There are several mechanisms that can strengthen materials by hindering the movement of dislocations:
1) Grain size reduction - Smaller grain sizes provide more barriers to dislocation movement at grain boundaries. According to the Hall-Petch relationship, smaller grain diameters yield higher yield strengths.
2) Solid solution strengthening - Impurity atoms distort the crystal lattice and generate stress fields that impede dislocation motion. The effectiveness depends on size difference and concentration of solute atoms.
3) Strain hardening - Plastic deformation increases dislocation density within a material, making further dislocation movement more difficult through interactions between dislocations. This causes strain hardened metals to strengthen with increasing plastic deformation.