By: Anthony Campo
Getting stronger doesn’t seem to be the most popular goal for most gym goers. It is tremendously overshadowed by losing weight, getting leaner, and getting beach muscles. While those are always important goals to have, they are goals that are hard to measure. Most people don’t have access to body fat calipers. The scale plays all kinds of games with people as weight can be very fickle. Muscle size is also very hard to gage considering gains are usually made on a weekly basis. Most people aren’t going to be measuring their biceps, looking for a millimeter of growth every week.
Strength on the other hand is very easy to measure. You know instantly if you have lifted more weight, did one more rep, or completed more work in a certain amount of time. If you focus your training around these performance goals, you’ll see that losing weight, getting leaner, putting on muscle will simply be a side effect. If you focus on hitting a personal record every time you are in the gym, the rest is sure to follow.
While bodies react differently to stimuli and you may lose or gain weight, or make muscle gains at a different pace than others, as long as you are getting stronger you know those positive side effects are right around the corner. Make strength a priority and the rest will come!