Gaining Strength w/o Gaining Weight

I’m currently looking to compete in another PL competition in about 4 months and I’ve been looking for an article (or a few) that gives a good baseline on how to train for this without too much hypertrophy, and possibly losing fat weight.

I recently read the “Strength-Focused Mesocycle” by Chad Waterbury, and plan on using this for the next 4-6 weeks (I might go longer than 4 just because there are a couple of excersizes I’ve never done before and I might need some time to get used to them).

But I was hoping to work on building a routine to use as I get closer to competing in Squats, Deads and Bench.

I’ve competed before weighing 148 lbs and was able to get 335Bench, 415Squat, and 425Dead, but that was over 3 years ago.

I’ve since gained 32 lbs and started to actually lose my chest and looked middle aged (I’m 26 now). That was about 1.5 years ago and I’ve recently lost 20 lbs and 5" from my waist (from 40" to 35").

So now I’m 160 and I don’t realy know my maxes since I haven’t maxed out in a long time, but my bench is at 265 for 6, squat is at 295 for 8 and deadlift (using 25lb plates to get lower) is at 275 for 10. I can still afford to lose fat (around 10 lbs), but being a light weight I want to be able to get the best numbers pound-for-pound as I can in the next 4 months or so, so I don’t want to gain too much muscle weight (if I can help it).

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Perhaps you could adapt a Bill Starr 5x5 program to a 3x3, still using the main lifts 3x a week, full body. You could even incorporate some Westside techniques, such as making one of the days a dynamic effort or speed day.

Speaking of Westside, I suppose you could use that template, keep the Max Effort and Dynamic Effort portions, but reduce the assistance lifts to a bare minimum to avoid extra hypertrophy. Although, I think most Westsiders would say the assistance lifts are just as important as the others.

Just a couple of thoughts I had. Sorry if they don’t help you.

Bill Star’s 5x5 is used for gaining weight. It is one of the last things you want to use if you don’t want to gain weight.

[quote]KombatAthlete wrote:
Bill Star’s 5x5 is used for gaining weight. It is one of the last things you want to use if you don’t want to gain weight.[/quote]

Agreed. I was just thinking aloud that a reduction in volume might change that. But if someone knows better, I’ll certainly take their word for it.

[quote]SWR-1222D wrote:
I’m currently looking to compete in another PL competition in about 4 months and I’ve been looking for an article (or a few) that gives a good baseline on how to train for this without too much hypertrophy, and possibly losing fat weight.

I recently read the “Strength-Focused Mesocycle” by Chad Waterbury, and plan on using this for the next 4-6 weeks (I might go longer than 4 just because there are a couple of excersizes I’ve never done before and I might need some time to get used to them).

But I was hoping to work on building a routine to use as I get closer to competing in Squats, Deads and Bench.

I’ve competed before weighing 148 lbs and was able to get 335Bench, 415Squat, and 425Dead, but that was over 3 years ago.

I’ve since gained 32 lbs and started to actually lose my chest and looked middle aged (I’m 26 now). That was about 1.5 years ago and I’ve recently lost 20 lbs and 5" from my waist (from 40" to 35").

So now I’m 160 and I don’t realy know my maxes since I haven’t maxed out in a long time, but my bench is at 265 for 6, squat is at 295 for 8 and deadlift (using 25lb plates to get lower) is at 275 for 10. I can still afford to lose fat (around 10 lbs), but being a light weight I want to be able to get the best numbers pound-for-pound as I can in the next 4 months or so, so I don’t want to gain too much muscle weight (if I can help it).

Any help is greatly appreciated![/quote]

CT recommended I get the Training Templates Manual from EFS as there are a few programs in there aimed at getting stronger and losing weight or maintaining.