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No-Bulk Strength Training

by Eric Cressey, C.S.C.S.

Big guys are a dime a dozen. Walk into any gym and you'll see several lifters whose chest and shoulders are exploding out of their tank tops as they load yet another plate onto the bar. And while I admire the work ethic it takes to pack on that much size, it begs the question, "If so many guys are big, is it really that tough a goal to accomplish?" When you think about it, the method is pretty simple: Lift weights and eat a lot. And the bigger you get, the easier it is to get stronger.

Now think about the last time you saw a smaller guy lifting a ton of weight. You know, that shrimp who-when you first laid eyes on him-you swore would be stapled to the bench by the weight he was loading on the bar, but he surprised you by lifting it effortlessly. To me, there's nothing more impressive than an average-looking guy who can demonstrate extraordinary strength. In this case, it's called "relative strength"-the ability to produce great force at a low body weight.

This month, we're going to give you a program that opposes decades of fitness-magazine tradition. We're going to show you how to get stronger -- gasp! -- without adding muscle bulk and gaining weight. Rather, we'll teach you how to reach your full strength potential with the muscle you already have. So if you're tired of the relentless feeding frenzy that's central to a bulking plan (and the fat gain that typically comes with it), if you just want to get stronger, or if you don't want to outgrow your shirts every three months but still want to make progress in your workouts, this program is for you.

POUND-FOR-POUND STRENGTH
Incredible relative strength isn't just impressive in the gym-it has a tremendous carryover into the activities of daily living and sports. Whether on the street or an athletic field, you always have to maneuver your own body weight. And if you train your muscles to produce the maximum amount of force they can at that body weight, you'll be able to run faster, jump higher, and make razor-sharp changes of direction a bigger guy with poor relative strength would be unable to duplicate (and he'd exhaust himself just trying).

You see, while more muscle looks good, it can act as extra baggage if it isn't "functional." Your typical workout calls for moderate to high repetitions (usually eight to 12) on each exercise, which works great for swelling up muscles, but it does little to build strength and athleticism. Though increased size does improve your potential for strength (as we'll discuss below), if heavy training isn't part of your program, you won't improve your relative strength. Instead, you'll end up looking strong but have little to back it up.

It's interesting to look at this phenomenon in sports. Combat athletes, such as boxers and wrestlers, often need to structure their training specifically so that they do not gain muscle mass. One of a middleweight fighter's goals leading up to a bout is to gain as much strength and power as he can without gaining size, which, at best, will probably slow him down (making him a less efficient boxer) and, at worst, cause him to exceed the limit of his weight class-forcing him to forfeit the match. Often, a football player will need to gain weight during his off season training. While 10 more pounds of healthy muscle might make him look more imposing and protect him from injury, his vertical jump is usually the same at the end of his training period as it was in the beginning. If his training went successfully, he improved his power-but it won't show on the jump test because the extra body weight he gained in putting on muscle is now weighing him down, causing him to do more absolute work to achieve that same jump height. The point is, being bigger has its price.

THE SOURCES OF STRENGTH
There are two ways to get stronger: by increasing the size of your muscles, and by improving neural efficiency-the way in which the nervous system controls your muscles. The first method is fairly self-explanatory. The bigger the muscle, the larger the protein strands that are contained within it that make it contract, resulting in greater contractile ability. (However, as mentioned above, lighter-weight, high-rep sets might get you bigger, but they won't do much for strength gains.) Because this avenue requires more protein, eating more food is essential-you won't be able to bulk without it. Improving neural efficiency, however, is a bit more complex and requires greater communication between the brain, spinal cord, and nerves.

Remember the first time you bench pressed? Although you may have only been lifting the bar, your arms probably wobbled and you felt uneasy. Then, after three or more sessions, your form was nearly perfect. That's because your nervous system learned to more effectively recruit the muscles it needs to perform a good bench press. Neural efficiency also refers to how well your brain can control the muscle fibers that make up one individual muscle. The longer you train, the more efficient your nervous system becomes at activating more and more fibers, thereby getting more force production (greater strength) out of the muscle you have. While untrained individuals might recruit only 50% of all their available muscle fibers, highly trained lifters can call in as much as 90%. (Just so you know, the only way to get 100% recruitment is through a massive electrical charge, such as one from an electric chair!) To enhance your relative strength, your goal over the next four weeks must be to recruit as many fibers as possible.

TRAIN WITH YOUR BRAIN
You activate the most muscle fibers by training either heavy or with fast lifting speeds-and these two protocols make up the backbone of the workouts that follow. With heavy training, the weight you use is so intense that your brain and nervous system must call in all the muscle fibers they can to support the load. Dynamic training, in which you lift a weight as fast as possible, won't let you lift as heavy. But making your muscles apply force rapidly requires a great effort, so, again, numerous fibers are recruited in order to do it. Because higher training volumes are associated with increases in muscle size, you won't be doing lots of sets and reps, and your workouts will be shorter.

Nevertheless, we won't kid you that recruiting the most muscle fibers possible is useless for putting on size. In fact, in most cases, it's quite the opposite. That's why true success on this program will be determined by your diet. Read the labels on your food and calculate how many calories you're currently taking in each day; try to maintain that amount. Eating more than that might cause your muscles to stretch your shirts again-and we know you wouldn't want that.