Muscle Strength, size and endurance is built by following the overload principle. This involves lifting increasingly heavier weights or increasing the volume of work in time bound manner.
Building Muscle For Strength
Muscle Strength, as distinguished from muscle size, which is called hypertrophy, is built by training the neuromuscular system & the interaction between the muscle and nerves, instead of muscle anatomy. If you are prioritizing strength then go for heavier weights with less number of repetitions and longer resting periods.
Remember that larger muscles does not means that you are stronger than someone who is training for strength given the fact that all other factors remain equal.
Building Muscle For Size - Hypertrophy
Training for muscle size usually implies more repetitions with lighter weight as compared to strength training. The rest intervals between sets is also sufficiently shortened. This kind of training enhances factors that result in increase of muscle tissue.
When you are training for size, your muscle immediately starts getting stronger, however you need to prioritize your goals. You should be well aware if you are going in for a competition for bodybuilding or power lifting. Most of the weight training programs or good bodybuilding programs are focused on all aspects of training. Sufficient care is taken to build both muscle size and strength.
One way muscle gets bigger is by a process of damage and repair at the micro level. Small tears, sometimes called micro-trauma, occur in muscle fibers under load and are repaired and rebuilt stronger when the trainer recovers. It’s a bit like one step back and two steps forward at the cellular level.
There exists some disagreement over whether muscles get bigger by increased muscle fiber (cell) size or by splitting off and creating new cells as well. At the least, hypertrophy results from an increase in the contractile units called myofibrils and also from increased fluid in the cell called the sarcoplasm.
Building Muscle Endurance
Muscle endurance is trained at the higher end of the repetition spectrum. For example, doing 15-20 repetitions per set targets local muscle endurance rather than strength or hypertrophy. Again, doing this sort of muscle endurance training will provide some strength and hypertrophy compared to not training, and it can result in larger increases in aerobic conditioning than higher-intensity programs.
Muscle endurance training can use repetitions in the range 15-20 with a variable number of sets, but 3 is common.
Building Muscle Power.
Power is the rate at which work is done; so power involves time. If you can lift the same weight faster than Madonna then you have more power. Training for power involves increasing the speed of the lifts. The concept of power is useful in weight training for sports such as football where strength, bulk and speed are desirable.
Power training involves building strength first, then progressing to light loads performed at very fast or even explosive contraction velocity.
