Does Strength Translate to Better Aesthetics?

I’m not saying you won’t build some muscle if you get stronger… but I am trying to get you to focus on what your actual goals are.  For some people the true goal is just to get as strong as possible, that’s what makes them happy and fulfills them and gives them purpose in the gym.  I can say from experience that the strongest people don’t always have the most aesthetics bodies, and there’s nothing wrong with that!

Athletes like Eddie Hall have put in a lot of hard work and dedication and came out with the results they were looking for and that’s awesome and they should be proud and confident.  Here’s the issue, lots of people who just want to be healthier or look better or just have more confidence in their body get sucked in to thinking that gaining strength is the one way ticket to all of their goals. So, back to my original question “If I told you I could make you lift 100 lbs more on 3 lifts of your choice in 6 months, but your body wouldn’t look any different…would you do it?”  …. If you’re hesitating, that’s fine, because the answer is probably no. What you really want is for your body to look different.

I’ve done assessments with dozens of potential clients, sometimes with people who are significantly overweight, and I’ve asked them what their goals are, and what they want to accomplish; and the majority of my clients have a hard time being honest with themselves(initially), because almost no one actually says “lose fat.”  People will say all kinds of things to get around saying “I want to look good naked.” They want to get healthier and stronger, or better at some movement.  When I ask if they’d be happy if I helped them accomplish those goals but their body would look the same, they say “no I want my body to change.”

You’ve Figured it Out!

So, now we are on the right track, and finally ready to delve into the purpose of this article: Does gaining strength actually translate to a better body? And my answer is not always. A lot of strength gains are neurological, meaning your brain has learned how to use your muscle more intensely and more efficiently, but that doesn’t necessarily change the size or shape of that muscle. A better looking body is usually some combination of gaining muscle and losing fat, so if you gain a bunch of strength but don’t really build new muscle or lose any fat then you won’t really look much different. At which point I assume you would be a little pissed at all this effort you put in to change your body and the only thing that happened was now you can squat and bench more, which nobody else really cares about.   When’s the last time you actually walked up to someone and asked what they bench?

If there were a big muscular guy that said he doesn’t even bench, but if he did, it wouldn’t be that heavy, would you judge him or be less impressed with his physique? Likewise what if it was a skinny fat guy that said he could bench 500 lbs, would you be more impressed by his body and want to train like him? Chances are you will want to train like the person you want to look like, regardless of their strength numbers. I’m not saying strength isn’t important, in fact I think getting strong is a tremendous confidence booster and it feels great to see more and more weight on the bar as the months go on, not to mention the fact that with more weight it is easier to build more muscle, but as a stand alone goal, there is no guarantee that getting stronger alone will get you to change your body into what you want.

By lifting weights that are on the heavier range you are just putting your joints under more stress and risking injury, most people who pursue strength gains long term end up having serious injuries whether its torn muscles or joints just being ground to dust or any number of other problems. A program that balances some strength work, some volume for hypertrophy, some accessory work for lagging body parts, proper warm ups for muscle activation and joint mobility as well as having a proper plan for nutrition will go a long way towards changing your body and maximizing your results. At Shredmode we aim to make programs as efficient as possible at changing people's bodies, if something isn’t going to get us closer to the goal, we can skip it for the time being.

Be smart, be safe and get shredded my friends.