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Strength, explained · Lesson 7

Strength specificity: does strength carry over between lifts?

Only partly: your strength grows mostly in the movement you repeat. In lifters who already trained, 8 weeks of heavy squats and bench presses raised their bench by about 12%, with no clear gain in their strength bringing the arms together, the chest’s own movement. Want a bigger bench? Bench, heavy, first in your session, and keep the rest of the session for building muscle.

Updated on · 10 studies cited · 4 min read

Lesson cover : Specificity
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What is training specificity?

It means your strength grows mostly in the movement you repeat: you can get stronger at one exercise, and not at another, using the same muscles. An analysis of 13 studies and 1,016 people sums it up: strength gains are specific to the way you train (Haugen et al., 2023).

Because lifting heavy is something your brain learns, movement by movement. In a study of 32 young volunteers, those who did 12 weeks of leg extensions saw their weight rise by about 200%, while the strength of their thigh, measured with the leg held still, rose only 15 to 20%; for the authors, a large part of the gain came from better coordination of the other muscles in the movement (Rutherford and Jones, 1986). That’s the idea: on the bench press, your nervous system learns when your chest, shoulders and triceps push, and in what position. But exactly where it adapts is still poorly known, and the evidence is mostly indirect (Carroll et al., 2001).

Is a stronger muscle stronger everywhere?

Many believe so. In one study, 27 lifters who already trained were randomly split into a training group and a control group. For 8 weeks, twice a week, the first did 4 to 6 sets of 6 to 10 reps on the squat and bench press. Their bench rose about 12%, with the bar and on a fixed-speed testing machine. But their strength bringing the arms together in front of them, horizontal adduction, the chest’s own movement, did not change clearly (Wilson et al., 1996).

For the authors, body position may change the nerve signals sent to the muscles; that’s their hypothesis, not a measurement. Same story for the thighs: in 24 people, training loads rose sharply on the squat and on machines alike, but that gain didn’t show up on a fixed-speed knee extension test (Augustsson et al., 1998).

Does strength carry over from one exercise to another?

Only partly. In that 6-week study, the 3-rep max on the squat went up 23 kg (about 51 lb), or 31%, in those who squatted, versus 12 kg (about 26 lb), or 13%, in those who trained the same thighs on machines, knee extension and hip adduction (Augustsson et al., 1998). In 17 men, 10 weeks of full squats raised the full squat by 31.8%, versus 11.3% for those training the half squat; on the half squat, the gap between the groups was not clear (Kubo et al., 2019).

Across 13 studies, strength tested with free weights rose more with free-weight training, strength tested on machines tended to rise more with machines, and muscle grew just as much either way (Haugen et al., 2023). The closer a movement is to the one you train, the better strength carries over: in the bench study, the tests done in a position close to training improved most (Wilson et al., 1996), and in 49 men, 10 weeks of bench pressing on a machine, with a barbell or with a water-filled log brought about the same progress on all four bench tests (Langford et al., 2007).

How do you get a bigger bench press?

Bench, heavy, and first in your session. Across 11 studies, strength rises most on the exercises done early in the session, while muscle grows comparably whatever the order (Nunes et al., 2021). And across 21 studies with sets taken to failure, heavy loads, above 60% of max, raised the max more than light ones, with muscle growing just as much (Schoenfeld et al., 2017).

The rest of your session builds the muscle: over the years, that’s what pushes your bench higher. 16 lifters trained for 4 years on average had 60% more quad strength, measured with the knee held still, than 52 untrained people, and 56% more muscle; for the authors, muscle size is the main explanation for that gap (Maden-Wilkinson et al., 2020). It’s a comparison between two groups, not an experiment.

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Sources

Studies checked in PubMed. Measured muscle activity isn’t growth: each fact keeps its study’s population and limits.

  1. Haugen ME, Vårvik FT, Larsen S, et al. (2023). Effect of free-weight vs. machine-based strength training on maximal strength, hypertrophy and jump performance - a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Sports Sci Med Rehabil 15(1):103. PubMed · DOI
  2. Rutherford OM, Jones DA (1986). The role of learning and coordination in strength training. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol 55(1):100-5. PubMed · DOI
  3. Carroll TJ, Riek S, Carson RG (2001). Neural adaptations to resistance training: implications for movement control. Sports Med 31(12):829-40. PubMed · DOI
  4. Wilson GJ, Murphy AJ, Walshe A (1996). The specificity of strength training: the effect of posture. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol 73(3-4):346-52. PubMed · DOI
  5. Augustsson J, Esko A, Thomeé R, et al. (1998). Weight training of the thigh muscles using closed vs. open kinetic chain exercises: a comparison of performance enhancement. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 27(1):3-8. PubMed · DOI
  6. Kubo K, Ikebukuro T, Yata H (2019). Effects of squat training with different depths on lower limb muscle volumes. Eur J Appl Physiol 119(9):1933-1942. PubMed · DOI
  7. Langford GA, McCurdy KW, Ernest JM, et al. (2007). Specificity of machine, barbell, and water-filled log bench press resistance training on measures of strength. J Strength Cond Res 21(4):1061-6. PubMed · DOI
  8. Nunes JP, Grgic J, Cunha PM, et al. (2021). What influence does resistance exercise order have on muscular strength gains and muscle hypertrophy? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur J Sport Sci 21(2):149-157. PubMed · DOI
  9. Schoenfeld BJ, Grgic J, Ogborn D, et al. (2017). Strength and Hypertrophy Adaptations Between Low- vs. High-Load Resistance Training: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Strength Cond Res 31(12):3508-3523. PubMed · DOI
  10. Maden-Wilkinson TM, Balshaw TG, Massey GJ, et al. (2020). What makes long-term resistance-trained individuals so strong? A comparison of skeletal muscle morphology, architecture, and joint mechanics. J Appl Physiol (1985) 128(4):1000-1011. PubMed · DOI

These lessons inform; they don’t replace advice from a health professional.