Strengths and Weaknesses

Character strengths are capacities for thinking, feeling, willing and behaving. They reflect what is best in you and can be viewed as part of your positive identity. The strengths (e.g., fairness, hope, kindness, leadership) in the classification are the best examples of this type of strength.

Talents are strengths that are innate abilities, which typically have a strong biological loading and may or may not be well-developed (e.g., intelligence, musical ability, athletic ability).

Here are a few kinds of strengths:

☛ Character strengths

☛ Talents strengths

☛ Skills strengths

☛ Interests strengths

☛ Values strengths

☛ Learning styles strengths

☛ Resources strengths

Strength can be defined in many ways, few are given below:

☛ The state or quality of being strong, physical power or capacity.

☛ The capacity to resist attack, impregnability.

☛ The capacity to resist strain or stress, durability.

☛ The ability to deal with difficult situations or to maintain a moral or intellectual position.

☛ The number of people constituting a normal or ideal organization.

☛ Capability in terms of numbers or resources.

☛ An attribute or quality of particular worth or utility, an asset.

☛ One that is regarded as the embodiment of protective or supportive power, a support or mainstay

The most efficient ways to improve strength follow certain rules:

☛ The intensity level must be sufficient

☛ Your practice must be regular

☛ There must be progressive overload

Strength endurance is the ability to perform a near maximal level of strength repeatedly over a period of time.

Strength endurance is the specific form of strength displayed in activities which require a relatively long duration of muscle tension with minimal decrease in efficiency.

Exercises such as hill running or pushing/pulling a sled will work this kind of strength. The movements are difficult and require a significant amount of strength that need to be sustained over time to get the work done. Another good example in the body weight world is the gymnast performing ring strength skills one right after another in a routine.

Relative strength concerns your maximum effort in relation to your body weight.

A 225-pound person that can push 250 pounds overhead is weaker in this respect than a 175-pound person who can push 210 pounds overhead, even though lifting 40 pounds more. This is often called "pound for pound" strength.

Because it is connected with your body weight, this classification favors people that are of lower body weight. Olympic weightlifting is an example here because the weight of the competitors is considered in tiebreakers. If two lifters end up lifting the same amount of weight, the winner is the one who weighs less.

Absolute strength is the maximum force your musculature can exert for a particular action, whether it is a press, a squat or a pull.

Usually this type of strength is measured in terms of total weight lifted. The sport of power lifting is a good example of athletes training for absolute strength. For them, everything is geared towards improving the squat, bench press and dead lift.

Physical strength is the ability of an animal or human to exert force on physical objects using muscles. Increasing physical strength is the goal of strength training.

Resources strengths are the one type of strength that is external. These are your external supports, such as social and spiritual connections, living in a safe neighborhood and being part of a good family.

Skills are strengths that are specific proficiency's developed through training (e.g. learning a particular trade, computing skills, researching skills).

Interests are strengths that are areas or topics you are passionate about and driven to pursue, such as playing sports, engaging in particular hobbies and working with arts or crafts.

Few definitions of weakness are given below:

☛ The quality or state of being weak, also an instance or period of being weak backed down in a moment of weakness.

☛ Fault or defect.

☛ A special desire or fondness has a weakness for sweets.

☛ An object of special desire or fondness.

Here are some ways to identify your weaknesses:

☛ Throw away the weaknesses that are really just strengths in disguise.

☛ Instead, identify a real weakness.

☛ Acknowledge the bad parts of your weakness and how they could affect your performance.

☛ Show the interviewer how you strive to overcome your weakness.

☛ Talk about your strengths confidently, without being cocky.

☛ Provide examples when talking about a strength.

This type of training aims to increase the amount of lean muscle in the body. It's especially useful for weight loss. It can also help with achieving a lean, toned look. For older adults, it can help counteract or reverse the age-related muscle loss that can lead to frailty. For novice and intermediate training, it involves doing 8 to 12 repetitions relatively slowly, generally for one to three sets per exercise. Rest periods of 1-2 or 2-3 minutes are advisable between sets, depending on the load.

This kind of training helps muscles to be able to keep performing a movement for a prolonged period of time such as in rowing. Training for muscular endurance involves doing 20 repetitions or more at a controlled speed, generally for one to three sets. It is recommended that short rest periods be used for muscular endurance training, 1-2 minutes between sets of 20 repetitions and even less than a minute if you are doing a more moderate number of repetitions.

All types of weight training will improve your strength. But this technique aims to improve absolute strength meaning the ability to lift or push heavy weights. It involves one to six repetitions of each exercise performed relatively slowly. This can be done for three to six sets with a rest interval of 1-2 or 2-3 minutes, depending on the amount of weight being lifted.

This technique aims to improve a muscle's explosive power, meaning its ability to perform a powerful movement in minimal time. Examples include launching into a fast sprint or jumping. Training for muscle power is generally used to help people improve their sporting performance. It involves doing one to six repetitions of each exercise at maximum speed. Depending on training goals, a power program can consist of one to three or three to six sets. For high-intensity exercises, a rest period of at least two to three minutes per set is recommended.

Learning styles are ideas or hypotheses about how people approach new material, e.g. you might be reflective in how you learn a particular subject or you might be more interpersonal in your style because you want to receive new learning through discussion rather than reading.

Here are four kinds of physical strengths:

☛ Absolute Strength

☛ Relative Strength

☛ Power Strength

☛ Strength Endurance