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12-03-19 02:44 PM - Post#890986
There are a handful of methods that work well for gaining strength without gaining weight. that said, some people really need to gain weight.
Generally, if such a person embarks on some strength training routine trying to gain strength without gaining body weight, and they find they are gaining muscle weight, it is because they are actually growing into their natural strength bodyweight and were actually UNDERWEIGHT to begin with for their anthropometrics.
Some persons, due to trying to fit into weight classes or in trying to stay as lightweight as possible for a better power-to-weight ratio (like rock climbers) are willing to forgo increases in strength so they can stay in a certain weight class or perform at a certain level in their chosen sport/activity.
However, those are actually unnatural restrictions or man-made restrictions imposed on people and contrary to what the body is trying to do if left to it’s own devices, lol.
I believe it is in the first Russian Kettlebell Challenge book where Pavel says KB training will help those overweight to reduce body-fat and those underweight to gain the muscle they should have had to begin with. It’s interesting to me that hard physical jobs performed for several years actually do much the same: i.e. place your body mass/strength/work-capaci ty at a natural level.
Ok, moving on:
Single rep training can develop strength without adding bulk. But, as with all things training related, diet plays a role. I’m not going to go there at this time. The issue with something like deadlifts is that as a person gets stronger (and this applies to many forms of competition) the body will naturally begin gaining weight as added BW can help a person counter-balance the weights they are lifting and throwing for example.
Technique comes into play. If you can zero in and develop better technique you can lift heavier, get stronger and not gain much, if any added BW.
BW exercises (and that’s all rock climbing is, an exercise in moving the body) are great for developing added strength without adding a ton of added BW. So here we actually have exercises done for medium to high reps. Hmmm, seems contrary to single heavy reps with a barbell as being good for developing strength without bulk.
It really comes down to learning and mastering your ability to leverage objects (of which your body is the object if you do BW exercises or rock climb). You learn to create tension, to contract and co-contract various muscles and limbs to demonstrate strength.
It’s interesting to me that when people pick somebody else up and the person stands normally they are easy to pick up. Yet if the person tenses his body up and tries to root himself to the ground, it’s way harder to lift the person. Why?
It’s not some mystical energy field, lol. IT’s because the person doing the lifting will grab a normal standing person and bend them back over themselves and thus can leverage themselves into lifting the person more readily. If the person goes all tense on them it’s harder to lean the person back and lever into them to lift them.
So, we also have this ability to leverage or wedge ourselves into an object. You can climb up two parallel walls if you wedge your body and limbs between the two walls. You’ll never climb up between those tow walls if you slack in some area. It’s a co-ordinated effort.
OK, so what have we got? Learning to leverage, learning how to wedge, learning how to create tension, learning how to position the body. It’s very similar to doing isometrics, lol. And really, it’s all that is going on with BW exercises. Learn how to coordinate the tension in your body and you can gradually go from doing a clutch-flag on a pole to doing the full human flag on a pole. You have to get the sequence right, the tension and relaxation right. Slow is smooth smooth is fast. Develop the skill slowly, tweak it, engrain it, practice it so it’s super smooooth! Then you can start working on exploding the movement. Stay smooth and you’ll get fast. Know when to be tight and when to relax in sequence and do so smoothly and you’re a dancing tiger.
If you have ever wrestled you know what I’m talking about. You get stronger by trying to manipulate a person who doesn’t want to be moved. But you don’t really gain much BW at all as you get stronger. You will gain some weight but generally the body becomes more dense rather than bulky. You learn how to transition between tension and controlled toned relaxation in a flash. That’s part of why I like sledgehammer work on a tire. It’s the the zig to the zag of KB ballistics. Do sledge hits back-to-back with KB cleans, swings or snatches and you’ll pick up on this quicker.
I’d say use KBs, cleans, presses, goblet squats, snatches, etc. If really concerned about added BW use single KBs rather than double KB movements.
I’d use BW exercises and work toward the tougher movements. Though I wouldn’t shy away from higher rep BW movements either.
I’d incorporate huge body tension while moving heavy weights for few reps/sets.
I’d explore using things like off-set grips on a barbell so I really had to root the entire body to lift the barbell as it sticks off to one side of my body. It’s a leverage lift and if you are weak anywhere you will NOT lift much if any weight at all on the end of that bar. Some will not even be able to lift an empty 45 pound Olympic barbell this way. Yeah, if this is you you can gain a LOT of useable strength without gaining an ounce of BW.
I’d play around with stretch bands attached to a pole. Try doing pushups or squats with the band attached to a pole and then attached to a belt around your waist. Try BW squats or pushups this way as the tension of the band tries to pull you sideways, backwards or forwards (depending on the direction you are facing toward or away from the bands attachment on the pole). You’ll have to recruit more muscular tension to lock the body in and not collapse as you do the BW exercise.
I’d also explore various ways of training with bands pushing, pulling etc. It’s a lot like wrestling.
You are not only learning techniques, leveraging, wedging, rooting, push-pull movements at the same time which all build that lean tough muscle but also builds tougher connective tissue.
A lot of people get hurt when they lift something and it falls out of (or they can’t keep it in) the groove they have honed through skills practice.
If you want to survive and thrive outside the norm you have to gradually expose yourself to things outside the norm and build and expound from there. Old dad strength (which isn’t such a normal thing anymore due to the prevalence of desk jockeys) was built by good old fashioned hard work at physical jobs. It gave men the ability to express strength in all sorts of odd ways because they were constantly manipulating objects as a matter of course throughout their workday.
Training in the right way sort of condenses (and makes it safer) to apply workman type movements to the body in an hour or less per day rather than work 8-10 hour shifts at a hard physical job. Barbell lifting really does the same thing but it is too narrow in it’s focus to develop great all-around expressive strength without added BW.
Of course, then we have odd object lifting and carries which force you to learn how to recruit the entire body in order to manipulate the object. Stones, kegs, sandbags, slosh-pipes, etc.
This is an excellent roadway to follow if you want great strength that will surprise many people if they work with you or compete against you or try to mess with you. You’ll develop strength from every angle.
Anyway, that’s just a little glimpse into ways to develop great strength without a lot of added BW or bulk. Of course if you eat enough and push certain things the right way you can also get big and strong.
But this is just how I look at it and I could be all wrong, lol.
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