Can you get very strong without gaining weight?

[Shia]

Or would not gaining weight limit your strength gains?

[Philipp Zimmermann]

I think this will depent on your current situation. If you are not that skinny at the moment you could even lose some weight while getting stronger , and if you are skinny you could gain some weight, but only if you eat for it.

 

To a certain degree you can get really strong without adding to much weight, because the connection between your brain and your muscle will increase while you train and this will make you able to generate more force with the same amout of muscles.

But at some point you will need to gain weight to increase your strength.

 

I hope this will help

[gravy]

If you're eating and training properly, your body will take care of the rest. Focus on perfecting movements.

[Joshua Slocum]

Fundamentally, having more muscle fibers increases the maximum force that muscle can exert. The more muscle mass you gain, the stronger you can become. However, as Phil mentioned, there is also a large neurological component to strength, so you can get some reasonable strength increases without increasing in weight. 

 

 

It would help us to provide a more complete answer if you could give more information. Are you trying to get stronger without gaining muscle mass? If so, what do you need more strength for, and why don't you want to gain any mass?

[Tristan Curtis]

Hi Shia. Like Phil says "gaining weight" is relative to, and dependent on, your current body composition.

 

But speaking generally, the fact that Olympic-level gymnasts demonstrate the strength they do - most of them weighing well under 155lb - suggests you can have a level of relative strength (strong and light) higher than many realise is possible. In other words, the average person would be shocked at the level of strength these athletes fit into such a small body.

[Jon Douglas]

In other words, the average person would be shocked at the level of strength these athletes fit into such a small body.

Seriously. Heath is a small-framed guy, but that doesn't make inverted cross pulls to handstand on the rings FOR REPS any less impressive.

[Connor Davies]

Seriously. Heath is a small-framed guy, but that doesn't make inverted cross pulls to handstand on the rings FOR REPS any less impressive.

I still can't believe those are a real thing.  It's like, handstand pushups with straight arms man...

[Jon Douglas]

I still can't believe those are a real thing. It's like, handstand pushups with straight arms man...

Yeah, id never seen them before in video let alone person. Mindbblowing to be at a level to look at ring hs, look at inv cross, and think "Yknow ...."

[FREDERIC DUPONT]

You can't compare a jockey, with a rugby player, a high jumper, a marathon runner, an olympic lifter, a decathlonian, a gymnast, or a swimmer!

Please define "very strong" first.

[Shia]

You can't compare a jockey, with a rugby player, a high jumper, a marathon runner, an olympic lifter, a decathlonian, a gymnast, or a swimmer!

Please define "very strong" first.

TO me very strong is the ability to do the majority of the GST advanced moves. Planches. Planche press to handstand. Floor maltese, etc

[Shia]

Fundamentally, having more muscle fibers increases the maximum force that muscle can exert. The more muscle mass you gain, the stronger you can become. However, as Phil mentioned, there is also a large neurological component to strength, so you can get some reasonable strength increases without increasing in weight. 

 

 

It would help us to provide a more complete answer if you could give more information. Are you trying to get stronger without gaining muscle mass? If so, what do you need more strength for, and why don't you want to gain any mass?

It's not that I dont want to gain mass. But I'm high BF atm (in my 20s) and I'm going to begin losing weight as of tomorrow. Usually it's difficult to gain mass whilst losing weight, so I wondered if I could still continue progressing even though I wont be gaining muscle mass. I hate the thought of stagnating and not gaining any strength for 4 months!

[Cody Ward]

It's not that I dont want to gain mass. But I'm high BF atm (in my 20s) and I'm going to begin losing weight as of tomorrow. Usually it's difficult to gain mass whilst losing weight, so I wondered if I could still continue progressing even though I wont be gaining muscle mass. I hate the thought of stagnating and not gaining any strength for 4 months!

 Well, you're going to be losing weight, so since you're dealing with body-weight exercises, the less you weigh, the easier things will be.

Also, I'm assuming that you're still pretty much a beginner, which means you won't need a ton of food to support your training.

[Connor Davies]

It's not that I dont want to gain mass. But I'm high BF atm (in my 20s) and I'm going to begin losing weight as of tomorrow. Usually it's difficult to gain mass whilst losing weight, so I wondered if I could still continue progressing even though I wont be gaining muscle mass. I hate the thought of stagnating and not gaining any strength for 4 months!

Yeah, that's not going to happen.  You're still going to be gaining muscle mass, and you'll be lifting less weight which means you're proportional strength is still going to be increasing.  Don't fall into the trap of "oh, I'll just get stronger so I can lift myself and all my fat, and then I'll be stronger than everyone!" because I've tried that, and it doesn't work.  I don't know if you're on F1 or not, but either way with any bodyweight strength training a focus on leaning out first is critical.  Once you've got a low bodyfat % you can worry about building more muscle, because everything will already seem much easier.

[Jon Douglas]

I very broadly stick to Josh's ideal peri-workout nutrition, eat my vegetables and don't deprive myself of anything-- I'm no model, but I've gained several kilos and still fit my clothes well after 8 months on Foundation. I suspect I'm dipping around 10% without particularly eating for it at this point, I generally feel that I can't eat enough to get heavier and keep an eye on my diet mostly just to affect how I feel, rather than for physique purposes.

[Joshua Slocum]

It's not that I dont want to gain mass. But I'm high BF atm (in my 20s) and I'm going to begin losing weight as of tomorrow. Usually it's difficult to gain mass whilst losing weight, so I wondered if I could still continue progressing even though I wont be gaining muscle mass. I hate the thought of stagnating and not gaining any strength for 4 months!

 

 

If your goal is to lose as much weight as possible in as short a time as possible, this is true. However, people can and do gain muscle while losing fat all the time. My advice would be to start working on healthy eating habits while continuing to exercise frequently. It may take longer to recompose your body this way, but you'll end up with a much more stable body composition. 

[Alessandro Mainente]

"Fundamentally, having more muscle fibers increases the maximum force that muscle can exert. The more muscle mass you gain, the stronger you can become. However, as Phil mentioned, there is also a large neurological component to strength, so you can get some reasonable strength increases without increasing in weight. "

 

this is a very important important point that reflect 'in toto' why usually the strongest gymnast have some reasonable level of hypertrophy. there are some reasonable adaptations talking about neurological POV. i will not spent 1000 world with complicated reasoning...in simple words every starts from the ability from you SNC to use more muscles fibers using the principle of dimension of the fibers. so this point reflects how if you can increase the cross section area of fibers you can generate more power. But it's not only about that. Superior motorneurons work as a circuit, linking different pattern and activating different fibers along a muscles. different motorneurons can link to the same muscle BUT the maximum force rate is expressed when there is an high level of synchronization of all these motorneurons to activate the fibers on the dimension principle. as stated before synchroni is important as the firing rate. normally a nervous cell has a frequency of fire of 8 hz, when stimulated this limit can move to 20-22 hz. this let to strength increase and is visible subjecting a person to the same stimuli for a decent period of time. also consider that the temporal sum of potential can be strengthened by the spatial sum of potential. All these component are CNS - RELATED and not muscles dimension related. The muscles dimension gives to you more potential but it's not the primarily factor involved.

[Jon Douglas]

as stated before synchroni is important as the firing rate. normally a nervous cell has a frequency of fire of 8 hz, when stimulated this limit can move to 20-22 hz.

 

also consider that the temporal sum of potential can be strengthened by the spatial sum of potential. All these component are CNS - RELATED and not muscles dimension related. The muscles dimension gives to you more potential but it's not the primarily factor involved.

That is fantastic Alex--- thanks so much for that explanation!! I am learning so much on the forum today