What Is The Best Workout For Gaining Strength & Maintain Weight?

Workout Fundamentals

1 Warm-Up:

It is very important to properly warmed up before beginning any workout. The first step in properly warming up is with a short, fairly intense session of . This session should be 1-5 minutes long different people need varying lengths of warm-up. This helps to get the blood flowing throughout the entire body, increase mental focus, and prime the muscles for action.

The next aspect of warming up is an exercise specific warm-up. This is important to increase local blood flow to the muscle group, , and maximize performance. Use approximately 50% of your , and perform 10-20 easy reps. You should not come close to exhaustion during this set.

2 Acclimation Sets:

You should next do a set of around 5 reps with 60-70% of your . You should not come close to failure on this set; its purpose is to get your muscles & nervous system adjusted to the heavy weight you are about to lift.

Perform one more set with a moderately heavy weight; one that you could do nor more than 10-12 times. Perform 5 or 6 reps with this weight. Again, the purpose is not to tire yourself, but to ‘acclimate’ your body in order to lift the heaviest weight possible.

3 Working Sets:

After a couple minutes of rest, and a few sips of , begin your working sets. Use a weight that you can do no more than 5 or 6 times with good form. If you can do more, increase the weight. Remember that it does not take much volume to build strength.

Even a single, very heavy and intense set can stimulate significant strength gains. 2-3 working sets is plenty, as long as they are heavy & intense enough. Be sure to be fully rested between sets. It may seem more intense to rest as little as possible, but do not be fooled into this line of thinking. You need to let your energy stores fully recharge so that you can lift as heavy weight as possible. Remember, this is training, not training.

Always lower the weight in a slow, controlled manner. More than half of your results will come from the eccentric(lowering) part of the lift. Bouncing the weight off your chest or letting the barbell fall will not yield the best results.

4 Compound vs. Supplementary Lifts:

lifts which activate multiple muscle groups & allow you to use more weight are superior to isolated lifts such as a or .

Using heavier weights more effectively stimulates neural drive as well as increases functional strength.

Always perform compound or ‘big’ movements before you move on to supplementary lifts.

After the main lifts are competed, you can do more isolated lifts to further target a certain muscle or a motion specific to your or goals.

For example, during my ‘chest’ workout, I do 2 or 3 compound exercises targeting the chest, triceps, and shoulders. Afterwards, I will focus on my abs and possibly 1 additional set for my triceps. I also do 2 or 3 sets to target my forearms. I sometimes like to work my grip using Ironmind Heavy Grippers. But all of that is after I complete the main lifts.

5 Cool Down:

The purpose of a is two-fold. It helps to flush metabolic wastes from your muscle tissue, which aids in . It also helps to restore venuous blood flow to the heart. After a workout, blood is trapped in your muscle tissue. This trapped blood is responsible for the pumped feeling which is common after a workout.

Although this may feel good, it does nothing to aid strength gain or recovery. A cool down helps to release this blood and restore normal circulation. A typical cool down would be 5-10 minutes of light .

6 Record All Lifts:

Not keeping track of previous workouts is a very common mistake. Unless you can accurately remember your pasts week’s workout, it is important to keep some kind of log.

The most important aspect of a weight training program, whether it be for size or strength, is progressive resistance. This means you should be lifting more weight with each workout. If you do not keep a log, you may end up using the same or less weight as before.

7 Proper Rest & Recovery:

Your strength gains are made outside of the weight room as much as in it. Without proper rest and , your gains will be diminished. In some cases, can occur. When this happens, it is common to reach plateaus which seem to be impossible to overcome.

Many athletes try an overcome this by training harder. Ironically this was the cause of the problem in the first place. In severe cases, an athlete may actually get weaker as a result of overtraining.

It takes much less time in the gym to make optimum strength gains as many people might think. 3 sessions per week, if performed with intensity, is plenty. Remember, quality ALWAYS trumps quantity. If you have been strength training for a while, and have run into a wall, immediately take a week off. You will be surprised at how much stronger you come back.

A Typical Baseline Workout For Strength Gain

Workout 1 – Lower Body:

Workout 2 – Back:

Workout 3 – Chest, Shoulders & Abs:

Hand Strength

We use our hands and forearms in virtually every manual task we perform. Hand & Forearm strength is important for so many things from everyday manual tasks, to sports such as wrestling and boxing.

Hand Strength – It is a common myth that comes from the forearms. While some forearm strength does translate into grip strength, the majority of hand strength comes from the muscles within the hand itself. Who would’ve guessed?

An excellent way to develop crushing grip strength, useful for manual labor as well sports such as wrestling, is by using hand grippers. You can find light-weight hand grippers in a Wal-mart or sporting goods store. However, most of these only give around 40-50 lbs of resistance. This is woefully insufficient for most people to develop hand strength with.

Other Factors Effecting Strength

Proper Diet:

Proper diet is essential for maximizing workout productivity as well as performance. Without a proper diet, athletes will experience decrease workout performance, productivity, and . and competition performance will also be negatively affected.

Carbs:

provide crucial glucose to replenish muscle glycogen. Glycogen is the main source of energy used when doing high intensity strength training, power lifting, and competing in and tournaments.

Protein:

is essential, even if you are not looking to build mass. Any high intensity exercise wears down your muscle tissue. You need adequate protein in order to repair & maintain your muscles.

Dietary Fat:

is also an important part of strength and athletic performance. Dietary fat is important for connective tissue & joint health. Your tendons and ligaments are what translate the force of your muscles into movement. If these are not healthy and strong, your strength will be limited by this weak link.

Water:

is a crucial component of performance. Even slight dehydration can cause strength loss of 15-20%. It is recommended that you drink at least 64 ounces of water each day. Keep in mind that this is for the typical, inactive person. Athletes may need twice as much water as the sedentary individual.

Tips:

• Eat a balanced meal approximately 2 hours before each workout. This helps to insure maximum energy levels.
• Watch your calorie intake. To maintain weight while building strength, it is best to avoid a large surplus or deficiency. If you find yourself keeping pace with your bodybuilding buddies, you may find yourself slipping up to the next weight class. Aim to eat smaller, more frequent meals rather than 3 large meals a day.

Eliminate Hidden Pounds & Replace It With Muscle For Even More Strength:

With our increasing consumption of unhealthy, processed foods, constipation is becoming an ever prevalent problem. Even among younger, supposedly “healthier” individuals, constipation is still a common problem. With some quick research using Google, one can easily find information which estimates that the average ‘healthy’ American has between 5 and 15 pounds of fecal matter trapped in their colon.

I am pretty sure that this does not contribute to strength! Imagine if you could lose that much weight, and replace it with muscle. You could stand to make some very nice strength gains while keeping the same body weight. I know of several wrestlers who dropped an entire weight class by taking measures to clean their bowel.

A doctor may be able to offer a prescription laxative, but if you do not want to use drugs, there are many alternative methods available. Colonics use large amount of water to flush the colon out. There are also many type of herbal laxatives available at health food stores. Some of these were quite effective when I tried them some time ago.

Supplements:

Supplements to increase strength and performance have been around since before many of us were born. Many athletes take supplements they believe will enhance their strength. In reality, many of these athletes do not have a clue what the supplements are really doing.

Supplements can provide benefits, but in any case, 95% of the results will come from your workout and a good diet. If you are not getting good results, and are tempted to try a supplement that you saw in a magazine, or one that your buddy says is good, think again.

Before trying any supplements, review your entire workout routine, diet, and lifestyle. You may simply be overtrained, which is fixable by a period of rest from the weight room.

Creatine:

In a nutshell, gives you more energy. Creatine Phosphate is the primary source of energy used in very intense, very short activities lasting around 10 seconds or less. After this, glycogen becomes the primary source.

You get a limited amount of creatine from meat and from synthesis, but this supply gets used up rather quickly. Supplementing with creatine increases these stores, thus filling that particular energy tank up a bit higher.

Yes Or No?

Creatine can be a useful supplement for those looking to bulk, or those looking to gain strength without regard to mass. However, for those looking to gain strength while maintaining body weight, creatine is probably not a good choice.

Creatine and glycogen stored in the muscle tissue naturally retain several times their weight in water. Supplementing with creatine can cause you to store 5-15 extra pounds of water. This is enough to move an athlete up an entire weight class, without providing enough benefit to compensate.

Protein:

It is amazing how so simple a substance could have so many ridiculous myths surrounding it. I have heard people say that contain “near-steroid” substances in them. I have spoken with athletes who think that simply consuming a protein powder will boost strength, all on its own.

Some seem to think that protein powder is the ultimate source of protein, and that a single post workout shake will meet their protein requirements for the entire day. Protein is a dried form of food, nothing more. Its advantage lies mostly in its convenience. It is much easier to whip up a shake than to cook a whole meal.

Yes Or No?

A protein powder such as whey is a handy supplement to have around. Whey protein is great for a post workout shake; it is easy to make, and is quickly absorbed. However, do not be fooled into thinking that a protein powder is “better” than whole foods, or that using it will somehow make you super strong. It is a convenient substitute, nothing more.

2nd Place – Blink41

View This Author’s BodySpace .

If you’re an athlete looking for additional strength without the mass, then you’re in the right place. Obviously, strength training and bodybuilding are totally different because strength training is a workout specifically to increase strength while maintaining a certain weight and bodybuilding is simply adding mass on a physique.

Workout

What Is The Best Workout For Gaining Strength While Maintaining Weight? Be Specific.

The numbers of repetitions you do in a set are extremely important and should vary between different goals. When training for strength, you should aim for 1-5 reps per set. By doing so, you would not be stimulating maximum hypotrophy and hence not gain much weight. For instance, if you wanted to gain strength on your biceps without gaining much weight, you would do 4 sets of 1-5 reps of curls and 4 sets of preacher curls of 1-5 reps and so on.

Isolation Vs. Compound

If you’re looking for raw strength, I suggest you stick with Olympic lifts. If you’re looking for strength, I recommend you stick with compound exercises such as deadlift, squats or bench press. When doing compound exercises, aim for one to five repetitions for maximum strength gains.

Avoid isolation exercises because they simply bring out and “define” a certain muscle group. Isolation exercises should mainly be done by bodybuilders looking to win competitions, not strength athletes.

Sample Routine:

4-5 times a week for about 30 minutes.
Remember to stretch before and after workouts.

Mondays & Fridays:

Tuesdays & Saturdays:

Wednesdays & Sundays:

Thursday:

Diet

What Else Do These Athletes Do To Help Increase Their Strength Without Gaining Too Much Weight?

Do not consume too much junk food. Even with proper strength training, weight gain is absolutely inevitable with a poor diet. Eat clean foods such as white chicken breast, turkey, steak with the fat trimmed off, pasta, rice, bread…

Get rid of some fat. Hit the treadmill so you can lose some fat weight, and then replace it with some muscle mass. For instance, if you weight 200lbs at 10 percent body fat, which means that you have 20lbs of fat. Cut down to 200lbs with 8 percent body fat.

Supplements

Which Supplements Would Help? Which Supplements Wouldn’t?

Nitric Oxide:

(N.O.) has been proven to increase muscle recovery. Nitric Oxide dilates the blood vessels to allow more blood and oxygen to reach your muscles faster. It also gives you amazing pumps when you are working out in the gym. For a good N.O. product, I recommend ; sometimes I don’t want to leave the gym because of all the energy I get when I take it.

Protein:

Protein is absolutely essential for any type of strength/muscle growth. Proteins and amino acids are the basic building blocks of muscles. I would recommend at least 1-2 grams of protein per bodyweight.

There are two types of protein: and . Take whey protein before and after your workouts and casein before you go to sleep. For a good whey product, I would recommend . For a good casein protein, nothing beats the delicious . Note: Muscle Milk contains lots of calories but they claim to be “good” lipids.

Creatine:

is very beneficial for strength training but can cause you to gain water weight. Creatine helps short bursts of energy when you are at the gym so you could pick up those heavy weights. Creatine usually helps an additional ten seconds during intense short bursts such as attempting a .

The down side to creatine is that it will cause the body to retain water, increasing your overall weight. However, if you wish to avoid the water weight, simply get off creatine for about one month prior to your matches/competitions.

Multivitamins:

are often neglected by many athletes. Multivitamins are absolutely essential for the body. Protein cannot be absorbed by the body without sufficient . I would strongly recommend or simply Centrum Performance for a multi. Note: If taking Centrum, take two tablets, one in the morning and one before you go to sleep.

Thank you for reading

3rd Place – best regards

View This Author’s BodySpace .

Best regards to all users!!

There’s an infinite number of reasons why someone would want to increase strength but not size. Maybe you’re a or a , trying to make a certain weight. Maybe you’re a wide receiver or a runner who is wanting minimal mass in order to keep top speed.

Well let me be the first to say, it is very feasible to increase strength without increasing weight. It all bogs down to the diet. If you take in more calories than you burn (a caloric surplus), you will gain weight. If you take in less than you burn (caloric deficit), you will loose weight. If you’re is to maintain, you would eat around maintenance for your weight.

The best off-season program for gaining strength would (IMO) be your basic Westside program, an upper/lower split. It would not incorporate any running or sport-specific training. If you must incorporate running you may take out Friday’s lower body day and work in 2-3 other running days. If you want to incorporate some type of high-intensity boxing, etc., then take out Thursday’s upper body day. Just use your brain here.

Here is a basic outline of the program:

Monday – Upper Body:

Tuesday – Lower Body:

Thursday – Upper Body:

Friday – Lower Body:

Focus on increasing on everything, every session. And remember, this is Westside training. Nothing is written in stone – you can make adjustments to this program. Just use your brain, people. There are many substitutions for these exercises that you can do instead if you wish.

If you make an adjustment in exercises, make sure you stay true to this adjustment. Don’t go changing it every 2 weeks or else the entire point of your training will go down the drain. The point here is linear progression. If you change it too much, you won’t progress.

Like I said, gaining, loosing, and maintaining weight is all about what you eat, and how much you eat it. The 40/40/20 scheme is a great one. Don’t be afraid of fats or even saturated fats for that matter. They are very important in maintaining , levels, and many, many other things.

Don’t be afraid of either. If you want to get on a , that’s fine, but this would not be the program for you. As it is too intense for someone with no carbs in their system. You would burn out in a matter of minutes.

Supplements

Which Supplements Would Help? Which Supplements Wouldn’t?

Don’t over think this. are extremely overrated and will not do the wonders they claim. There is no miracle supplement. and are good post workout. will do you no harm. And are said to be beneficial.

Obviously a would not the be the best idea in this situation. So don’t go crazy freaking out about supplements or else you’ll end up getting way off track. Nothing is going to do you better than proper training and dieting.

Best of luck!!