How do I get stronger without getting bigger?

In this article you will discover how to get stronger and gain muscle with strength training in five simple steps.

1. Get Stronger. Strength training forces your body out of comfort zone. Your body reacts by growing stronger & bigger. Building muscle is one of the side effects of strength training. More strength is more muscle. . You’ll lose the skinny look once you can Squat 1.5x & Deadlift 2x your body-weight for at least 1 rep. Your whole body will increase in size: legs from moving the weight, but also arms from squeezing the bar hard.

2. Use Compound Exercises. Exercises that hit several muscles at the same time increase the release of growth hormone. Your routine must include Squats but also Deadlifts, Overhead Press, Bench Press, Barbell Rows & Power Cleans. Next on the list are body-weight compound exercises like Pull-ups, Chin-ups and Dips. Any other exercise is a variation of the previous ones. Remember barbells work best: you have to stabilize the weight and you can use more weight.

3. Increase Volume. Sets x reps x weight is volume. Volume forces your body to build muscle. 25 reps per exercise for a total of 4-5 exercises per workout works best for a mix of strength and size. If you can do more exercises in 1 workout, you’re not doing the right exercises or not training hard enough. Start doing 4-5 compound exercises for 6 sets of 4 reps or 5 sets of 5 reps or 4 sets of 6 reps.

4. Add Weight. If total reps remain equal, you can only push your body out of comfort zone over & over by adding weight. Don’t lift the same weight forever. Add weight systematically. If you stall: 1 step back, 2 step forward.

5. Eat More. If you weigh 150lbs at 6’1″ and want to weigh 200lbs, strength training won’t make you gain 50lbs. You need to eat more food. Read how to gain weight without gaining fat. If you don’t care about gaining some fat, do the Squats & Milk program. Squat 3x per week and drink 1 gallon whole milk daily. You can gain 40-60lbs per year using this method depending on how skinny you are. If you’re 280lbs with 30% body fat, you don’t need to eat more. You already have the size, you just need to lose fat. Continue getting stronger & eating healthy. The fat will take care of itself.