So, let’s define what maximal strength is.
It’s going to be made up of a couple of different components.
First, those components are going to be muscle size and cross-sectional area, as well as muscle phenotype — fast-twitch orientation and pennation angle.
Secondly, it’s going to be tendon morphology — how stiff your tendons are, your series elastic stiffness, and how much they’re going to give you back in the concentric phase when they use that quote-unquote eccentric free energy.
Third is going to be low antagonist noise. So we want the agonist to fire — leg extension or quads — and the hamstrings to relax, very simply put.
Fourth is going to be movement coordination — how fluid the nervous system is at coordinating the movement, how low the inhibitory tone is (GTOs, Golgi tendon organs, which protect you from excessive force), and how comfortable the system is giving you the green light to fully send. We know this also ties into cross-hemispheric coordination.
Next, we have motor unit recruitment — how much of your motor unit pool you can recruit, and the intricacies of the timing there as well.
And lastly, a fancy physiology term: lateral force transmission — how efficient your muscle is at dissipating force laterally into connective tissue and fascia, essentially spreading the load across the muscle tissue.
That’s what’s going to determine how strong you are.
I want to focus on two simple things.
1. Motor Unit Recruitment
The more we do a movement, the better we get at recruiting the big boy fast fibres. They’re the ones that are really going to move a lot of weight. And this takes time.
In order to improve our long-term force capacity, we also have to get bigger muscle fibres — so we need hypertrophy. That increases our force ceiling.
2. Movement Coordination
This is probably a term you’ve heard when people say strength is a skill. It absolutely is.
Movement coordination — think of Carlos Alcaraz hitting a forehand or Johnny Wilkins hitting a drop goal. The coordination and quality of the movement are through the roof.
Mechanistically, we’re talking about:
· Motor unit timing and sequencing (individual fibres firing at the right rate)
· Intermuscular coordination (agonists, synergists, and stabilisers working together at the right time)
So what does all that sports science actually mean?
It means:
· We need to build a bigger muscle over time
· We need to train the movement to get really fluid at it
· And by getting fluid at it, we recruit more of the muscle fibres
Pretty simple.
Over time:
· Strength train heavy
· Do enough hypertrophy work to build the muscle
· Improve tendon qualities
· Make sure neural drive is high — fully warmed up, locked in, high intent
· Use explosive work like hops, bands, and sprinting to support neural drive
And then probably most importantly:
Practice the movement.
Become incredibly fluid at the lifts you want to get good at — bench, squat, deadlift, pull-ups, dips.
Practice the movement like it is a skill — because it absolutely is.
Like a golf swing.
Like a forehand.
Like a ’45 in GAA.
Practice the movement — and you will get stronger.