At Lincoln Nutrition & Fitness we believe strength is a vital piece of general health & fitness. 

The benefits include: building lean muscle, improving metabolism, strengthening ligaments, joints and bones, decreasing risk of injury, and increased flexibility.  

Because it is so important our routine on a daily basis includes lifting something heavy. 

However, everyone has different goals and generalized programs may not fit those goals perfectly.

If your goal is to specifically gain maximal strength, i.e., improve one rep maxes, etc., you’ll need to take a look at how you’re approaching your workouts. 

In the functional fitness realm, it’s common to see athletes make the mistake of continuing with long, endurance style workouts with the goal of improving strength.  

I define endurance workouts as twelve minute training sessions or longer of consistent or steady movement. These usually consist of running, rowing, biking, body weight movements or lifts at light weight with minimal or no breaks.

Continuing with longer, endurance workouts creates a challenge for gaining maximal strength. If you’re performing these more than three times per week and your goal is to gain strength, consider modifying your training in the following ways:

Turn the endurance workout into an interval workout. Simply add rest time to the endurance workout you were planning to perform. Creating a high intensity interval workout is beneficial for strength gain because muscle fibers that don’t normally get woken up are firing at full force. Also, weights taken to failure are a great catalyst for building muscle mass.

Add heavy weights to your endurance workout. Including heavy lifts in your endurance workout forces you to rest before the lift, creates an interval style workout and helps maximize your time by adding heavier work to your training.

Reduce the length of your endurance workout. If you still want that steady burn. Consider making your longer workouts less than twelve minutes long and increasing the intensity. 

Adjusting your endurance workouts in these three ways will set you up for success to make the strength gains you’ve always wanted.

The right plan and coach may be a necessity for you to live the healthier, stronger, and leaner life you’ve always wanted. At Lincoln Nutrition & Fitness, we offer you both nutrition and fitness coaching, from personal training to group CrossFit classes we have the keys to help you reach your goals! 

Our personal trainers and group coaches value lifting weights, and using multi-jointed, functional exercises performed at high intensity. You don’t have to guess what to do! 

To find the perfect nutrition and workout routine for you, schedule a free consultation with one of our coaches here! →  I’M READY TO MEET WITH A COACH!

COACH PHIL KNIEP – Owner & CEO of Lincoln Nutrition & Fitness

Precision Nutrition L1 Coach

CrossFit Level 3 Trainer

Endurance Certified

Mobility Certified

Scaling Certified

3x CrossFit Games Qualifier