Getting Stronger While Maintaining Weight

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

I know it is possible to have little muscle and get very strong.

I understood that to achieve this you need neural adaptation, therefore low reps, high weight.

I never do more than 5 reps, usually 5’s 3’s or singles. Yet my experience is i never get stronger if i don’t eat an excess of calories.

Is it possible for me to get stronger, while maintaining weight and only doing 2 lifting sessions a week.

(Need to maintain weight for competition and cant really get in more than 2 sessions because it hinders my other training too much, I could perhaps spread the training out over daily lighter sessions if frequency is the missing link here)

2

“I know it is possible to have little muscle and get very strong.”

I didn’t know this was possible.

3

[quote]Wolfpacker27 wrote:
“I know it is possible to have little muscle and get very strong.”

I didn’t know this was possible.[/quote]

Thanks for the reply…

4

[quote]Wolfpacker27 wrote:
“I know it is possible to have little muscle and get very strong.”

I didn’t know this was possible.[/quote]

Increasing strength/power without gaining excess LBM is the dream of most combat athletes.

Hence, it takes a lot more discipline than simply gorging on food to make up for lackluster training protocols.

It also brings into the conversation, pound for pound strength.

5

OP, if you find that you can’t get stronger without eating excess calories, it means your workouts aren’t conducive to strength gain.

Plus, minimizing that to just two workouts in 7 days… that’s another huge challenge.

6

[quote]Jarvan wrote:
OP, if you find that you can’t get stronger without eating excess calories, it means your workouts aren’t conducive to strength gain.

Plus, minimizing that to just two workouts in 7 days… that’s another huge challenge.

[/quote]

Are you saying i should do even lower reps/heavier weights than 5’s?
Like only singles and tripples?

7

What are your lifts, BW, age, height?

Most importantly, what is your programming like? As others mentioned, it is a challenge to increase strength under these conditions, so your programming needs to be spot-on. A 2-day Texas Method setup might work (e.g. volume Monday, intensity Thursday), but recovery might be difficult depending on your sport.

Or something like this which I just stole from another forum:

Day 1 - Squat/Press
Day 2 - Bench/Deadlift

Week 1: 5s
Week 2: 3s
Week 3: 2s
Week 4: 5s
Week 5: 3s
Week 6: 1s

Work up to one top set, and one back-off set (keep volume relatively low).

8

[quote]Respeezy wrote:
Is it possible for me to get stronger, while maintaining weight and only doing 2 lifting sessions a week.
[/quote]

If you’re a beginner/otherwise not lifting very heavy weight or fat and don’t carry a lot of lean mass relative to total body weight, then yes.

9

[quote]magick wrote:

[quote]Respeezy wrote:
Is it possible for me to get stronger, while maintaining weight and only doing 2 lifting sessions a week.
[/quote]

If you’re a beginner/otherwise not lifting very heavy weight or fat and don’t carry a lot of lean mass relative to total body weight, then yes.[/quote]

I see what you did there.

10

2 day a week 5/3/1 template, for assistance only do pullups, abs and rear delt/shoulder prehab work: