Want to get stronger without the size? Follow these 10 tips to build strength without the size.
Believe it or not, not every athlete wants to build massive muscles. Think about wrestlers, MMA fighters, gymnists or athletes who use their own body weight as their primary resistance, they need the strength, but the additional bulk can be a hindering than helpful.What’s important to consider is that strength is not solely a property of muscle, but rather a property of the motor system (brain and neurons). So going for the pump, total muscle exhaustion and complete muscle annihilation is not the name of the game here. You should focus on training methods that target adaptation of the nervous system that increase your relative body strength and explosive power. Your body increases its strength by a) recruiting more muscle fibers in a particular muscle group and b) increasing the firing frequency of your motor neurons (neurons and muscle fibers). You can’t consciously control these two mechanisms, but focusing on the tips below will do the trick
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| Build Strength Without the Size |
Strength is a skill and movement and velocity specific. Months and years of lifting like this will improve your coordination, movement efficiency, your strength and overall athletic potential. Remember, train slow, perform slow.
Apply these methods below to jack up your strength, but not your size.
1/ Lift Heavy
Lifting heavy (> 90% 1RM) will improve strength by recruiting what are called high threshold motor units. The muscle fibers associated with these motor units have the most potential for increasing strength however, they fatigue quickly. Maximal lifting is best applied to multi-joint exercises (e.g. squats, deads, presses & pulls). Even though the weight is heavy, your intent should be to move the weight as fast as possible. This will ensure you’re recruiting as many fast twitch muscle fibers as possible.2/ Lift Explosively
Made popular by West Side Barbell, speed lifts (e.g. box squats, speed deads & speed bench) are an excellent lifting style to teach acceleration and power development. Loads around 60% 1RM should be used and moved as fast as possible. Accommodating resistance (e.g. bands and chains) can be applied to further challenge your ability to accelerate the load. Obvious explosive exercises that should come to mind are the Olympic lifts (e.g. clean & jerk and the snatch) however, medicine ball throws and kettlebell swings also fit into this category as well.3/ Do Plyometrics
Otherwise known as jump training, plyometric training involves hop- and jump-type exercises which train and develop what’s called the stretch shortening cycling. The stretch-shortening cycling teaches the body to better utilize stored elastic energy to produce stronger and more forceful contractions. This improvement in reactive ability can also be explained by improvements in muscle-tendon stiffness. Bodyweight or weighted plyometric exercises can be utilized such as consecutive body weight jumps over hurdles or continuous dumbbell jump squats. |
| Build Strength Without the Size |
4/ Slash the Volume
A common protocol for building size and strength is 5x5 however; this set/rep scheme can be dropped to 2-3 sets to lower the muscle building potential. Lowering the volume and focusing on bar speed will have a better training effect for improving strength and explosive power rather than muscle growth. Also, your training frequency will drop from the traditional 4-5x/week for bodybuilding to 1-3x/week for strength training depending on the time of year.5/ Use Sprints and Drills
Nothing builds running speed and quickness on the field than sprinting itself. Performing sprint intervals or hill sprints (linear) or agility drills (multi-directional) will help develop strength and power specific to running and cutting. Being able to accelerate and more importantly decelerate on the field will make you stand out among the slower less coordinated players.6/ Try Contrast Training
Contrast training incorporates heavy strength training with plyometric training in the same workout. The physiological mechanism behind this training method is known as post-activation potentiation or PAP for short. Basically, the heavy strength training exercise (~<5RM) is performed first, followed by a long break, usually 3-10 minutes. A similar movement pattern plyometric exercise is then performed (5-10 reps). Research has shown an improvement or potentiation of the plyometric exercise, in that more force and power can be developed. An example is back squats followed by tuck jumps.If the break between the strength and plyometric exercise is too short, you’ll experience fatigue and a decrease in jump performance. It’s not a superset, so don’t perform these exercises like a circuit.