Which term refers to the maximal force of a muscle or muscle group can generate?

What is the better display of strength, a powerlifter squatting 700 pounds or a gymnast being in constant motion on the uneven bars for four minutes?

Inhaltsverzeichnis Show

Brandon Hebert
This is an excerpt from Dancer Wellness With Web Resource by Mary Virginia Wilmerding & Donna Krasnow.
Featured Excerpts
Which term refers to the maximal force a muscle or muscle group can generate?
What term refers to the maximum amount of force that the muscle can generate against a resistance it is the ability of the body to lift push or full or carry heavy loads?
What is maximal muscle strength?

In my experience as an athlete, I have competed against opponents who “looked” strong but lacked any noticeable advantage. Other adversaries had much less muscle mass but were a whole lot “stronger” than they looked.

Today, we will see what the difference is between having a muscular appearance and having the ability to use it.

Muscular strength refers to the amount of force a muscle can produce with a single maximal effort. Muscle strength is measured during muscular contraction. The size of your muscle fibers and the ability of nerves to activate muscle fibers are related to muscle strength.

In addition to understanding the definition of muscular strength, it’s also important to understand the benefits of strong muscles. Building muscle strength helps with body alignment, makes performing everyday actions easier, increases metabolism, and relieves stress.

What Is Muscular Strength?

You might think that muscular strength is simply how strong you are. For example, how much you weight you can carry, how many pounds you can lift at the gym or how many push ups you can do during a workout. But a true muscular strength definition is a little bit more complicated than that.

Muscular strength is the maximal force a muscle or muscle group can exert during a contraction.

Muscular endurance. The ability of your muscles to exert force against resistance over a sustained period of time.
Muscular power. The combination of muscular force and the speed of movement

For example, doing a successful push-up test will measure not only your muscular strength, but your endurance and power as well.

In order to build muscular strength, perform a workout routine centered around resistance training. Depending on your goals, there are many different training methods and apparatus that can be used to build muscular strength.

Endurance athletes such as runners or swimmers will typically focus on building muscular endurance by performing bodyweight or lightweight exercises for a high number of sets and repetitions.

Power athletes such as football players and powerlifters choose to lift heavier weights in lower amounts in order to increase the muscle’s ability as movers to lift heavy objects.

Hybrid athletes like basketball players or wrestlers opt instead for a mix of moderate weights for a medium amount of sets and repetitions to utilize muscle strength as well as speed of movements.

Other athletes such as bodybuilders, show less interest in the amount of weight they can lift or the speed of their movements and simply focus on their muscle’s appearance and size.

What is best for me?

If you do not fall under the category of athlete, we recommend you to follow a resistance training program with examples of all types of weight training included. Here is a short resistance circuit that you can try on your own:

Perform three sets of 12 repetitions of the following six exercises:

1. Seated Row
2. Push-Up
3. Squat
4. Pullups
5. Overhead Press
6. Single Leg Deadlift

Are you strong?

The definition of strength applies to the type of strength you are seeking, and that will depend on the event that it is being used. The most important aspect of any muscular strength program is the goal behind the training, and it should be your central focus is designing a workout routine.

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on Pinterest

< PREV Paytin Lee, Kendall Johnson honored as scholar-athletes at Saints-Patriots game
NEXT > Injury report: Saints without Lattimore for Carolina game

Brandon Hebert

Brandon is the Training Manager of Anytime Fitness Destrehan and has extensive experience working with athletes young and old. After beginning his career at Elmwood Fitness working with individual clients, he started working with high school athletes and running outdoor boot camps. While working with The Fitness Principle at EJGH under Mackie Shilstone, Brandon worked with NFL and MLB athletes…

This is an excerpt from Dancer Wellness With Web Resource by Mary Virginia Wilmerding & Donna Krasnow.

Muscular strength is the ability to exert maximal force in one single contraction, such as lifting a weight that you could lift only once before needing a short break. Muscular power refers to a great force production over a short period of time, such as in fast leg kicks and explosive jumping. Muscular endurance is when less force is sustained over a longer period of time such as in gallops, skips, pliés, and swings. Dancers often confuse endurance with strength, so it is sometimes useful to think of endurance as continuous and strength as maximal.

This dancer displays muscular strength as well as flexibility in this difficult balance.
CPRowe Photography 2012, University of Utah, Modern Dance.

In dance you are required to jump, catch partners, move down onto the floor and up out of the floor at fast speeds, and perform other explosive movements. These movements require a level of muscular strength and power. While technique classes can improve muscular strength and power, it is not necessarily the main goal. Some current dance technique classes are increasingly asymmetrical (practicing coordination on one side only) and are more focused on stylistic and artistic aspects of dancing rather than adequate repetitions to develop strength, power, and endurance. Therefore, you should do supplementary exercises for muscular strength, power, and endurance outside of your dance technique classes. Without a certain baseline of these important abilities, you are more likely to incur musculoskeletal imbalances and injuries. Injuries developed from muscular imbalances or from lack of core strength in large, explosive movements are common.

You need a good level of muscular strength, power, and endurance in order to effectively perform a variety of dance movements such as lifts, jumps, and explosive movements. An adequate level of muscular strength, power, and endurance not only assists the technical and aesthetic aspects of performance, it can also minimize the risk of injury by increasing joint stabilization and improving bone health.

A common method of strength training is with resistance machines or free weights, such as dumbbells. Even more common for dancers is using exercise bands or stretchy surgical tubing as resistance. You can also do strength training using your own body weight, such as in push-ups and leg lunges. You should exercise larger muscle groups before smaller ones, because smaller ones fatigue more quickly. It is important to alternate muscle groups to allow for recovery before performing another exercise on the same muscle group. For muscular strength gains, you should exercise a muscle through its full range of motion for 8 to 12 repetitions. The amount of weight or resistance should be challenging; after the set, you should feel muscular fatigue. Young teens or dancers rehabilitating from an injury should use lower weight or resistance and higher numbers of repetitions. For exercises targeting muscular power, remember to perform fast repetitions. You can repeat exercises two or three times in a given conditioning sequence.

When exercising for muscle strength, you should isolate the muscles to be strengthened; carry out the correct motion fully in a smooth and controlled manner without other muscles compensating. People tend to compensate when they are tired, which is when other muscles take over for the fatigued muscles. When you are exercising, be mindful of this tendency and make adjustments in resistance in order to isolate the appropriate muscles. Whenever possible, exercise a joint through its full range of motion so as to work the entire muscle and not to use too much weight or resistance during the end of a motion.

Apply the principle of specificity by replicating movement patterns of dance as closely as possible and stressing muscle groups that are most needed in current dance activities. For example, when you are returning to technique class or rehearsals after an ankle sprain, you will need to condition the ankle to be able to jump. It is best for you to incorporate foot exercises that best match the jumping speed and range of motion similar to what occurs in dance jumps. While slow and sustained strengthening exercises, such as work with an exercise band, are recommended, you will benefit from restrengthening the feet with an increase in tempo, coming as close as possible to actual jumping speed and with a similar range of motion.

To realize gains in strength and power, apply the principle of progressive overload. Overload should happen in a gradual and progressive manner whereby intensity, duration, and frequency of the exercises are steadily increased. It is a good idea to begin with an initial 2-week period of high-repetition (15-25 reps) training with low resistance. Following this period, increase load with fewer (8-12) repetitions, allowing the focus of the exercise to shift from endurance to strength. A rest period of 60 to 90 seconds between each set is important, and exercises for the same body area should not be done on successive days. You may not notice results for 5 to 10 weeks, but do not become discouraged; results will occur.

You can train muscular power by incorporating explosive exercises after seeing initial strength gains. Plyometrics training is a form of jump training in which you exert maximal force in short intervals, which has been shown to effectively increase leg power. Usually exercises are quite short but fairly explosive. An example of a plyometrics exercise is 6 to 8 high tuck jumps followed by a rest and then repeated twice more. If progressive overload is applied here, the frequency of the jumps may increase from 3 to 4 bouts and the number of repetitions may increase from 6 to 8 jumps, to 8 to 10 jumps, and so on.

Dance technique classes cannot be solely relied on to provide the conditioning exercises needed to target various components of physical fitness such as muscular strength, power, and endurance. These aspects of conditioning allow you to perform dance movements such as jumping, catching a partner, moving down onto the floor and up from the floor at fast speeds, and other explosive movements. It is therefore recommended that you do supplementary exercises for these aspects of conditioning outside of dance technique classes.

Save

Learn more about Dancer Wellness.

Tags: More Excerpts From Dancer Wellness With Web Resource

Featured Excerpts

Quarterback Challenges in Canadian Football

Playing quarterback in Canadian football definitely has its challenges. With only 3 downs to make 10 yards, the quarterback really has to be a playmaker.

Introduction to Physical Literacy on the Move

Physical Literacy on the Move was written to help educators of children and youths from grades K through 12 teach high-quality and fun games and activities that support the unique needs of their learners as they develop physical literacy.

Burnout in Youth Sport

"I don’t know, Mom, I just feel burned out." As a parent, what would you do if you heard this? We all have a vague understanding of burnout, but should we advise our kids to drop out, take a break, make some changes, or suck it up?

Improve shoulder internal rotation range of motion for throwing athletes

Now that interpretation of glenohumeral joint ROM has been discussed, this section outlines specific techniques to increase IR ROM in the patient with shoulder dysfunction.

Reflecting on Why You Coach

Most coaching books start with a discussion of the importance of creating a coaching philosophy and follow up with a section on creating goals. But to define a coaching philosophy and set goals, you must first understand and express why you coach and what principles will guide how you coach.

How Much Moderate-Intensity Physical Activity Is Enough?

National physical activity guidelines in Canada recommend 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity daily activity for teens to gain health benefits.

Which term refers to the maximal force a muscle or muscle group can generate?

Muscular strength is the maximum amount of force a muscle or muscle group~ exert. The pull-up test measures upper-body strength.

What term refers to the maximum amount of force that the muscle can generate against a resistance it is the ability of the body to lift push or full or carry heavy loads?

Muscular Strength: the ability of the muscles to exert a force. The maximum amount of force that a muscle can generate in a single effort. Muscular strength in the upper body is tested by the maximum bench press and the lower body by the maximum leg press.

What is maximal muscle strength?

Maximal muscular strength is the ability of a muscle or muscle group to generate maximal force. One repetition maximum, measured in kilograms, is a commonly used measure of muscular strength.