Train Smarter, Not Harder: 3 Strength Training Principles to Maximize Your Results

When it comes to figuring out the most important strength training principles to include in your training, who should you listen to? The biggest guy in the gym? The excessively bronzed influencer who endorses any product they are paid to promote? The overweight gym instructor that knows the theory but doesn’t know how to put it into practice?

When it comes to training principles, everyone has an opinion, and they are all different. Some people hate machines. Some avoid free weights like the plague. Some love group fitness. Others think talking to people means you aren’t training hard enough. It can often be difficult to cut through the noise and understand what really works.

This is where the fundamental principles of strength training are undefeated.

Beneath the flashy marketing and Instagram influencers with suspiciously perfect abs, the fundamental principles of strength training remain stubbornly unchanged and for a good reason… because they work!

The problem is, nobody buys the fundamentals. People are always looking for a quick fix, a life hack, or some kind of shortcut that allows them to get all the gains with none of the work. As a result, we are constantly being bombarded with the latest diet, training style, gadget, or biohack that promises eternal youth, massive biceps, or abs even when you eat nothing but chocolate.

If you are reading this, chances are you have even tried one or more of those approaches, and been left disappointed with the results.

If so, let’s really take a moment to understand the 3 fundamental training principles that promise you will make progress in the gym and with your strength goals. These principles are all backed by scientific research and are used by athletes all over the world. And while they may seem obvious once you have read through them, you won’t see many of them in action in your local gym.

If you can master these three strength training principles, you’ll be well on your way to achieving your fitness goals, whatever they may be.

1. Range of Motion

There is always someone in the gym loading a bar or machine with a ridiculous amount of weight, but then barely moving it. I’m thinking of one particular guy I see in the gym who puts as much weight on the bench press as possible, but when it comes to lifting it, he doesn’t even bend his elbows. It is more of a hip-thrust crossed with a shrug which ultimately has zero benefit for the chest and tricep muscles.

While it may turn out to be some kind of functional move that helps him with an obscure sport I am unaware of, what is most likely happening is, like many others, this person is suffering from a bad case of ego lifting. Ego lifting is where you don’t care about the quality of the rep, as long as the weight looks “impressive”. Ego lifting might stroke your ego (temporarily), but it’s not doing your muscles any favors.

As you read this, hopefully you understand why that would be inneffective. If we want to develop our muscles and strength, we need them to work. If you remember back to high school physics, work = force x distance, so if the distance is zero, then the work done by the muscle is also zero, regardless of the force.

One of the ways we can maximise our training impact then is to focus on Range Of Motion (ROM).

Range of motion refers to the full movement potential of muscle, from full stretch to full contraction, across all joints it crosses. With good muscle control and mind-muscle connection, you should be able to maintain tension in the muscle at full stretch, and achieve an intense contraction when the muscle is at its shortest.

This means full reps, no partials. This means selecting a weight that you can control throughout the range of motion, no just one you can lift for the last couple of inches. It means developing strength as well as flexibility in your muscles and joints.

Why it matters:

Muscle activation: A full ROM ensures that all muscle fibers within a muscle group get their fair share of the workload. Think of it as a team effort – everyone needs to pull their weight (literally).
Flexibility and mobility: Consistently moving your joints through their full ROM helps maintain and improve flexibility and mobility, which is crucial for preventing injuries and staying active as you gracefully age (because let’s be honest, nobody wants to creak like an old door).
Functional strength: Life doesn’t happen in half-reps. Whether you’re picking up your kids, carrying groceries, or playing a sport, you need to be able to move your body through a full range of motion.

Putting it into practice:

Focus on quality over quantity: Leave your ego at the door and choose a weight that allows you to perform the exercise with a full ROM while maintaining good form.
Control the movement: Avoid bouncing or using momentum to complete the rep. Instead, focus on a controlled and deliberate movement throughout the entire range.
Listen to your body: If you feel pain, stop and reassess. Don’t push through pain just to tick off a box on your workout sheet.

2. Time Under Tension

The old gym slogans of “feel the burn” and “no pain no gain” will make a lot more sense once you understand the importance of time under tension.

Time under tension (TUT) refers to the amount of time your muscles are working during a set. It’s not just about how much weight you lift, but also how long you make your muscles work against that resistance.

Muscles develop and get stronger when they are forced to work against resistance. The problem is, many people in the gym jerk the weight so hard at the beginning that for the majority of the movement, it is momentum that is doing the work, not muscle contraction.

Instead, we want to keep tension in the muscles throughout the exercise, and keep them under tension for a greater period of time. You can either do this by adding more reps to your sets, or by taking longer on each rep. Either way, the length of time your muscle is having to work against the resistance increases.

When you get this right, you will feel it in the muscles. You will get a significant amount of blood flowing to the muscle resutling in a crazy pump that makes it feel as if your muscles will explode. You will get a lactic acid build up that make your muscles feel as though they are on fire (this is the burn we were talking about before!). And if you keep pushing, you will swear that you can feel the individual muscle fibres screaming for mercy as you continue to make them work.

So, slow your reps down, pause and control the weights at full stretch, and don’t bounce or use momentum to get out of the sticking points as they arise. Feel the burn, get the blood flowing, and you’ll see far better gains than you would if you simply bounce the weights around.

Why it matters:

Muscle growth: TUT is a key driver of muscle protein synthesis, the process by which your body repairs and builds muscle tissue. The longer your muscles are under tension, the stronger the signal for growth.
Metabolic stress: TUT creates metabolic stress, which contributes to muscle fatigue and that “burning” sensation you feel during a tough workout. This metabolic stress can also play a role in muscle growth.
Mind-muscle connection: Focusing on TUT forces you to be more mindful of your movements and develop a stronger mind-muscle connection, which can improve your overall form and efficiency.

Putting it into practice:

Slow down your reps: Instead of rushing through your reps, focus on a controlled tempo. Try a 3-second concentric (lifting) phase, a 1-second pause at the peak contraction, and a 3-second eccentric (lowering) phase.
Use pauses and isometric holds: Incorporate pauses or isometric holds at various points in the exercise to increase TUT and challenge your muscles in new ways.
Vary your rep ranges: Don’t just stick to the same rep range all the time. Experiment with different rep ranges (e.g., 6-8 reps for strength, 8-12 reps for hypertrophy, 15-20 reps for endurance) to keep your muscles guessing and stimulate growth

3. Progressive Overload

Remember when you first started working out and were amazed at how quickly you progressed? Those were the good old days, weren’t they? But as you get more experienced, your body adapts, and progress can become more challenging. That’s where progressive overload comes in.

Progressive overload is the gradual increase of stress placed on your body during training. It’s the driving force behind adaptation and growth. Think of it as levelling up in a video game – you need to constantly challenge yourself to unlock new abilities and reach higher levels.

If you have been training for a while, you can’t expect the same rate of improvement as you got when you were a newbie. In the early days, much of your strength gain will be neurological as your body becomes more efficient at completing certain exercises. But once those movements are dialled in, you are reliant on primarily muscle development if you want to continue getting stronger.

This happens slowly, which can get very frustrating. The temptation is to continue pushing the weight, but this often leads to form being compromised, and guess what, you just broke the first two fundamental rules we were just discussing.

Instead, think small increases that keep you within a rep range. If you are in the 8-12 rep range, then increase your weight slightly when you get to 12 reps comfortably. Sure, you might now drop down to 8 reps, but if they are still good quality, that will eventually creep back up and you’ll soon find yourself back at 12 reps again ready for another weight increase. You don’t even need to do this for all sets. Maybe you just do this for your first set when you first put the weight up so you take advantage of your fresh muscles, then drop back down and maintain good technique.

The point is slow, consistent, and controlled increases over time will show your progress. Rushing this by increasing the weight too fast will usually result in form being sacrificed and ego lifting coming into play.

Why it matters:

Continuous improvement: Our bodies are incredibly adaptable. To keep making progress, you need to consistently challenge them with new stimuli. Progressive overload ensures that your workouts remain effective and you continue to see results.
Strength and muscle gains: By gradually increasing the demands placed on your muscles, you force them to adapt by getting stronger and bigger.
Plateau prevention: Progressive overload helps you break through plateaus and avoid stagnation in your fitness journey.

Putting it into practice:

Increase the weight: The most common way to apply progressive overload is to gradually increase the weight you lift. Start with a weight you can handle with good form and gradually increase it as you get stronger.
Increase the reps: If you’re not ready to increase the weight, try increasing the number of reps you can perform with a given weight.
Increase the sets: Another way to increase the volume and challenge your muscles is to add more sets to your workout.
Decrease rest time: Shortening the rest periods between sets can also increase the intensity of your workout and promote progress.
Increase training frequency: Gradually increase the number of times you train a particular muscle group per week.
Track your progress: Use a training diary and record your workouts. What you measure will improve (Hawthorne Effect).

A Word of Caution:

While progressive overload is essential for progress, it’s important to apply it gradually and sensibly. Don’t try to do too much too soon, or you risk injury and burnout. Listen to your body, track your progress, and make adjustments as needed.

Strength Training Principles Summary:

When you finally start training using these three key strength training principles and fundamental concepts, don’t be surprised if you see everyone else in the gym breaking these rules.

Ego is one of the biggest challenges with people who lift weights. Everyone wants to look like the strongest, baddest, most powerful version of themselves. The problem is, most people try and look like that today, and sacrifice an even stronger version of themselves that could appear tomorrow if they only trained properly.

If you train like this and follow these strength training principles, you will probably not lift the biggest weights in the gym, or grunt the hardest, or make the loudest noise when you drop the weights in an excessively aggressive fashion.

But what you will gain instead is a whole new different experience inside your muscles. Your muscles will seem tighter and more pumped, your joints will feel stronger and more flexible at the same time, and the DOMS you experience will leave you begging for an extra, well-earned scoop of protein powder.

Effective strength training is not rocket science, but it’s the foundation upon which all effective training programs are built. By focusing on range of motion, time under tension, and progressive overload, you can ditch the fads, train smarter, and achieve your fitness goals with confidence.