If someone asked you, “What is strength?” would you be able to define it clearly?
Most people think strength is just “lifting heavy,” but in reality, strength is a broad term with multiple sub-categories – each serving a different purpose in training and performance. Understanding these forms of strength helps you train smarter and speak confidently about what strength actually means.
Let’s break it down.
Firstly, let’s define strength for the general term it is:
Strength is the ability to express any sort of force against an external object. Now how strength changes and how it’s defined depends on the force that is expressed.
MAXIMAL STRENGTH
The ability to express MAXIMAL force against an object – This is irrelevant of any speed and is simply maximal force output. This is typically seen in 1 Rep Max lifts or overcoming Isometrics.
NEAR MAX EFFORT/SUB-MAX EFFORT STRENGTH
The ability to express near maximal effort or force against an object – This is usually represented as percentages between 85-95% 1RM or an RPE of 8-9. This is still a high level of force, but isn’t an all out effort.
STRENGTH SPEED
Strength Speed refers to the force at which is applied in a FAST manner. Strength Speed refers to a high level of force being produced at a FAST rate. Again, this is typically between 80% + 1RM efforts. Sometimes this is also referred to as RFD or ‘Rate of Force Development’. This takes into consideration speed as well as force expressed.
SPEED STRENGTH
Speed Strength refers to the speed of the force applied with a bias towards the speed component. This is usually a much lower weight/force and is around the 30-60% 1RM area. Whilst the force that applied is less than Strength-Speed, the force is applied quicker due to the speed or rate of the force.
DYNAMIC STRENGTH
Dynamic Strength is another term to describe Explosive Power. Dynamic Strength refers to the ability to produce multiple force outputs over consistent efforts in an explosive way. For example, being able to produce high levels of force over multiple jump efforts or across multiple reps of an olympic lift. This can be explained as different power derivatives at time, but the term Strength is used due to there being a force expression involved.
REACTIVE STRENGTH
Reactive Strength is the ability to produce high amounts of force explosively over a quick period of time – Usually measured by ground contact time. For example, performing multiple hops, bounds or jumps where there is a landing component followed by a quick expression of force. This is typically seen in Drop Jumps, Hops, Bounds and Olympic Lifts. This is also referred to as RSI or ‘Reactive Strength Index’ which can be tested through force plates to identify performance.
Now you understand the different forms of Strength, do you know what you’re training for and what you need to improve on?
