Increase Strength but not Muscle Mass

Thanks for all the replies man. Yeah I do have quite a bit of weight to lose. I have never exercised before in my life. I plan on starting now and plan on getting a lot stronger. I was wondering though is it best for me personally to do high resistance low reps so I don't gain too much mass?
 
GSPFAN101 said:
Thanks for all the replies man. Yeah I do have quite a bit of weight to lose. I have never exercised before in my life. I plan on starting now and plan on getting a lot stronger. I was wondering though is it best for me personally to do high resistance low reps so I don't gain too much mass?
Click to expand...


1) You need to lift heavy with medium to low rep ranges;
2) Focus on compound lifts (squats, deadlifts, cleans, press, chins bench press);
3) You must do more pulling exercises than pushing;
4) Focus on eating clean;
5) You MUST squat below parallel;
6) For GOD SAKE READ THE FAQs again.
 
It's not like smaller weights are going to give you herpes, but if you want to get strong, you're better off with heavy stuff. If you want a cookie cutter, pick a routine from the FAQ, they're in there for a reason (if you have enough time, a 3-day split like 5x5).

Throw in some non-strenuous aerobic cardio (for now, to build the capacity) during the weekend and watch your diet (check out Dr. Berardi's 7 habits). You don't have to turn yourself into a nutrition zealot, but the less crap you eat, the better.

Do that for a couple of (say, six) weeks and come back here to report. Learn the proper form of the exercises you will be doing (squat and deadlift are the most important), you can post videos here for people to give pointers.
 
In case nobody has posted this yet, you need to lift extremely heavy with low reps/sets. For instance, 2-5 sets of 1-3 reps of 80%+ of your 1RM.

However, if you're really wanting explosive power, that will require a different protocol.
 
If I were you which im not, so you may not agree with me but I would try to loose the weight and lean out before I tried to get stronger. If you were to do this you would stay in the 12 to 20 rep range, and do cardio. Also if you don't know to much about nutrition go the the dieting thread there is some good stuff in there
 
Taking a look at the "Sherdog's Strongest Man" thread in the under 198 pound class, it is pretty clear that you could gain a lot of strength.

Nickname.........BW....squat/bench/dead....total...Wilks

Tayon ...........198....415/320/510....1245....361.1
Cap'n............198....405/285/480....1170....339.1
h7jb7sg1e........193....405/275/455....1135....333.6
JPC..............195....371/273/437....1081....316.1
Alon.............198....440/220/420....1080....312.8
Submission0017...198....345/275/415....1035....300.3
Foobar...........185....365/225/405....995.....298.0
Urban............197....315/225/440....980.....284.4
REKillzone.......195....315/240/415....970.....283.5
Merrill..........190....340/245/370....955.....282.9
Team Dragonfire..198....315/230/410....955.....276.9
oyaji poi........187....290/225/400....915.....271.6
Centaur..........185....285/250/330....865.....260.3
Old Man..........194....240/250/365....855.....250.4
doomburrito......185....275/200/335....810.....243.7
Feature boy......196....248/198/363....809.....236.0
Bacon............182....245/205/345....795.....241.0
bad_coupon.......183....220/132/264....616.....186.9
BlondeWarrior....190....215/115/265....595.....233.4
Kaboom187........190....135/135/255....525.....155.5
Click to expand...
 
Lift heavy. 1-3 rep range...alternating between volume and intensity.....I would also adjust your diet to optimal levels. Lifting heavy will go a long way at shedding body fat while at the same time making your stronger.....with time and patience there's no reason why at your bodyweight you cant do some extraordinary things...

2xbw squat
3xbw deadlift
2xbw bench
1.5x ohp
etc

all are realistic long term targets...
 
Watch your fat, sugar, and carb intake, focus on protein, and eat only enough to fuel your workouts. I'd say stay around 3000 calories per day.
 
If you haven't exercised much, I'd say you should get in decent shape first, getting your heart lungs and muscles accustomed to exercises. Eat clean, lift light-moderate, high reps and do cardio a couple of times a week. Then after a few months or so, you should see the weight drop due to fat loss, and some moderate muscle gain. Then start incorporating heavy lifting into your routine for strength gain. When you lift heavy and gain strength, it's almost inevitable that you will gain muscle mass in the beginning but you can control that with your routine later on.
In the beginning, if you don't have time to do both lifting and cardio, you can do circuit lifting like Rich Franklin did in his training video. That should get your muscles and cardio in order. But I definitely think you should get in shape first before doing super heavy lifting if you're not used to exercising.
 
i dont see how much stronger u can get without putting on weight

unless while getting stronger all that new muscle melts away about 40-50 lbs of fat

so in that case i guess, yea
 
JinKazama said:
i dont see how much stronger u can get without putting on weight
Click to expand...

The Science and Practice of Strength Training 2nd Edition

This is a good book that everyone should read to get a basic foundation on just how the body works in response to weight training. A muscle can get stronger without increasing in cross section through neural adaptation. Generally, a larger muscle can be a stronger muscle, but a muscle does not necessarily have to get larger to get stronger.
 
I have battled with this the last few years, but i think i have it mastered. I have a very skinny build, was 135 of very lean and quick/fast muscle. When i was a freshman in college, I decided i wanted to get as big and strong as possible. I became very strong, but because of my build, i topped out at 153, even though most thought i looked like i was 170 or so. My whole body was way bigger than i ever thought it could be. I really didn't like it to be honest...it seemed like i was compulsively going to the gym lifting over and over and over. Anyway, as far as weight lifting goes, i thought i was very strong, but functional strength was severely lacking. Once i started wrestling, i was a lot more leaned out, and got in the best shape of my life in under 2 months (this is brutal horrible wrestling practice though). I thought that because i wasn't lifting at all anymore that i would be in good wrestling shape, but weak lifting shape. I went back to the gym, and could lift just as much as i could before, and on some machines even more. It might be my body, but i rarely lift now except for good functional power exercises that don't put on mass like pullups, dips, and some squats. I only keep it to 3-4 sets too. 12 reps low weights, 10 reps higher, 8 highest, etc etc. Like i said, it works for me, i'm competing so i can't really gain weight either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,038
Messages
55,463,341
Members
174,786
Latest member
JoyceOuthw

Share this page

Back
Top