Gaining Strength Without Gaining Weight

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerlifting & Strength Sports
1

How does one gain strength without gaining weight?

Do you just figure out your maintenance kcals?

Obviously busting your ass in the gym is a must, and training with compound heavy movements, but i just lost a bunch of fat and i am interested in getting stronger now without gaining any weight.

Is it possible to gain strength and do lots of varying intensity cardio as long as you are eating enough kcals? i.e. conditioning work, plus regular cardio (i ride my bike for transportation).

thanks for any help

2

Read this other post of mine, its sorta what your looking for. Sure everyone flamed me, but dont listen to them.

http://www.T-Nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=2024249

Is there a reason why you dont want to gain weight, or do you mean just not gain fat?

If you just want to continue getting stronger and build muscle but not add fat, then follow what im saying.

Get stronger, and do more reps.

You will have to increase your calories eventually to get stronger.

I believe that you dont have to consciously eat more, but instead just make sure you keep getting stronger and doing more work, and you’ll naturally eat more.

If you just dont want to gain weight either muscle or fat, and get stronger still, then keep the volume low and the intensity high, and keep the calories in check and do enough conditioning to maintain weight. But your strength will stagnate, and you’ll get to the point where you have to increase body weight to increase strength much more.

You be the judge on my advice, but if I were you, I’d follow a plan similar to what im doing, because my goals seem somewhat similar. Do strength work part of the time, and densitiy / endurance work other times.

good luck

3

Are you asking about absolute strength like 1RM or strength endurance like 6-8 reps? If you do heavy single you will certainly get stronger if you limit your rep work you will not get as bulky too due to insufficient volume. Not sure that’s the answer you are looking for though.

4

Getting bigger is 95% about eating…

you have to find out what bodyweight really IS best for you. This will depend on what your lifting goals are, what your chosen sport is (if you have one), what type of physique you’d like to maintain.

You’re going to have to be pretty spot on with how many calories you burn through out the day and what allows you to eat enough to recover.

Basically your nutrition has to be damn perfect.

Realize that depending on your body type and other genetic factors you probably will not be able to reach a vast amount of lifting goals unless you increase your hypertrophy.

gymnasts for instances are muscled everywhere, they might be small and light but thats because they’re generally also like 5’4-5’6. But they have sufficient hypertrophy (brought about by their training) to support higher levels of motor unit efficiency.

so its going to require you being honest with yourself. If you like your physique but you’re flat chested, dont expect to get a sick dumbbell bench w/o putting on some muscle in your chest.

basically you eat at maintenence and do a lot of neural work. It’s going to take MORE emphasis on recovery than nutrition since you can’t eat yourself out of the hole. Sleep is going to be your primary savior as well as BCAA’s, im talking several grams over the course of the day PLUS load up pre, peri and post workout.

your workload as far as sets and reps will be VERY similar to an olympic lifters lots of 3,2,1’s and 4-6 being HIGH reps and used very seldomly.

singles and doubles EDT style would be a cool as balls way to do it till you get adjusted to the workload/eating.

chinups and squats 15min edt, singles and doubles. and thats one workout. 15min in and out.

5

Gaining strenght for doing what?

6

To maintain weight, calorie input should equal calorie output. Regardless of how you train, if you keep this in mind, you won’t gain weight.

More importantly, what are your stats? Why do you want to gain strength without gaining weight? Don’t exect a lot of strength gains while on maintenance.

7

Sled Dragging, Isometrics, Plyometrics, Speed work, Jump Training, Olympic Lifts, Explosive Medicine Ball drills, and max effort work are good ways to teach the body to be stronger without gaining much weight.

Bodyweight Exercises done for high reps, Crossfit-type workouts, and kettlebell workouts are also good ways to improve musclular endurance and general conditioning without putting on a lot of bulk.

Diet is mostly what determines your weight.
Avoid training that is obviously intended for hypertrophy. Limit isolation exercises and machine exercises (only use them if you need them for injury prevention). Widowmaker sets, slow negatives, and drop sets should be avoided. The purpose of the training should be centered around training the central nervous system and conditioning the muscles to be stronger. The purpose of the training should not be glycogen depletion or hypertrophy.

Better Grip Strength is also one of the best ways to increase your strength in most lifts and activities without adding muscle anywhere else.

8

179 lbs
31.5" waist
5’9"

Squat: 335x1
Deadlift: 365x1
Bench: never tested it

still losing bf. i haven’t started my next training cycle which is the reason i posted here. i wanted to get some advice before i change my routine drastically. currently, I’m doing Waterbury style full body 4-5 times a week with a few mods basically with his rest progression of 5 seconds per week. My cardio is riding my bike+2-3 tabata sessions on the elliptical. I have about 4-5 more weeks left of this before i change something in my program.

diet: lifting days: high carb, lower protein, medium fats
off days: lower carb, higher protein, higher fats
3000 kcals per day

Obviously building muscle is a slow process so if i gain 2 lbs of muscle over a slow period of time that’s great. That’s one thing I have learned from reading tons of articles on T-Nation. A few guys at my gym want me to enter a powerlifting competition with them. I realize that i would have to change my training. The thing is i do not want to be a fat powerlifter but i still want to be massively strong relative to my strength. Nothing wrong with those dudes, what they do is amazing, that’s just not me.

So i was wondering if i could ride my bike everywhere (about 120 mins per day on average), lift heavy ass weights, do 3 conditioning workouts per week, and still gain strength as long as i am eating and sleeping enough (i eat 100% clean as a ffb it’s a must). If anyone thinks this is next to impossible, i’d like to know. thanks for any help.

9

No, that is not impossible. As said above your weight depends on how you eat largely. The bike is a great idea to increase your daily caloric expenditure. I don’t like the idea of so much cardio, but if you must then do it. Keep eating clean, workout with those powerlifting guys a while and get stronger.

There are weight classes in powerlifting, so just because you are small won’t disadvantage you, heck the reason coach Thibs lost all of his weight was for a lifting competition. If you can be extremely strong at a low bodyfat% than you are better off than those fat guys because you will be competing in a category where less weight lifted will take home first place.

Lift heavy, but don’t hurt yourself. Use supplements like whey, a multi, and fish oil to protect your joints. Use strength techniques like supramaximal eccentrics, and cluster sets. I would avoid techniques like supersets and pre- and post fatigue because it doesn’t sound like you are looking for that amount of volume. A rep scheme like 4,3,2,4,3,2 wave pattern will work well for increasing strength.

10

Doing too much cardio can hamper your recovery and strength gains regardless of your caloric intake and/or weight gain/loss/maintenance.

11

[quote]2274 wrote:
Doing too much cardio can hamper your recovery and strength gains regardless of your caloric intake and/or weight gain/loss/maintenance.[/quote]

what is the reason for this i’m curious? is it adrenal fatigue? i’ve heard tyrosine, b-12, rhodiola can help with this problem.

12

[quote]FightingScott wrote:

Better Grip Strength is also one of the best ways to increase your strength in most lifts and activities without adding muscle anywhere else. [/quote]

^^Very overlooked point, excellent contribution… If you want damn near immediate strength returns on most of your lifts. Strengthen your grip.

Yes tyrosine, taurine and citrulline malate will help with adrenal fatigue also avoid caffeine.

imo a large part of it (as far as training) is keeping your workouts short and sweet. Im talking <40min

some good advice on this thread. but you’ll be surprised if you’re not TRYING to gain weight you probably wont. Just eating clean and eating enough to not be hungry will probably keep MOST at a relatively stable body weight. If you include very minimal hypertrophy work, then there’s little chance you’ll all of a sudden pooof and get big.

people don’t get “hyyyooouuggee” on accident.

13

[quote]cpcloud wrote:
179 lbs
31.5" waist
5’9"

Squat: 335x1
Deadlift: 365x1
Bench: never tested it

still losing bf. i haven’t started my next training cycle which is the reason i posted here. i wanted to get some advice before i change my routine drastically. currently, I’m doing Waterbury style full body 4-5 times a week with a few mods basically with his rest progression of 5 seconds per week. My cardio is riding my bike+2-3 tabata sessions on the elliptical. I have about 4-5 more weeks left of this before i change something in my program.

diet: lifting days: high carb, lower protein, medium fats
off days: lower carb, higher protein, higher fats
3000 kcals per day

Obviously building muscle is a slow process so if i gain 2 lbs of muscle over a slow period of time that’s great. That’s one thing I have learned from reading tons of articles on T-Nation. A few guys at my gym want me to enter a powerlifting competition with them. I realize that i would have to change my training. The thing is i do not want to be a fat powerlifter but i still want to be massively strong relative to my strength. Nothing wrong with those dudes, what they do is amazing, that’s just not me.

So i was wondering if i could ride my bike everywhere (about 120 mins per day on average), lift heavy ass weights, do 3 conditioning workouts per week, and still gain strength as long as i am eating and sleeping enough (i eat 100% clean as a ffb it’s a must). If anyone thinks this is next to impossible, i’d like to know. thanks for any help.[/quote]

Oh and you’re fucking svelte.

You don’t need to do that much conditioning lol especially for powerlifting

A few guys at my gym want me to enter a powerlifting competition with them

not to nitpick but DO YOU want to enter a powerlifting competition? You sound more like you want to enter a triathalon. Nothing wrong with that but you need to have a burning desire for whatever the hell you need to choose (if it burns too much, get that checked out ill fwd you my doctor’s info)

energy systems work for powerlifting is a completely different animal. you’d be doing it in an effort to

1- keep your heart healthy
2- recover from previous workouts
3- balance weakpoints/muscle imbalances
4- to increase your work capacity so you can work with more volume and/or intensity
5- hypertrophy (though not your goal)
6- lower bodyfat

b4 you do anything ask yourself WHY you’re doing it.

for instance if you want to get stronger WHY would you be doing all that extra cardio? You’d be burning yourself out. Is the cardio making you stronger? Doubt it. It might marginally but you’d be better off either doing some foam roller work or an extra set of pull throughs.

if you want to be a powerlifter #1 question in your mind is how is this helping my squat, bench or pull? is this improving my neuromuscular connection on my 3 lifts?

clearly define your goals first…

for example if you want to squat more… say how much more and by when, at what bodyweight and what bf%

14

[quote]Xen Nova wrote:
cpcloud wrote:
179 lbs
31.5" waist
5’9"

Squat: 335x1
Deadlift: 365x1
Bench: never tested it

still losing bf. i haven’t started my next training cycle which is the reason i posted here. i wanted to get some advice before i change my routine drastically. currently, I’m doing Waterbury style full body 4-5 times a week with a few mods basically with his rest progression of 5 seconds per week. My cardio is riding my bike+2-3 tabata sessions on the elliptical. I have about 4-5 more weeks left of this before i change something in my program.

diet: lifting days: high carb, lower protein, medium fats
off days: lower carb, higher protein, higher fats
3000 kcals per day

Obviously building muscle is a slow process so if i gain 2 lbs of muscle over a slow period of time that’s great. That’s one thing I have learned from reading tons of articles on T-Nation. A few guys at my gym want me to enter a powerlifting competition with them. I realize that i would have to change my training. The thing is i do not want to be a fat powerlifter but i still want to be massively strong relative to my strength. Nothing wrong with those dudes, what they do is amazing, that’s just not me.

So i was wondering if i could ride my bike everywhere (about 120 mins per day on average), lift heavy ass weights, do 3 conditioning workouts per week, and still gain strength as long as i am eating and sleeping enough (i eat 100% clean as a ffb it’s a must). If anyone thinks this is next to impossible, i’d like to know. thanks for any help.

Oh and you’re fucking svelte.

You don’t need to do that much conditioning lol especially for powerlifting

A few guys at my gym want me to enter a powerlifting competition with them

not to nitpick but DO YOU want to enter a powerlifting competition? You sound more like you want to enter a triathalon. Nothing wrong with that but you need to have a burning desire for whatever the hell you need to choose (if it burns too much, get that checked out ill fwd you my doctor’s info)

energy systems work for powerlifting is a completely different animal. you’d be doing it in an effort to

1- keep your heart healthy
2- recover from previous workouts
3- balance weakpoints/muscle imbalances
4- to increase your work capacity so you can work with more volume and/or intensity
5- hypertrophy (though not your goal)
6- lower bodyfat

b4 you do anything ask yourself WHY you’re doing it.

for instance if you want to get stronger WHY would you be doing all that extra cardio? You’d be burning yourself out. Is the cardio making you stronger? Doubt it. It might marginally but you’d be better off either doing some foam roller work or an extra set of pull throughs.

if you want to be a powerlifter #1 question in your mind is how is this helping my squat, bench or pull? is this improving my neuromuscular connection on my 3 lifts?

clearly define your goals first…

for example if you want to squat more… say how much more and by when, at what bodyweight and what bf%[/quote]

wow man great post
really inspired me.
i am going to enter this powerlifting competition, but before i start training for it:

i am finishing up the plan i had originally started which is

Mon 9x4
Tues off
Wed 6x6
Thurs 4x9
Friday 3x12
Saturday off
Sunday 2x18

Movements: All Compound
One each of:
Quad Dom
Hip Dom
Horz Pull
Vert Pull
Horz Push
Vert Push

I started at 60s rest and starting next week i will have progressed to 20s, the last week will the week of 10s (aka puke/hell), plus bike riding and 2-3 additional cardio sessions depending on my schedule.

so…i will finish that then the following week start training for the powerlifting meet which leads me to my next question…

how should i train?
experience: 1.5 years training, still a newb by most t-nationer’s standards.
i posted my max lifts above^^.

I took the liberty of reading Coach Thibaudeau’s Article How to Design a Damn Good Program and came up with this so let me know (anyone) if it looks like a crap program:

Sets per workout: 9 total (not including days i work calves)

Rest:
3-5 mins

Reps:
3-5 for first exercise
6-8 for second and third (if applicable)

To failure: screaming on every set

Days per week: 4=Mon/Wed/Thurs/Sat

Split: Push/Quad Dom/Pull/Hip Dom

with all that in mind here are the exercises i came up with and i will change them when i start to stagnate on one exercise.

Mon:
Bench Press 3x3-5
Incline DB Press/Plyo Pushup 3x6-8
Dip/Military Press 3x6-8

Wed:
Squat/Front Squat 3x3-5
Lunges 4x6-8

Thurs:
Bent-Over Row/Chinup 5x3-5
Wide Grip Chinup/One-Arm DB Row 4x6-8

Sat:
Deadlift/RDL 5x3-5
Glute Ham Raise/Pull-Throughs 4x6-8

Warm-Up: 5 min treadmill walk+moderate amount of light sets slowly upping the weight

Cardio: 2 interval sessions, 1 hr bike ride on the weekend

i will keep my calories the same (~3000) but change the fat sources by adding in some fats from beef, eggs and a little more saturated seeing as how they increase testosterone and i only get incidental saturated fats now although i get at least 35% of my cals from fat e.g. nuts, avocados, seeds and what not. thanks for any advice.

goals:
squat: don’t know because i don’t know how much is a reasonable improvement i’d like to be able to squat 365 5 times in 6 months is that reasonable?
deadlift: 405 5 times in 6 months
bf%: same as now or less
bodyweight: not above 181