The Many Faces Of Strength…What’s Yours?
by: Brandon Richey–Get Free Updates And Training Guides Here
The Many Faces Of Strength…What’s Yours?
Strength has many faces, even more than two! I’ve always enjoyed the villain Two-Face in the Batman comics (pictured above). I just thought it would be an eye catching and semi-pertinent photo for the post at hand. Nonetheless the faces I’m addressing aren’t that of a hero and a villain, but that of the physical abilities that are associated with the human body. Strength is the focus of this episode my friend so keep on reading and after you are finished share this with everyone you know! Enjoy.
So What Is Strength?
Well inclusively the definition of strength is the maximal force that a muscle, or group of muscles can produce at a given velocity or speed. It is the ability of your muscles to produce the desired amount of force for whatever task is in demand at the moment.
So by this definition you can immediately see how the notion of strength can have many faces. Many personal trainers and even some strength coaches can’t explain this to you. This is why some of them have different faces as well. Some of their faces include just lacking the knowledge where others flat out lack a brain! Either way, if they couldn’t tell you this before then I’m taking the time here to tell you right now.
So Brandon what are some examples of this? Well, by the definition above we can see how many physical feats differ which gives us our examples. If we take a guy that can bench press 400 lbs. then he has a significant level of upper body strength, right?
This is true, but this is only one act, or face, of strength. Another example would be a guy that is capable of power cleaning 350 lbs.! This would actually be a tremendous display of explosive power , which is also a particular measure of strength.
By the way it is the second guy (the power cleaner) I would worry about in terms of pushing us around on the field of play unless we matched his intensity in this example, but I digress. A third example would include a guy that has a 40 inch vertical leap! These are all measures, or faces of strength. Even dancing wildly with a bunch of your crazy old buds out in the middle of the forest would qualify as a face of some kind of strength…
Now clearly that was a display of a lot of stuff and I’m sure strength was an element included in there somewhere ;-). If you are sitting at your desk at work please tell me you had the volume turned down! Oh boy. Anyways, after you finish wiping away the coffee you just spit up onto your computer screen from laughing I think you get the point about how strength can come in many forms. Now what about identifying your face?
Find Your Face …
I had an interesting conversation with one of my very good friends (Jeff Perry) a while back regarding his athletic career. Jeff happens to be a professional retired Muay Thai fighter. I was asking him about his successful fighting career.
He had won a bunch of fights in both his amateur and professional career and had never been knocked out. I asked him in detail about that. As a strength coach I asked the question “So when you were in the ring did you just feel faster and stronger than the other guy?” His answer was YES. He said that he just simply had a feel as to how he could apply his body in the art of Muay Thai. “I can kick you as fast as I can punch you,” he said. Of course, he didn’t already have to tell me that because I know from personal experience by sparring with him!
Another great resource for helping your find your face of strength
Nonetheless, the point is that like Jeff the key is finding out what works for you. Some people can jump out of the gym, some people can bench press a house, and some people (even like myself) do pretty well at a more balanced approach of barbells, body weight training, and lifting kettlebells.
Once you find your face and what your body responds to the best then you can accelerate your progress and will be well on your way to having your own face of strength! This is why variety in your training is good. The exposure to the different modalities of training will allow you to better discover your niche. You’ll figure out where your stronger areas are regarding your performance, as well as your weaker areas.
Having been a strength coach and trainer here in the Atlanta area now for over 10 years I know that there are a lot of personal trainers and so-called strength and conditioning coaches that don’t recognize this about strength. If you are looking to discover your own face or niche then just make sure that the personal trainer or coach you hire understands what the hell is going on and can soundly apply concrete principles to help you physically prepare for whatever you are trying to accomplish.
All in all, if you are serious about training and want help finding out how to discover a physical identity of your own then you can start by learning more here about how you can Get 30 Days of FREE Coaching from me!
I hope you enjoyed today’s post and if you have any questions or comments please post up in the comment box below the article. I always love getting your feedback. Thanks again and keep training smart.
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The Many Faces Of Strength…What’s Yours?
