Size vs Strength | How To Train For Each (OR BOTH!)

Is there a difference in training for size vs strength? Is there a way to do both at the same time? In this video, I am going to explain the differences and similarities between hypertrophy and strength training and how you might be able to do both.

So, you want to get stronger or maybe bigger? What about both? Or you want both? Well, today I’m going to put together this video as a comprehensive stepbystep walkthrough so that no matter what your goal is, you’re going to leave this video feeling completely empowered knowing how to do what you’re trying to do because there are different paths that are optimized to help you to get one versus the other. Yeah.

All right. Now, I will tell one quick story. When I first walked into my gym for the very first time, USA gym in Milford, Connecticut, right? For anybody that’s, you know, can chime instead of been there. I asked the guy, “What do I have to do?

” And he says, “Well, do you want to be big or do you want to be strong? ” And then I said, “Uh, both. ” And he says, “Well, here’s the the bad news. You’re not built for either. ” He says, “But you could probably be really ripped and you should probably lean into that.

” So, suffice it to say that over the years I uh I kind of fine-tuned my training to try to be all of the above, but I probably leaned a little bit to closer to being on the lean side. Yeah. All right. Now, the first thing you need to do is understand that there is a difference between training for size and training for strength. Now, you may have heard the word hypertrophy.

Yes. Jesse actually worked here for two years. Yeah. I was an intern for two summers. For two summers.

The word hypertrophy was thrown around probably 30 times or three or 3,000 times and he never asked me until about two years and he said, “What does that even mean? ” Yeah. So, it means actually growing bigger muscles like bigger cross-sectional area of your muscles themselves. So, increasing muscle size where strength could just be increasing your ability to exert force, right? To lift heavier weights, even if it’s sometimes just neurologically driven, better better mind muscle connection.

Now, how do we pursue those? Well, there’s a lot of different criteria. And so what I want to do is start to break down and introduce the different criteria and show you the differences so you can pinpoint what you need to focus on. Yeah. The first thing would be technique focus.

In other words, what is the goal of your training when you’re focusing on size versus strength? If you’re focusing on building bigger muscles, here’s what’s interesting. You want to make your workouts in the exercises that you do as inefficient as possible. That sounds kind of weird, right? But it’s true.

Because on the opposite side, if you’re looking to build strength, you want to become as efficient as possible. So, let’s start there, cuz that makes more sense, right? If you want to lift a heavier weight, like if you want to do a heavier bench press, do you want to have a bench press where there’s a lot of wasted movement along the way, where the bar path is inconsistent? Nope. Where the bar path isn’t really moving?

Remember, they said the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Yeah. If you want to be strong, you need to be very effective and efficient at being able to move that weight, as much weight as possible through as short a path as possible, right? We need to groove that in all of our exercises. To do that, you need to become coordinated.

Yep. In terms of the numbers of muscles that are contributing to even a bench press, but because they’re compound movements and they’re requiring multiple muscle groups to be used at the same time. So oftentimes when beginners pursue strength, it’s an awkward pursuit. Yeah. Because they don’t know how to make the triceps, the shoulders, the chest, the core, the coordinate to move a bar.

You’ve seen it yourself or you’ve done, we’ve all been there. The first bench press you do, the bar is moving everywhere. Yep. So, these are highly coordinated movements, but with practice, and this is going to be a theme that we get into here, with continue practice, you’re going to find more efficiency so that that bar moves exactly where it’s supposed to go with no wasted movement, and you’re able to continue to overload that exercise, which is a key part of actually getting stronger. Yeah.

Now, go to the other side of it. Now, being inefficient because you’re trying to build muscle. Remember, when you’re trying to grow bigger muscles, your body’s going to fight you every step of the way. It does not want to do that for you. Despite your best intentions, it wants to do the opposite.

It wants to be in a state that we call homeostasis, which means just keep Jesse the same. Let’s not let Jesse become an animal like he has. Let’s keep him the same way. So, you need to force that. You need to take those gains.

You can’t just think they’re going to happen accidentally. So, the way that happens is oftentimes using intensity techniques, which we’ll get into into the training that you do, pushing yourself long past the typical levels of exertion so that you’re telling your body, hey, I don’t like the way that felt. I need to come back bigger and stronger and adapt. And the only way I’m going to do that is by responding by growing bigger and larger to become more resilient. So, to do that, you have to figure out ways to make the muscle that you’re trying to grow do all the work.

realizing that in a lot of the exercises that you do, there’s a lot of muscles that want to naturally contribute to the lifts that you’re doing. I. e. again on a bench press, the triceps are built to help, especially at the end of the range of motion. The shoulders are built to help, especially in the beginning of the range of motion.

You’re trying to figure out ways that I can make the chest do all the work and feel all the tension. Even on a push-up, if you make the chest do all the work and make it a very slow, painful, inefficient movement, guess what? The results will be better. That’s how you’ll grow. Yeah, it’s focused muscular tension.

That’s where you’re really trying to drive all the focus and tension into that specific muscle. When it comes to strength, you are engaging multiple muscles at the same time. So, you want systemic tension, which is basically your whole body is creating tension to to move that bar as efficiently as possible. Yeah. And what’s interesting is like as a trainer of athletes, the strength side of it is what athletics is all about cuz you want efficient movement.

You want fast, powerful movement. You don’t want wasted motion, right? Being inefficient isn’t necessarily the best path for an athlete to improve performance. So, there’s a lot of carryover between strength and performance. But when we talk about the aesthetic side of it, which a lot of people want, you got to go and look in the opposite direction.

So, now people are saying, “Well, Jeff, so what does that mean then specifically in terms of my workouts? ” Like for instance, where would I focus my reps if I was trying to do one or the other? So, if you were trying to, let’s say, build muscle, right? The hypertrophy side, Jesse. Yes, you get it now.

I I understand. If you want if you want to build muscle, then here’s the other interesting thing about this. Your rep ranges can be all over the map. Yeah. They can be anywhere between five and now research shows 30, even maybe a little bit higher than that, 35.

But you need to learn once again how to take yourselves to extremely high levels of effort, especially as those rep ranges get higher and higher. What I mean is you need to start learning how to train to failure. Now, a lot of people will talk about not going all the way to failure, showing, you know, almost the same benefits by keeping one rep in reserve or even up to two reps