Strength gains are so important that you should ALWAYS focus on gaining strength.
It's impossible to continue increasing the amount of weight you lift forever.
You just don't have an infinite amount of strength — no one has that.
You'll also learn that you will need to take a full break lasting a total of 10 days after every weight lifting program you complete along with the WLC System.
The full break will allow your muscles to become unaccustomed to any amount of load.
When you start lifting weights again after your break, you will build muscle with light weights because your muscles only feel the load relative to what they have been accustomed to.
Since they are accustomed to no weight at all, even light weights provide the proper muscle building stimulus.
You want to gain strength from weight lifting cycle to weight lifting cycle.
You don't want to be stuck lifting the same weights every cycle. You've got to get stronger to continue your muscle building efforts… the same weight over and over will do nothing for you.
Building Strength to Continue Building Muscle
The WLC System uses muscle building techniques along with strength building techniques to help you make continuous progress.
Why is building strength so important to building muscle?
Some people only care about building muscle. I only cared about building muscle for many years until I learned that you must build strength in order to continue building muscle.
Think about this:
Let's say you never build any strength with your squat and you are stuck at lifting 255 pounds for 10 reps for several months.
Do you think you are going to build muscle in your legs when you lift the same amount of weight over and over?
Your body adapts to the load and does not see the load as a threat. You do not provide a muscle building stimulus.
Now, let's say that you build a great amount of strength and you continue shooting past that weight of 255 pounds for 10 reps, and you make it to a maximum lift of 285 pounds for 10 reps.
You added 30 pounds to your squat max for 10 reps, and built lots of muscle too! You provided your body with a load that it was not accustomed to.
In order to apply a load that your body is not accustomed to, you must continue to build strength. Building strength allows you to continually increase the amount of weight you lift.
When you increase the amount of weight you lift, you give your body a reason to build muscle.
Strength gains are VERY important to building muscle. You need more strength to build more muscle and vice versa.
WLC Program Workouts Included With Our Step-by-Step Programs
With the WLC Program workouts, you will build muscle and strength through intelligent design of the weight lifting programs. All workouts are designed to build muscle and strength.
Why? Because you need both. The two go hand in hand with each other.
Some WLC workouts are geared more towards building muscle while others are geared more towards building strength.
But all workouts are designed to build muscle and strength, and they will do so as quickly as possible.
Too many other weight lifting programs forget that both muscle building and strength building go hand in hand. Every program that I have ever seen focuses on either building muscle or building strength… some don't even focus on that.
Most programs make it hard for you to build muscle and strength… not with the WLC System.
WLC focuses on building strength primarily in the early stages of our programs and then the focus is switched to muscle building while continuing to build strength.
But, all workouts will build muscle and strength due to the intelligent design and strategy used within our programs.
Navigation Links for the WLC System
You are currently within the WLC System section of the website.
– Next: Learn the relationship between strength and size
Want to read about a different topic? Follow the links below to go to the higher level pages.
– WLC System home page
– Weight Lifting Complete home page
Jake Long says
atSounds like a good system. Gaining a lot of strength along with size is the way to go.
President of WLC says
atJake, this is definitely a great system. Gaining strength is required if you want to continue getting results. Building muscle and building strength goes hand in hand. One is required to get more of the other. For example, a stronger muscle has more size potential AND a larger muscle has more strength potential. With the WLC System, you are always building more strength so you can build more muscle — if you like. You can continue getting stronger without building larger muscles as well BUT only to a point. If you want to get even stronger, you will need to use that strength to build larger muscles. And then, you can develop your strength even more. We all have genetic limits BUT I think too many people limit themselves when they say they have reached their limit. To me, the sky is the limit. We were designed by God to be amazing, and I don’t think HE would put such small limits on us. Look at some of the world records people have set. They are amazing. We can all be amazing.