Strength: Why Muscle Matters & How Pvolve Does Strength Training Differently

What makes Pvolve’s strength training approach different? 

ECCENTRIC TRAINING

Have you noticed how the trainers cue to slow down certain parts of an exercise such as slowly sitting back into your hip hinge or slowly lowering the dumbbell from the top of a bicep curl?  That’s because they’re focusing on the eccentric part of the exercise - or when your muscles are lengthening under tension.  

There are numerous benefits to this way of training.  Our muscles actually have more strength potential in the eccentric part of an exercise.  Eccentric training also helps build more control as it retrains our brain to protect us from straining our joints, it teaches the body to better absorb forces, can improve athletic performance, and helps minimize the risk for injury.   It has also been shown that eccentric exercises recruit more muscle fibers (specifically your type 2 muscle fibers that we naturally lose more of with age), which ultimately supports your strength and muscle gains! 

MUSCLE FAILURE AND PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD

Not only do we lose strength with age, but research shows we naturally lose about 3-8% of muscle mass per decade after 30.  Incorporating weight training to build and maintain muscle is so important as muscle supports your metabolism, bone and brain health, long term physical independence, and more.  

In our Progressive Weight Training classes where we combine our resistance-based equipment and heavy weights, you may have heard trainers say, “the goal is to get to muscle failure in this set.”  Approaching muscle failure is when you are performing a set and get to a point where you cannot do any more than about 1-3 reps with good form.  It is crucial to approach muscle failure in your training to build new muscle mass (hypertrophy).  You’ll know when your muscles are getting near failure when the speed of the reps naturally starts to slow down, the effort significantly increases, and you may feel like you physically cannot move the dumbbell.     

In addition to training towards muscle failure, we also focus on progressive overload.  As your body adapts and gets stronger, it is important to continually increase the load and demands you place on it to avoid plateaus and keep you progressing!  How do you know when you’re ready to incorporate progressive overload?  A good rule of thumb is if you aren’t approaching muscle failure when the trainer calls time on a set, try increasing the weight load. 

IT’S NOT JUST THE WHAT – BUT THE HOW

You may also hear our trainers say things like “move as if you are underwater, push the floor down through your big toe, imagine you are lifting a 100 pound dumbbell, exhale through your mouth as you stand up” and so on. 

That’s because at Pvolve we focus on not just what you are doing, but how you are doing it.  Through supportive and strategic cueing in all our class types, our goal is to help you better understand the form, improve your neuromuscular (mindbody) connection, and increase motor output which ultimately leads to more strength gains and better results. 

Lastly, remember that strength comes in many forms.   It may be increasing the number on your dumbbell, being able to pick up your toddler or heavy grocery bags with more ease, or just finding that mental strength and resilience to consistently show up to your workouts. No matter what your goals are or where you are in your strength training journey, there is a place for you here at Pvolve.  

Check out these 3 PWT classes below to start building strength and muscle mass: 

Beginner Standing Full Body PWT with Maeve 

Upper Body & Core Progressive Weight Training with Antonietta 

Full Body Progressive Weight Training with Dani Coleman