Expressing strength and building strength are generally closely tied together in training and that's to say that as I've said before more muscle moves more weight and although strength is a skill in which the neural capacity can be adapted to moving more weight when in training most things done will contribute to both adaptations. The biggest differences can be seen in the difference between high volume low intensity training vs lower volume high intensity training, as in high reps vs low reps and heavy weight vs low weight and more specifically one rep max tests or just heavy singles, doubles and triples vs 20 rep sets with 50%. Many say expressing strength isn't how you build it but that's not entirely true as you adapt to heavy weights as efficiently as you can with the muscle mass that you have but the thing is you won't build as much muscle doing only heavy singles as you would adding more volume since volume is the prime driver of hypertrophy. Anyways point is add muscle then learn to recruit that new muscle more efficiently.
The second point I wanted to make was in movement varieties that take advantage of these two different qualities, namely to build strength or to show it. Flexing is fun no doubt about it but it's also necessary for displaying the ability to move the most weight possible and often that means shortened ranges of motion, "bad form" and sneaky tactics. According to the rules of powerlifting most of these things in most federations aren't considered cheating and for the most part they shouldn't be but of course some things can be taken too far... I'm sure everyone has heard jokes about those lifters with crazy arches so big their ass touches the back of their head that in my opinion is stupid but I honestly don't know where the line is for arches all I know is it's not cheating and it does give a lifter support and allow for more tension I suppose they issue is when someone with great mobility does some circus shit. Anyways I digress the info that people need to utilize more is programming strength building movements for their strength displaying counterparts. So for example here's a list of a few strength building movements with their flex counterpart:
Highbar ATG (Ass to Grass) Squat----Low Bar Back Squat
Closegrip (slight arch little to no leg drive) Bench Press----Pause Bench Press
Conventional Stiff Leg Deadlift----Sumo Deadlift
Of course there are heaps more variants of flexing and building style movements for targeting different goals but these are the Gold Standard of each and generally accepted as the best way to build and express strength for the big 3.
The amount of detail that can go into programming different variants and using this basic idea of flexing vs building is complex but at it's core is that some movements and volume/intensity points are specialized for a specific adaptation and varying the focus from one macro to another with the intention of building towards a larger goal is at the heart of programming and that's a whole other story for a different post.
Thanks for reading, stay FLEXXIN
-Mr Wolf
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