How to improve your strength

1. Train specifically for strength.
Sure, strength and hypertrophy training both use the same tools in the gym, and even many of the same movements, but the exercise combinations, arrangements, and variables involved are specific to their activities. To get really strong or really big, you need to respect those differences in order to maximize your gains. If you're not committed to a singular goal in the short term, you'll invariably train for both—and come up short with both. 


2. Arrange your workouts around core lifts
No surprises here: The basic powerlifting moves are the bench press, squat, and deadlift. We'll add one more multijoint upper-body exercise, the standing overhead press, to the group to ensure total-body development.

Do these highly demanding multijoint movements early in your workout, when your strength levels are high. These exercises require multiple muscle groups to work in coordination. These moves also trigger your natural release of testosterone and growth hormone, both of which help you maintain and build strength and mass.


3. Increase the weight
Moderate-rep sets are important when training for muscle size, which directly pumps up training volume. However, to build strength, you're going to have to train with heavier weights, meaning you'll do fewer reps. Your first exercise of each training day is your main lift. Always start off with warm-ups, pyramiding up in weight but never coming close to muscle failure.
As for your working weights, choose a weight that falls within 80-90 percent of your one-rep max (1RM), which is a bit heavier than what a bodybuilder might use. That corresponds with a weight you can do for just 4-8 reps. The total number of reps you're going to do for the exercise should fall within the 10-20 range.

4. Plan your assistance exercises
If you approach assistance exercises for a strength-focused workout the way you do a bodybuilding workout, you'll overwhelm your nervous system. Because you're using a higher intensity (load relative to your maximum) with a strength workout, you can't necessarily use a high-volume approach. That means backing off on the volume for your assistance exercises—fewer exercises, fewer sets, fewer total reps.
Ideally, assistance exercises are chosen to strengthen weak points, so your main lifts also improve. For some individuals, that could be the bottom of a lift; for others, it could be the top or locking-out point. Without a strength coach, you need to be aware of your individual weaknesses over the course of your main lifts and know how to attack them.