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Strength gain
When your goal is strength gains, it's crucial to get your workouts right - and a whole lot more besides. There are any number of areas that can sabotage you efforts, including the wrong nutrition, not enough sleep, under-training or over-training.
To maximise your strength gains, you firstly have to design a workout program for that specific purpose. While general purpose workouts will yield strength gains in the untrained, once you get past the first few months of exercising, you need to tailor your program to meet your specific needs.
The most crucial part of a workout program designed for strength gains is the type of resistance work you do. In general, you need to lift heavy weights, with repetitions in the 4 to 6 reps per set range in order to meet this goal. Using 7 - 12 reps will maximise muscle growth, while anything above 15 reps per set is for those who want to increase their muscular endurance.
Once you have your lifting program figured out, you also have to consider your cardio workouts. While cardio should form a part of almost any fitness program, too much cardio will interfere with the results of your resistance work. You should therefore limit yourself to three sessions of 20 to 30 minutes per week if you want to make the most of your lifting.
In addition to getting your workouts right, you must be sure to eat a well-balanced diet, with plenty of quality protein, and get enough sleep - the body grows when you are resting, not while you are working out.
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