I am new to the Nation, and am very impressed by the knowledge of the authors and many of the members. There is a huge amount of info on the site, and it is somewhat overwhelming. I am an amateur boxer trying to learn more about strength training. I’m only interested in strength gains(I don’t care about aesthetics), so I am doing powerlifting/oly approach. Is it sometimes necessary to do a hypertrophy cycle to improve strength gains, or can you change your routine enough to continue making gains without focusing on getting bigger.
You can get a lot stronger without getting much bigger, but if you want to continue getting stronger, you’ll have to add muscle at some point, although you might very possibly attain sufficient strength levels before that need arises.
you and develop your strength and technique to a certain level but eventually you will have to put on some extra muscle if you want to increase size.
A good example is the strongman compottion. All the competitors have a huge amount of muscle mass (size). I am sure that if they could get strong enough to compete without all the extra size they would due to the fact that it would some times be a hindrance.
As a boxer with a weight class limit yes you want max strength with limited muscle and therefore weight gain. Over time even almost pure strength training will have some effect on hypertrophy they are not completely mutually exclusive. Though as aforementioned you can go a long way just trying to gain strength
Although it’s possible to gain strength while LOSING mass (which what is currently happening to me), gaining mass would let you gain strength faster.