[Hayden Giuliani recently finished her Master's degree at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, where she now works as a research coordinator. She is currently in the Coaching Mentorship Program at Athletic Lab.] So what do we really know about strength training? What happens beneath the surface to increase our strength and power "that ever so desired outcome" Strength training has been growing in popularity not only for sport but also for the general population, but sometimes we don't always understand the benefits it provides for our body. Neuromuscular changes underlie what happens when you strength train, i.e. growth of muscles, increased strength and power and increased anaerobic capacity. We will be discussing both what happens within the muscles and also the brain's communication to them. Before we proceed, I want to be clear about the kind of strength training I am talking about. I am designing this post at the type of strength training that high-level athletes and advanced lifters use. It is designed to impose a progressive overload, with high intensities and athletic movements. I would like to emphasize that strength training should be an 1) overload and 2) progressive in nature. (It should be considered that not all research studies follow this guideline, but the ones mentioned here generally did.) With an organized strength training plan, we typically see increases in strength (either tested as a 1- repetition maximum or maximal voluntary contraction), increases in power and speed, and greater muscle size (hypertrophy). The extent to which these adaptations occur can vary, based on age, gender, and training age. In addition, training load/ intensity, volume, and frequency also play critical roles that I will discuss throughout. In a long-term study by [...]