Strength vs Hypertrophy

Strength and hypertrophy go hand in hand, not only can you build muscle and gain strength simultaneously but these two things are complementary.

With bigger muscles comes the ability to gain strength and with more strength comes the ability to build bigger muscles.

Strength training

This type of training to gain strength has specific characteristics:

• The duration of the exercises is not essential.
• The important thing is the intensity of execution.
• We choose very heavy weights.
• We work at 80% of the force, that is to say close to failure.
• This is why there will be few repetitions.
• The rest between sets is long to regain strength.
• We do not change the weight between sets.
• Do 3 sets of each exercise with a maximum of 5 repetitions.

Hypertrophy training

• You have to manage to stress the muscle so that it increases its mass.
• The repetitions are numerous.
• The weight is less, to be able to lengthen the time of the exercise.
• The rest between sets is short, so as not to cool the muscle.
• We increase the weight with each series, without exceeding 50-60% of the total that we can mobilize.
• According to experts, the ideal for non-professional athletes is to find a balance between the two training sessions and to perform exercises for each muscle group. In other words, do not mainly target the most visible muscles such as the pectorals and the abdominals but the one's you don't see!

If you only work the upper body, the risk of injury is multiplied. The weight will not be evenly distributed and there will be a greater risk of stressing the hips and knees.

If you work your biceps, but not the rotators of the scapula, the risk of cervical contractures increases considerably.

To carry out a session in strength or in balanced hypertrophy, the exercises must be complete and not limited to certain parts of the body.