Strength is a skill, not just a physical quality

Training seriously is in your blood: you’ve been doing it consistently for 5+ years. The strength and physique improvements are surely there. Pulling 60kg, dipping 80kg and squatting 150kg. But for some reason, adding only 1.25kg feels like climbing an impossibly high mountain.

‘Stick to the 5x5, that’s gold’

‘You need to get close to maxing out every session’

‘You’ve reached your genetic potential’

The theories on strength training are ever changing. But there are certain subjects where we are more knowledgeable than before.

Strength training is a skill

It’s generally accepted that playing a musical instrument is a skill. Playing any ballsport is a skill. Yet, lifting maximal weights is just about muscle.

Hitting big numbers isn’t just about raw power. Of course, it’s an important part of it. But strength isn’t just about what your muscles can do.

For your body to be able to move, you need the right input from your CNS, or central nervous system. By practicing and training specific movements, let’s take the dip in this example, you’ll get more and more efficient in engaging the right muscles in the right manner.

That’s the tip of the iceberg physiologically. There’s also the mental part, the readiness. How is your motivation, how confident are you to perform a heavy, complex lift. We’ve all had it: one day you feel invincible, the other you feel like ‘where’s the exit?’. Even elite athletes can have the latter. What distinguishes them from other athletes is their ability to get their mind in the game, even on an off day. This does take diligent practice.

Conquering the mental demon

To picture this, an athlete has been training for multiple years consistently, but hasn’t been able to get past the 120kg dip. Every heavy session felt like a failure. Changing up the programming, watching reels, YouTube. In the end, nothing changed.

It was time to move away from ‘how do we make him stronger?’ to ‘Why has he stopped believing he can lift this weight?’.

So, what has to be done first?

In order to get the mind right, the absolute intensity had to be scaled down temporarily, so working with weights that are challengeing but manageable.  Not only physically, but also mentally. As soon as the mind is a bit more calm, the next step is to gradually expose the athlete to higher loads, with increments not greater than 5kg. Next to that, working with tempo and pause variations to get used to maintaining proper tension, feeling the right range of motion and, most important, feeling that even fatigued it’s possible to push through.

What’s in it for you

Question for yourself: The last big PR’s you’ve hit, what did those days have in common? How was readiness? What did you do prior to be able to hit those numbers?

Final thoughts

Training the mind to perform whilst working with maximal loads is not an easy task. Take your time to find your ideal motivator. Keep the intensity challenging but doable most of the time to prevent mental fatigue and getting into an eventual vicious cycle.

Strength isn’t simply about producing force, it’s rather expressing it.

That ability depends on a lot more than just muscle.

Technique, confidence, practice, experience.

The strongest athletes don’t just build stronger muscles, it’s about a stronger system.

If you’ve been stuck at the same numbers and/or progression, despite training consistently, it might be time to stop asking ‘How do I get stronger?’ and ask ‘What’s holding me back from expressing the strength I already have?’

That’s what I help athletes figure out.