After three months there are kilos on your main lifts and stairs, groceries and lifting a child feel noticeably lighter. Strength is built with technique and a programme that moves up a notch every week. Getting heavier is not required for it.
A longer life, literally. In 370,256 people, strength training was linked to 21 percent lower mortality, and combined with cardio to 40 percent. Getting stronger is about far more than a heavier barbell. It is the best-documented investment in your health there is, and it fits into two to three hours a week.
Source: Saeidifard et al., European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 2019 · All the research behind this site
Without progression your body has no reason at all to get stronger. Progress is a design choice in your programme, not a matter of trying harder.
Squats, deadlifts and the bench press deliver the most and those are exactly the lifts you avoid as long as nobody sets your technique. Learn them properly once and the threshold is gone.
Without a logbook nobody knows whether you are progressing, you least of all. Strength is the only goal that hands you a hard number every week. Use it.
Getting stronger starts with technique. I watch along on video until your posture, your breathing and your execution are right on the lifts your strength comes from: squat, deadlift, bench press, rows and the variations that suit your body. Poor execution puts a ceiling on your strength and sooner or later sends a bill to your joints.
On top of that sits the plan: a little more every week, in weight, in repetitions or in the quality of the movement. Three working sets per exercise are enough for that. You log every set, so your progress becomes a number instead of a feeling. If you also want kilos on the scale, that is a separate job for your nutrition. Getting stronger at the same body weight works perfectly well.
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After several hernia operations he rebuilt step by step: training smarter and more consciously, without straining his back further.
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Lost twenty kilos and above all won his confidence back.
This 60-year-old had lived for years with stiff, painful muscles from sitting a lot and moving little. This is what two months of targeted training does: from stiff and painful movement to control, stability and strength.
“Voor ik met Timon begon, liep ik al een hele tijd vast door ernstige rugproblemen na meerdere hernia-operaties. De samenwerking heeft me vooral veel vertrouwen en kennis opgeleverd: Timon legt uit waarom je bepaalde oefeningen doet en hoe je lichaam daarop reageert. Geen standaardschema's, maar begeleiding op maat, duidelijke uitleg en snelle opvolging. Je voelt dat hij oprecht betrokken is bij je vooruitgang. Ik kan Timon alleen maar aanbevelen.”
Paul Mahieu · 43Start with the free health check. In five minutes you know where your Biggest Win is, and then we look at it together in a free call.
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This article is information, not medical advice. If you have symptoms, are pregnant or take medication, talk to your doctor before changing anything.
