You clicked, which means you’re tired of not getting any stronger, and to tell you the truth I’m tired of you not being stronger. Watching you flop around like a wet noodle and wondering why the numbers won’t go up is not my idea of a good time. As a coach, seeing people get stronger is the best damn thing in the world, but seeing people make the same mistakes and not doing the simple things that can add hundreds of pounds to their lifts makes my brain feel like a giant ripped my skull open and just farted on my brain for centuries and I HATE farts on my brain. Without further ado, here are my top 3 ways to get stronger.

Technique

I know you’ve heard this before countless times, but hear me out. Mastering your technique is never a bad thing. Notice I said YOUR technique. Sure, there are certain things that everyone should do, like to hold a brace, but your genetics play a big role in things like foot position or how wide you grip the bar. The way our joints are angled or structured makes a big difference from lifter to lifter.

For example, if you’re not built to pull sumo but your favorite lifter does, and you try to mimic them, you’re going to hit a wall that you can’t break through because you’re simply not built like them. Lift according to your body and by doing this, you could increase your lifts by a huge margin instantly.

In the past while coaching a group of athletes at a clinic I had one athlete switch from conventional to sumo because he wasn’t built for conventional, and he went from a 225-strained full out max deadlift to 405 with 2 reps in the tank in 20 minutes. We fixed a few more minor things, but that was the biggest change. Now this is an extreme case but, in most cases, you will increase your lift by simply fixing technical flaws.

This is where having experienced training partners or hiring a coach is a good idea. You should also record yourself from all angles, not only to catch every little detail, but to learn as much as possible. As you grow as a lifter, you will also grow to see the smallest details. You need to be very crucial with yourself. Look for the smallest things that you can fix. Leave that giant ego at the door. Let your lifts do the talking.

Gain weight

This is self-explanatory, but if you’ve been lifting and competing for a while and you are keeping yourself in a certain weight class, you could stunt your potential growth into new and higher levels of strength. Especially if you cut to make weight. Now when I say gain weight, I don’t mean eat like an idiot and gain 50 pounds of fat.

Start by tracking your meals and your body weight every day. This will give you a baseline. After you have figured out exactly how much food it takes for you to maintain your current weight, you can start by increasing your caloric intake by 200 to 500 cal per day and go from there.

I would recommend getting your lean body mass tested. You can do this with a DEXA scan or a full body fat caliber test. This will give you your lean body mass number.

I like to eat at least 1 g of protein per pound of lean body mass, but some people do just fine with as little as 0.7g per pound.

For example, if you need 2500 cals per day to maintain your current body weight and you have 150 pounds of lean body mass, you will eat 150 g of protein per day at a minimum if you’re following the 1g per pound. That’s 37.5 g of protein per meal if you have four meals a day. 600 cals from protein alone. Once you figure out the rest of the calories that you need from carbs and fat to make up the added calories you need per day, just add them in. This is the easiest way to do it and you can obviously change the numbers from carbs and fats depending on your goals and what works best for you. Personally, I like a little more carbs than fat. This works better for me when training.

I would also recommend gaining slowly to ensure you’re not gaining all fat. This is one of those things where slower is better and you can gain fat quickly, therefore I recommend adding only 200 to 500 cal per day earlier in the article and monitoring from there.

Muscle takes time and adding calories slowly overtime will help do that without gaining unnecessary fat, especially if you’re monitoring everything.

No weak links!

This is the one that is most overlooked because of ego.

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “you’re only as strong as your weakest link”. That might be the truest statement ever told for being as strong as possible.

Here’s a great example. Let’s say there’s a lifter that can squat 700lbs. Great squat, right? Sure. Could be better, though. Here’s how.

During training, this lifter hits numbers in the 90% range and their upper back rounds over because they have weak lats/upper back and can’t maintain the stiffness to keep that position. Form goes out the window to make the lift, leverages are no longer in their favor and risk of injury goes through the roof. This means that the lifter is only a 700-pound squatter because his upper back can only handle 700 pounds, but his legs and lower back can handle much more. The lifter is literally being held back by the one weak link on their body.

Now that we know what the problem is, we can fix it overtime. Adding in SSB squats, Front squats, High bar squats, high rows, and just more overall upper back work would most likely fix this issue over time, and push this lifter past their plateau, allowing them to reach their full potential all while minimizing the risk of injury.

I hope you enjoyed my top 3 ways to get stronger. If you did, please share the article, and leave a comment and even go grab a bag of coffee. If you’re looking for more detailed training, check out our custom training here and get stronger today!