Strength training and size (hypertrophy) training are distinct disciplines with overlapping but ultimately different optimal approaches regarding rep ranges, volume, progression, frequency, and exercise selection. While beginners can achieve both simultaneously, advanced individuals benefit from periodized or specialized training to maximize either strength or size.
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hey folks dr. Mike here for Renaissance
period ization let's talk about strength
training versus size training the match
of the century Jake a lot of folks think
these are the same you ask someone what
they're training for they'll say all to
get like bigger and stronger and there's
a ton of overlap there's not exact
overlap especially as you become more
advanced it pays to know the difference
between these two and perhaps pursue
them separately even if you want in the
end to be as big and strong as possible
so here's we're gonna talk about today
first aren't size and strength training
the same we'll see that they're not
right then we're going to talk about
some differences between strength
training and size training notably
differences in loading how much weight
you're using differences in volume
differences in how you progress over the
weeks differences in optimal frequencies
of training and the undulation of how
many hard workouts versus easier
workouts you have and if you're thinking
what the hell is easier workouts well
then your hypertrophy trainer because
there's no such thing really but for
strength training you're like oh use
your workouts that makes sense
automatically we have a difference right there
there
exercise selection differences between
the two approaches for optimal results
and then we're gonna talk about how to
get the best of both and there are some
really good ways to do that at the end
we'll wrap it up with some simple
take-home points let's get started so
aren't size and strength training really
just the same they are very similar okay
but they are not the same optimized
strength training looks a little bit
different than optimized size training a
really quick anecdotal piece of evidence
and it's not act only small at your
static Dodoma technical sense is the
fact that bodybuilders at a high level
professionals and power lifters at high
level professionals don't train the same
yes they both training gyms yes they
both use barbells but the differences
are G really massive if you've been in a
gym for longer than a few months you
could start to tell them apart not just
in their appearance but how they train
maybe there's something to that and
they're really absolutely is so let's
find out what there is to it and start
with the most
obvious loading differences basic
strength when we have sports science
called basic strength the fundamental
ability to produce force not peaked for
competition which is like sets of 1 2 3
rep so the basic foundational getting
stronger and stronger type of training
is best done in roughly 3 to 6 rep range
per set ok it's so like sets of 3 sets
of 5 sets of 6 stuff like that that
those sets build basic strength the best
right however overall hypertrophy
overall hypertrophy not the kind of a
per trophy that translates to strength
the best which we'll get into later
overall hypertrophy is actually best
stimulated in the 5 to 30 rep range
right when I used to be a power lifter
and I was dabbling in some hypertrophy
training I would do dumbbell presses 4
sets of 20 and my powerlifting buddies
correctly were like dude what are you
doing like that's not gonna make you
stronger and fundamentally they had a
really really good point if it was gonna
make me stronger it was gonna take
months to convert that new size
neurologically into the ability to use
it for strength there's a big difference
there right so if you train 4 sets of 3
to 6 you get your best strength results
if you train 4 sets of 5 to 30 reps
close to failure you get your best size
results gee-whiz I'm no mathematician
it's a really small overlap you can do
sets of 5 you can do sets of 6 and
that's it ok you have two types of sets
- dude - rapper not even ranges to
specific numbers of reps you can do and
that's all the optimal overlap really is
at the end of the day that's not that
great right so can you train 4 sets of 5
and 6 and get a decent measure of
hypertrophy shake yes your variation is
gonna be very low so after a while your
results are gonna suck because you're
not mixing it up enough but
fundamentally you're just missing out on
a lot right so I'm gonna be like why
don't you do sets at and someone's like
why don't you do sets of 3 to get even
more peak strength relative to what you
have now yeah well I kind of want both
but it's a very very tiny overlap in
sort of that's not the greatest thing in
the world right we can do better if
we're gonna optimally get for
hypertrophy where this whole thing we're
just not using right it's like it's
almost like here you know I'm dieting
still because of the food analogies it's
like going to an all-you-can-eat like
super incredible buffet and you're on a
like a clean food only diet and you're
like I'm having fish and chicken like
bland like it was white rice like is
they happen to have that at the buffet
but they also have 50 trillion other
things you know maximize your buffet experience
experience
don't go there a diet can you sure if
you're gonna maximize your diet stay at
home you don't have a little smells
distracting you so on and so forth just
the same the strength rep ranges for
here I perturb your brain just tiny
overlap but it's really large it's way
over there and truthfully if you stick
to the five to six reps negative that's
a five in sets of six you're just sort
of in that general range or good for
both I would bet and there are some good
studies confirming this and certainly
almost every bodybuilder can tell you
this if you really try for extended
periods of time to get all of the same
hypertrophy volume from just sets of
five to six never doing sets of eight or
ten or twenty then the fatigue
accumulates are really fast and really
messes you up
so even if you get pretty good or close
to optimal short-term hypertrophy
results doing let's say sets of six and
great short-term strengths results you
can't keep that going in the hyper tree
front so because the volumes are too
high for those low rap numbers for a
month or two it can work but it's not
sustainable which is also why basically
nobody trains like that so we got some
problems there are some differences if
you want the best of one or the other
there's gonna have to be a little bit of
a fork in the road next up is volume
strength training is really fatiguing
per set especially sets of three and
four right which are great for strength
development they beat you up more per
set than like sets of ten or something
like that especially overtime joint
fatigue and how people feel
psychologically it's really really
really tough training right at the same
sort of thought process is strength
training sort of beats you up more per
set but in order to your best of
strength training the amount of total
fatigue you can have at any one time
needs to be lower you need a high degree
of preparedness you can come into the
gym and I approach of your training
program and be pretty tired pretty
messed up but just grind and get great
results for strength you have to be on
right there are weights that if you're
even somewhat fatigued you simply can't
live for any reps anymore okay
you were doing them for such a fore last
week you got too much fatigue now
instance of one it's just
Hannibal right so at the same time while
strength training fatigues you more
percent it actually is optimal for you
to never do with that many sets of it
because strength training isn't
optimized at high levels of fatigue that
that many sets bring in right on the
other hand hypertrophy training doesn't
generate a ton of fatigue per set right
which is which is great because you can
do a lot of it but it doesn't also
require rights it doesn't also require a
high degree of preparedness so not only
can is the fatigue allow you to get more
productive sets in but also you can get
even more fatigue because you don't have
to be spot-on for I purchase between to
work well you can be pretty fatigued and
it still works are a great so
essentially hypertrophy sees higher
stimuli with way higher volumes and
strength training or does and the result
to get a little bit technical real quick
from volume landmarks and you can google
all the stuff just google hypertrophy is
route al guide and you'll just go right
to the RP website and read of all the
stuff but basically your maximum
adaptive volume which is the volume at
which on average you grow the most for
strength training is often at what is
somewhere between the maintenance volume
and the minimum effective volume by the
way that means it's Ungerman and
effective volume all hypertrophy
training so to put this as an example
something like eight sets of quad work
per week on a strength program is like a
lot of work and that's like full-on well
into that you know maximum to have two
volume that's and meat potatoes work
where on the other hand that might just
be a little bit above what maintains
your quads for hypertrophy and something
like sixteen sets of quads for that same
person is totally possible and close to
optimal for muscle growth but sixteen
would just not even be survivable for a
week on strength training there's a huge
discordance there the optimal volume for
strength training is here the optimal
volume for hypertrophy training is here
and if you try to mix the two there's
gonna be some middle ground in which
you're not getting the best of either
one right and the reality there is that
for best results you probably really can't
can't
both optimally at the same time
progression differences this one's super
straightforward intensity loading
progression is everything in strength so
you get stronger not by doing more sets
of 200 pounds you will put on some
muscle and your work capacity will go
off and that's nice and it will make you
stronger for a while but not optimally
this is the least rocket science shit
I'll ever say it you get stronger by
putting more weight on the bar it's
crazy I know right so you get stronger
going 200 210 220 230 you know over time
maybe not on each week but when you are
asked for key you have to present a
bigger stimulus and strength training
where is that bigger gonna come from is
it going to be more reps is it going to
be more sets
no no it's almost always mostly going to
be increases in load on the other hand
for hypertrophy training doing more reps
grows more muscle doing more load grows
more muscle and doing more sets really
grows more muscle but if you start at
your minimum effective volume the fewest
number of sets it takes to grow the
distance to your maximum recoverable
volume is there really high it can be
like 10 sets per muscle group different
and you slowly work from your minimum
effective and you add one set here this
week to next week
zero the week after they start how
you're recovering 2 again 1 again and
then all of a sudden you've traversed a
huge progression and set numbers and
that got you a lot of growth that does
not work very well for strength because
your fatigue or what was it and you'll
do a whole lot of nothing and why the
hell you adding sets to begin with
you get fundamentally the most strong by
adding load so reach this question if
we're trying to really do both at the
same time you know should I add for
example 15 pounds to the bar but zero
sets next week or should I add 5 pounds
to the bar but add a whole set next week
same amount of total fatigue increase
same amount of stimulus generally one
stimulates much more strength adaptation
one much more hypertrophy so they're
adding 15 pounds definitely the right
choice for strength in this example but
the 5 pounds in one set probably the
right choice for hypertrophy now and in
15 pounds will add hypertrophy it it's
good but not the best the best
hypertrophy probably come
from raising volumes quite a bit
sometimes raising repetitions but
raising the load a little bit more
slowly because you want to build high
volumes of growth you want to do a lot
of training and only increase as much as
needed to keep the sets challenging
whereas with strength training you're
trying to increase as a matter of course
that the whole reason you're there is to
try to put more load on the bar in
hypertrophy training it's a tool in
strength training it's everything
so for this fundamental reason either
really bias load increases or really
bias your volume increases at the
expense of as much load as you could
increase it's either one of the other or
something in between you can't have
everything of both interestingly enough
in advanced strength training you'll
even have plans which are quite good
which do something like five sets per
week four sets per week three sets per
week while the load really goes up
really fast it'd be like 5 by 5 4 by 4 3
by 3 great strength progression but then
decrease and weekly volume causes
arguably no hypertrophy at all or even
sometimes a slight degree of a sort of
temporary atrophy so you can make a
weight class have your best performance
ever and then rebuild some muscle
absolutely a thing if you do an advanced
plan like that there's no way you're
getting muscle growth out of it you
definitely can't have both at the same
time what about frequency and undulation
here's the deal in hypertrophy training
you need the local muscle to be healed
to do another good job of training again
and you don't even need the joints and
connective tissues to heal completely
because if you train heavy on Monday for
example sets of five to ten on Tuesday
you can do the same exercise four sets
of ten to twenty and you're probably not
gonna get hurt and you probably gonna
get a good hypertrophy stimulus because
the muscle is healed and the joints are
like healed enough connective tissues
healed enough but because you're
dropping the load you're reducing how
much weight you're lifting you're not
really at risk of much of anything on a
Wednesday for example right after that
Tuesday you can again do sets of ten to
20 but just switch up the exercise and
all of a sudden you're hitting different
parts of the muscle different parts of
the joint and everything's fine
and then Friday you might do sets of
twenty to thirty again your muscle has
recovered each time your joint
significant issues if not but that's
that's the twenty to thirty they don't
even they're too light to beat up your
joints to connective tissues the
thing heals by the end of the week and
the next week you restart that
progression so with hypertrophy training
you can squash a lot of Highly Effective
stimulative training many times in the
week and as long as the muscle is
recovering neither are the joints
connective tissues tissues beat up as
much because the rep ranges are on
average or higher that loads are lower
but also you don't need them completely
healed at all times or even close with
strength training it's very much the
opposite stimulative sessions for them
to actually cause strength improvement
you need much fuller recovery then you
do for hypertrophy training right if you
do extra sessions on top of those
they're not super useful right as far as
you know getting you results they might
be useful for enhancing technique and
strength but they're not exactly pushing
their strength along and they're
certainly not pushing our Jaffee long
what would that look like so for example
a better strength sort of weekly
undulated pattern would be on Monday
doing like sets of 2 to 4 reps at a nine
RPE really really tough really really
heavy Wednesday new sets of four to six
reps still strength this time at an 8 RP
it's a more volume less loading and less
relative intensity so you can you know
you really messed it up on Monday on
Wednesday you really put in some good
work to continue to make that
progression Friday there's no way you're
doing hard training in this example at
least for this advanced lifter you might
do sets of 2 to 4 again but at a 6 RPE
leak you basically doing the same loads
you did Wednesday for 4 to 6 but now
you're doing 4 sets 2 to 4 and even
maybe lighter loads this allows you good
practice on the bar put some weight on
your back still trains the nervous
system doesn't cause a tiny bit of
hypertrophy at all it isn't directly
enhance strength either so in this
example you have to stimulate of
strength sessions per week fundamentally
in one recovery session to get ready for
next week whereas in the hypertrophy
example you have 4 stimulative
hypertrophy sessions you can't really do
the same heart training frequency for
both ok if you try to have an optimal
hypertrophy training frequency and you
try to do strength that many times you
will burn in the Sun you last out two
and a half weeks and you'll fall apart
like mr. Potato Head on the other hand
if you try to get maximum hypertrophy
results training only as hard as your
strength training is often training hard
as often as your strength training would
dictate then your training like at a
decent frequency but nothing to write
home about and you're gonna be
hanging out on optimal hyper to result
someone could say for that Friday work
out they watch you do you know sets of
two to four reps and at a 6rp and they'd
be like was that stimulating growth
you're like nope they're like why don't
you do some growth stuff you're like
well as that'll beat me up too much for
an axe Monday you can't have the best of
both worlds certainly not at the same
time right
next a little bit more of a minor point
but nonetheless salient it does apply
exercise selection differences strength
training is usually defined by a set of
exercises not just abilities or parts of
your body people usually talk about
increasing their squat not just making
their legs generally stronger can you
imagine someone's like hey man I want to
I want to you know get my legs stronger
you look right sweet we're gonna focus
on hack squats and leg presses if
they've been in any sport there's
relator string sport long enough to be
like don't you mean like lower squat and
like well no you said stronger legs it
doesn't really matter which exercise
like well I'm mad at stronger squad
right so all of a sudden there's some
exercise differences there you'll notice
that like high-level Pro bodybuilders a
lot of the exercises are using they're
not exactly strength exercises and
that's okay for them because they're
geared towards hypertrophy so a lot of
times when we say we want strength we
just want a movement to increase that
means we have to do that movement often
sometimes that means doing other
exercises less exercises that would
offer benefit for example it's been
shown that if you vary the kinds of
exercises you're using for a muscle you
can get regional hypertrophy differences
more parts of your muscle growth use
different actually as for example if you
do legs Monday Wednesday Friday you do
squats then hack squats then leg presses
you probably get better hypertrophy
overall in your quads then if you do
squats squats squats right if you're
training for optimizing strength
optimizing strength and you want your
squat to go up your programs probably
gonna look a whole lot like squat squat
squat and someone who could say well are
you getting bigger legs totally but are
you getting as big of legs as possible
absolutely not you would use different
exercises for that which again is why
pro power lifters train with like two or
three exercises like squats front squat
maybe one or the derivative occasionally
I'll do a leg press and my bodybuilders
trained with nine or ten different
exercises because they get better
overall development plain and simple
next strength training is just not ideal
with some exercise
right you don't develop strength on
cable push downs you don't develop
strength on lateral raises you more
compound variations you might develop
strength better on JN presses you might
develop strength better on upright rows
so if you're choosing exercises there's
gonna be at some point we have to give
up the best hypertrophy exercises to do
more strength or give off the best
strength exercises do hypertrophy
there's not a perfect intersection of
those circles and again missed
opportunities if you always want the
best of both worlds all at the same time
we took care the interest the intra week
variation right so if you're sticking to
hypertrophy training you do a lot more
exercises usually than strain training
that's a downside for strength training
Observatory per trophy we have a
confluence problem there and sometimes
the best stimulus to fatigue ratio
exercises for strength are not the best
ones for hypertrophy especially at the
given volumes for example a really good
stimulus to fatigue ratio exercise for
improving your squat even low bar is the
high bar squat I mean it really drives
your squad up there in strength what
about in hypertrophy the high bar squats
are great exercise but there's only so
many you can do until your lower back
gives out and maybe you switch to hack
squats or leg presses but as far as
making strong hack squats and leg
presses because they're a little bit
more isolation based they're not as
compound they don't require a balance
and that most much of a neural Drive
component usually can't load them as
heavy safely it's just not as great for
strength so some of the best exercises
for hypertrophy are just not gonna make
you as strong potentially if that's just
like with lateral raises an upright rows
that it's just difficult to load them a
lot of times they just don't work as
well so you're gonna have this thing
where if you want to choose optimal
hypertrophy versus if you want to choose
optimal strength development it's gonna
be like the power lifter is gonna be
over there doing jam presses and you
make butt cable tricep extensions
they're good no not really you're like
man I don't know which way to go on this
definitely some decisions to make all
right speaking of decisions how do we
get potentially the best of both if you
insist on concurrent hybrid training if
you insist on training strength and
hypertrophy at the same time which we'll
talk about a little bit is actually
possible for some groups of people to
get good results with here are some recommendations
