Strength training

Strength training in the strict sense means teaching your body to produce more force. That takes heavy weight, low reps, and enough rest that you start every set fresh. A session is a handful of compound lifts, usually a squat, a hinge, a press and a pull, done for 3–6 sets of 4–6 reps with about three minutes between sets.

The structure matters more than it looks. The most technically demanding lift goes first, while you are freshest, and two lighter ramp-up sets of it come before the working weight. The session stays on compound lifts to the last set. The rest is part of the program rather than downtime. Cut it short and you have turned a strength session into a mediocre conditioning session.

Strength work runs as straight sets by default, because the full rests are part of what makes the heavy sets possible. When time is short, the generator can pair each press with a pull instead. The two run back to back and share one full rest. Your pressing muscles recover while you row, so the weights stay heavy and the session gets shorter.

Progress comes from adding a small amount of weight, or one more rep, while every rep still looks the way it did last week. If you have to change your form to finish a set, you added weight too quickly.

Expect the early progress to be fast and then to slow down. At the start you improve mostly by getting better at the movement itself, before the muscle changes much. The slowdown is not a plateau. It is the normal shape of the curve.