Stop Training in Circles: How to match your resistance training to your goals.

Apr 21

You’ve done the hard part—you’ve made movement a habit. But after a while, just showing up can start to feel like you're spinning your wheels. Maybe you aren’t seeing the strength gains you expected, or you’re feeling sluggish despite your efforts. Most fitness advice lumps "lifting weights" into one big category, leaving you frustrated when you don't see the specific changes you’re looking for in your daily life.

In part 2 of my strength series, I’m going into how you can tweak your workouts to keep you moving forward!

Intentional Adaptation

Your body is an incredible machine that wants to adapt to the stressors you put on it. To keep progressing, you eventually have to move beyond just lifting and start lifting with intent.

By understanding the difference between Muscle Strength, Muscle Growth, and Muscle Power, you can tweak your reps, weight, and rest periods to build an "engine" that serves your specific life goals—whether that’s lifting heavy groceries (Torque) or reacting quickly to prevent a fall (Horsepower).

Key Takeaways:

The Engine Analogy: Think of Muscle Size as the size of the engine (V4 vs. V8), Muscle Strength as the torque (ability to move heavy loads), and Muscle Power as the horsepower (the ability to move quickly).
The Variable Shift: You can use the same movement (like a squat) to achieve different results just by changing your "variables." Strength requires high loads and long rest; Growth requires time under tension; Power requires speed.
Rest is Productive: One of the biggest mistakes is rushing your rest. To drive true strength adaptations, your nervous system needs 2–3 minutes of recovery between sets.
Function Over Aesthetics: This isn’t about bodybuilding; it’s about training for life—metabolic protection, functional independence, and injury prevention.

Resources Mentioned in This Video

The 10 Minute Strength Strategy - Short on time or still working to get consistent with movement and strength training? This video is for you!

Stop Overcomplicating Strength - Strength Series Part 1 - Learn about why consistency is the most important piece to this puzzle, and why it matters more than the specifics!

ACSM 2026 Resistance Training Updates Infographic - See the infographic that represents the report that inspired this series.