going to make a 6 x 90% ceiling.
At each series all the repetitions are made which come with precisely 90% of the ceiling, reaching the last in muscle failure.
On average, they will come out of 4 to 2 repetitions, with a recovery time of about 3-4 minutes to recharge all the muscle creatine phosphate.
In the second week, leaving the same weight as the previous session, the repetitions will increase by one repetition on each series, always if enough has been recovered.
This is a training that will bombard your nervous system and adapt it to heavy submaximal loads.
Bibliography: The science of natural Bodybuilding (C.Tozzi)
