Strength classifications PART 2 by Danny O'Dell

Absolute strength is the maximum muscle strength a body can summon up plus the protected reserve from the autonomic nervous system. This leaves the body open to severe injury and is not a usual occurrence in everyday life. Most assuredly not in a weight lifting competition. This is the type of strength displayed by the parent in protecting the child in an overturned vehicle when they are able to right the vehicle off the child.

Absolute strength should not be confused with maximal effort. “The resulting force depends on both the motor task and the athlete’s abilities” to develop maximal effort. This display of strength appears in contests and is a trainable attribute.

Perhaps we should consider relative strength as a measure of strength output. Relative strength is found by dividing the absolute strengths’ approximate value by the cross section of the muscle. Again, an impractical method of determining strength in the everyday lifters world.

Comparing these two types leads us in yet another direction. The absolute strength of a person in a particular movement totally disregards the individual’s bodyweight. Relative strength on the other hand equals absolute strength divided by bodyweight. This is a valid method of measurement between two lifters of unequal body weight.

Did you ever wonder why it seems the relative weight formula seems to favor the lighter lifters? Here is the brief and to the point answer. It is because the body mass of the heavier lifter is proportional to the body volume of the lifter (cube of its linear dimensions) but the strength output on the other hand is proportional to the cross section of the physiological measurements of the athlete’s body or the square of the linear dimensions.

Putting this into terms that I understand; as the body grows larger, the mass grows faster than the strength increases. An exception to this case is where the increase in body size is directly attributed to muscular hypertrophy. In this case the concurrent strength gain of the muscle group will be greater than the weight gain due to the increase in mass. Strength trained hypertrophy in the muscles helps to offset the mass and relative muscle strength formula but not entirely.

Muscular contractions generate the force required to not only move our body but to move an external load. The forces generated are just enough to overcome the resistance and are a part of the ‘all or nothing’ theory of neuromuscular contractions. These overcoming forces result from changing the mass of the object or the acceleration of the object. Remember that moving a light object will never produce a large force.

In those exercises where strength gains come from a gradual increase in the displaced mass being moved the muscles must tense harder, fire faster, fire constantly and generate more force to actually move the weight or resistance. In exercises where the weight of the object is constant such as a baseball, a football or a shot put the improvements in power output come from an increased acceleration of the object. This increase comes from an increase in muscular contraction. Of course these are only two of the ways to look at strength.

	Danny M. O'Dell, MA. CSCS*D Copyright 2003 Explosivelyfit Training Systems Danny is co-owner of ‘The WeightRoom’ gym and Explosivelyfit.com, both located in Nine Mile Falls, WA.
His Masters Degree is in Human Services and he is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with Distinction through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. He is a member of the Washington State Coaches Association. His website is http://www.explosivelyfit.com