The Strength Series: The Science Behind Effective Strength Training in Littleton
Colby Crawford • November 14, 2025
Discover how structured, science-based strength training at Carbon Strength helps you build muscle, prevent injury, and improve energy for life inside and outside the gym.
Carbon Crew, the blog is back!
I’ll be honest: I’m bringing the blog back for a mix of selfish and unselfish reasons.
On the selfish side, I want to sharpen my writing (which definitely needs reps), help more people find Carbon, and have a space to better explain what consistent strength training does for your body and mind.
I’m biased, but I truly believe that structured strength training is one of the simplest and most powerful ways to improve your life. Whether you’re new to lifting or already following a program, my hope is that these posts give you a little extra motivation and a better understanding of why strength training works.
Strength training doesn’t just build muscle (it does do that very well), but it literally transforms us. It reshapes your brain, improves energy, strengthens joints, and supports long-term physical and mental health. That’s the foundation of what we do here at Carbon Strength in Littleton: helping busy people get stronger, move better, and feel better for life.
Here’s the plan: every couple of weeks, I’ll post a short deep dive into one specific topic that highlights what weight training/strength training (I’ll use both) is doing for you. If there are any specific topics that you’d like to learn more about, email those to me at cole@carbonstrength.co!
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Carbon Crew! I’m so proud of the hard work you’ve all been putting in. The effort is paying off. So many of you crushed PRs last week. Keep it up, and keep logging your weights :) This next block is a little different. We’re shortening it to four weeks and bringing in more consistency week to week. The main lifts stay the same week over week so we’ll really be able to get each movement dialed in. Practice makes perfect and mastering the basics is where the most progress is made. Here’s reminder on how to make the most of a new cycle: Start lighter than you think in Week 1. Slow your reps down, use tempo, and focus on moving with control over lifting heavy weight. Then each week after that should build on last week: small jumps, steady increases, smoother reps. Log your weight each session so you have a benchmark to beat the next week. We’re also adding more aerobic-focused conditioning this cycle. These are meant to be pushed. The better your engine, the more you’ll get out of every training block without burning out. At the end of each session you’ll have an optional finisher (core + or a short daily focus) that takes about five to eight minutes. If you’re feeling good, stay and hit it. If not, you’ve already done the work that matters most inside the hour. As with all of our cycles, this cycle is intentional, focused, and designed to help you keep progressing. Show up, move with control, build week by week, log your weights, and you’ll feel the difference. Let’s get it!
Most people think squats are just a leg exercise. You either “have a good squat” or you don’t. But that’s not how it works. Your squat is a skill your nervous system has to learn, refine, and reinforce over time, just like typing, driving, or shooting a free throw. And the same is true for every major movement we do in the gym. Whether it’s a hinge, a press, a pull, or a lunge, your body is constantly learning, adapting, and building cleaner, more efficient patterns. When you train, it’s not just muscle vs. gravity. Your brain is deciding which muscles to turn on, how many fibers to recruit, and how hard and how quickly they should fire. A motor unit, a motor neuron and the fibers it controls, is the basic building block of strength. Early in a training phase, most of your strength gains come from learning to recruit more motor units and fire them more effectively. That’s why weight often feels smoother and more controlled after a few weeks, even before you see any physical changes. Your nervous system is upgrading how you move. Repetition is what drives this process. Every rep is a signal traveling through your nervous system. When you repeat the same movement pattern with good form and intent, your body reinforces that pathway through a process called myelination. More myelin around those nerves means faster, clearer signals: smoother squats, stronger pulls, cleaner presses. This is why repeating movements weekly matters. You’re practicing your version of the movement and teaching your nervous system exactly how you want to move under load. You simply can’t get this level of refinement if you’re doing a brand-new exercise every session. Variety has its place, but strength requires repeated exposure to the same pattern. Tempo is one of the most powerful tools for this. When you slow down the lowering phase of a squat or pause at the bottom of a press, you force your brain to gather more information: joint position, tension, balance, stability. Controlled tempo gives your nervous system clean data. Rushed reps give it noise. When you respect tempo, your body actually learns from the rep instead of just surviving it. This works for brand-new lifters who need to build a foundation and for experienced lifters who need to keep sharpening their patterns so they can express more strength with less wear and tear. So the next time squats (or hinges, presses, or rows) show up again, treat the repetition as an opportunity, not a chore. Dial in the same setup each week, follow the prescribed tempo, and chase smoother reps instead of just heavier plates. Strength isn’t built by random variety. It’s built through consistent practice of the right patterns, done with control and intent. When you train this way, movements stop feeling awkward and start feeling automatic. That’s your nervous system leveling up. And that’s how we build real, lasting strength, one rep at a time.
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