SS 176 – Do You Need to Add Muscle to Get Stronger?

In today’s episode, Grant and Heavey answer a question from a listener about whether it’s possible to increase muscle strength without necessarily gaining muscle size.  Heavey gives his take on this, specifically explaining a few of the many factors that can influence muscle strength.

 

Listen in to also know why this month (April) is actually the best time to start your new year’s resolution and how paying for gym memberships can be more effective than getting them for free.

 

If you’re really taking care of your body, check out Health IQ because they can get you the best rates.

 

[01:50] Start Your New Year’s Resolutions in April, Not January

 

Grant pulls out an article called, Start Your New Year’s Resolutions in April, Not January. Most new year’s resolutions fail and they’re usually about losing weight. What typically happens  in January is people say they’re going to eat right and workout. But, most of the country gets cold and dark early in January. It’s hard to force yourself to work out when it’s freezing. Plus, cold weather makes you want to stay in and eat hearty, comfort foods.

 

The article suggests that if you wait until April, then you have the advantage of time change. It gets warmer and the days are longer. You become more active and more willing to get out of the house. You have a better chance at accomplishing those goals in April rather than January.

[04:30] Grant’s Fitness Progress

 

It took Grant until April to start his New Year’s Resolution (sort of). As of the time of this recording, Grant is happy to say that he has been doing it for a month now. If you didn’t know, Grant and his friend signed a contract where they would both have to workout four times a week. If they did not, they owe the other person $100.

 

This goes to show, as Heavey explains, that money is probably one of the biggest motivators for people. Paying for expensive memberships to gyms like Crossfit can be so effective because they have to put their money where their mouth is.

 

If you’re paying a couple hundred bucks a month for personal training, you’re going to take it a whole lot more seriously than something that’s free or printed offline. If you’re paying for it, it becomes much more real.

[07:35] Increased Muscle Strength, Without Gaining Weight

 

Listener, Joe, raises the question whether it’s possible to increase muscle strength without gaining weight.

 

What is strength? Broadly, it’s defined as the ability to produce force through joint moments. Judging strength can vary and lie on different ends of the strength spectrum.

 

Think about the top powerlifter who’s squatting a thousand pounds versus the top weightlifter who can’t, but is throwing up big numbers on snatch and clean and jerks. So, who is stronger here? In fact, these are two different types of strength. One is a more powerful application of strength while the other, there has a time domain factor to it.

[10:25] The Strength Spectrum: What Influences Strength?

 

There is absolute strength on one end of the spectrum (that powerlifter squatting a thousand pounds). Then you move farther down the spectrum and get to speed. All this can exist on the same spectrum. It’s an interesting way to think about strength and the different sports that showcase various feats of strength.

 

Many factors can affect strength, not just muscle size. For instance, the biggest bodybuilders in the world would be the strongest people in the world if it was all about muscle mass. But that’s just not the case. It’s really not about muscle size.

 

Aside from other factors that influence strength are muscle fiber types, coordination, body proportions, etc.

[15:00] The Concept of Neuroadaptation

 

Heavey illustrates this in two categories. First, is increasing muscle size which does correspond to increased strength. Second, is learning how to use your muscles effectively and more efficiently. This comes down to neuroadaptations where you get better coordination of the muscles firing and improve capacity to recruit the muscle fibers. In other words, it’s a more intense firing of the muscle motor units. This can be seen more on the neural side of things. When lifters first get started, this ids a big piece of the quick gains they get.

 

Also, kids don’t have the hormonal profile to add a ton of muscle mass so it comes down to using the muscle mass you have more efficiently to become stronger.

[16:45] Factors that Affect Strength: Size and Tension

 

Some factors affecting increased strength is muscle size. It’s the cross-sectional area of the muscles. It’s one of the primary tools for increasing strength. But not everybody wants to develop strength this way since some people compete in weight class sports and other people do things like endurance sports, where adding mass might be detrimental to performance. They need to use the muscle mass that they do have more efficiently to be effective in their sport.

 

Research shows that the correlation between the cross-section of muscle and muscular force is typically accounting for about 50% of the variability in force.

 

Another factor is called specific tension. This is the ratio of the force generated by the muscle and the cross-sectional area. How efficiently are you using your muscles? A bodybuilder may have a ton of muscle but not able to lift as much as the powerlifter who has less muscle mass. The powerlifter is much more efficient at using his muscle mass over the bodybuilder.

 

One thing to keep in mind as well is the bodybuilder will typically be much, much leaner than a powerlifterl, which makes the bodybuilder’s muscles more visible, giving the appearance of having much more muscle.

[19:00] The Mind-Muscle Connection

 

Research has shown that the mind-muscle connection can lead to improved results for your training program. One study had people perform biceps curls. One group had to concentrate and think about muscle action as they’re curling the weight  and resulted with 2x increase in muscle size after a 12-week training program. Thinking about the muscles can have a very real effect on the outcome of your training program.

[20:33] An Interesting Study on Bodybuilders vs. Power Athletes

 

Another study Heavey found that was really cool looked at bodybuilders versus power athletes. They found that on average, the bodybuilders had 62% less specific tension than power athletes and 41% less than an untrained control group. The bodybuilders developed a ton of muscle mass but didn’t use it very efficiently on average, not even as efficiently as somebody that doesn’t lift or exercise.

 

It really comes down to what your training goal is. Are you looking to put on size or do you want to focus exclusively on strength and not put on size?  This can be the reason you sometimes see skinny guys at the gym out lifting the beefy ones.

[22:12] What to Expect from the Next Episode!

 

On the next episode, Heavey will cover and break down all the training variables like sets and reps that you can manipulate in your training program. He breaks down what to do if you want to focus on gaining size and what you should do if you want to focus on gaining strength. Or, if you don’t want to add size, where you want to manipulate things.

[22:50] Manipulating Strength: Periodization

 

A sneak peak to the next episode: the act of manipulating strength in training is what is referred to as periodization. When you periodize your strength program, you come to a point where you’re overreaching and then you do a de-load. An example would be the 5-3-1 program where you’re slowly increasing intensity so the reps are dropping week by week. The weight is going up week my week. Then, after three weeks of doing it, you take one week where you drop the weights substantially, like 50% of what you’re doing. The week after that, you come back and test your newfound strength. This is the concept of massing and cutting in play for strength athletes.

 

There are things you can do in your training that will de-prioritize increasing your muscle mass or hypertrophy and instead, prioritize strength gains.

[24:45] Individuals Respond Differently to Training

 

Heavey stresses the fact that all this information on reps and sets is based on training studies and these studies only report averages. This is important. If you look at the individuals in the study, they don’t usually report the specificities such as how many individuals really lose strength and whether there’s one person that doubles their max. Everybody else falls within those far ends of that spectrum.

 

We all respond to training differently. This is important to keep in mind. Heavey might tell you how to structure your training program to add muscle but you may not add any muscle. While they know what the research says is most effective, but at the same time, you have to remember that everybody responds differently to the same stimulus. Sometimes people need to modify their approach based on their particular needs and how they’re responding to certain protocols.

[26:45] Time for Booze!

 

Heavey is having a small bottle of Hennessy cognac, which he opened some 15 years ago. He finds it a little sweet with a body to it. Grant mentions this very expensive LouisXIII Cognac which he drank with a mutual friend and they in fact finished the entire bottle.

 

 

Links:

www.healthIQ.com/scotch

Start Your New Year’s Resolutions in April, Not January