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Old 09-24-18, 08:47 AM  
fitjen
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Alabama
Increasing Strength While Decreasing Size

Hi Everyone!

I had an incident that I was involved in this past weekend where I need to help in a situation, and I just wasn't strong enough. Everything is fine, but I don't want to be "not strong enough" again.

So.....I need to lose weight, so I don't want to increase size at all (I know the main way to do that is less fork-lifting.), but I want to add strength. I am muscular by nature, and I am a long-time home exerciser, but I've never just focused on this before. I have access to everything, BBOD, Cathe, LesMills, KCM, FIRM, etc.

Suggestions? What has worked for you in the past? Thanks for your help and ideas!
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Old 09-24-18, 08:53 AM  
JackieB
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Change your eating. Muscles give us shape, but to lose size you just have to change how you're fueling your body. I don't think it matters what movement you do. There are lots of teeny tiny people who lift heavy, etc.

Unfortunately, we can't talk about it here....which is a shame....as diet is like 90% of your "results". I get it though...it's almost a religion in and of itself.
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Old 09-24-18, 09:04 AM  
fitjen
 
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Thanks, JackieB!

I'm working on the eating....my question was really about strength programs. I hope I wasn't confusing.
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Old 09-24-18, 09:13 AM  
bubbles76
 
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If you are asking how to get stronger while losing weight, the programs that helped me with that are:
  • Cathe's STS
  • Cathe's Xtrain
  • Tracie Long workouts (created my own rotation)

Keep in mind, I am that anomaly that eats less the harder I workout.
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Old 09-24-18, 09:16 AM  
JackieB
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fitjen View Post
Thanks, JackieB!

I'm working on the eating....my question was really about strength programs. I hope I wasn't confusing.
I understand. I think you can decrease size with any program....trick is you need to love it (consistency) so you do it.

Sometimes I think on VF we overthink things since we have an overabundance of programs out there. Have the focus be your eating...body builders spend very little time in the gym---look at Jamie Eason. Their focus is their nutrition.

I'm teaching Essentrics at a power lifting gym...I'm amazed at how short the owner's workouts are. She is little, and buff. She fuels her body to be lean and strong.
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Old 09-24-18, 09:40 AM  
Kathy G
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If you are looking to gain strength, I'd say lift heavier weights. Programs that lift heavy are:

Cathe STS
Cathe XTrain
Cathe Strong and Sweaty
Beachbody Body Beast
Beachbody 80 Day Obsession
Beachbody LIIFT4
Beachbody Chalean Extreme

You can also add cardio (HIIT and steady state) to burn extra calories if you also want to drop weight.
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Old 09-24-18, 10:12 AM  
deineira
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JackieB View Post
I understand. I think you can decrease size with any program....trick is you need to love it (consistency) so you do it.

Sometimes I think on VF we overthink things since we have an overabundance of programs out there. Have the focus be your eating...body builders spend very little time in the gym---look at Jamie Eason. Their focus is their nutrition.

I'm teaching Essentrics at a power lifting gym...I'm amazed at how short the owner's workouts are. She is little, and buff. She fuels her body to be lean and strong.
But her question is about increasing her strength as well. I don't think she only wants to talk about diet, she's asking about functionality.
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Old 09-24-18, 10:14 AM  
deineira
 
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Hi,
Regarding your initial question on increasing strength, what worked wonders for me was doing STS. I did get bigger, though, but I also got suuuuper strong! I think any Cathe program like RWH or XTrain would also work wonders for increasing your strength. P90X also worked wonders for me and I definitely increased my strength doing that program. But STS, hands down, gave me the best results with increasing pure strength and functionality (and muscle definition - my husband couldn't believe my muscles!). I can't promise you that you're not going to gain size, though. I can only promise these programs will increase your strength.
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Old 09-24-18, 10:21 AM  
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Ah yes RWH! This would work too, as it includes the cardio workouts as well.
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Old 09-24-18, 10:25 AM  
FirmDancer
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I'm somewhat in the same boat as you ...
There is now some evidence that "heavy lifting", ie. sets of 3-6 reps *does* increase muscle size (hypertrophy), which many of us may consider "bulking". Google Brad Schoenfeld for his latest research. Like you, I'm overweight, so the last thing I want is more size. The same research shows longer rep ranges, even just one set, will increase strength without hypertrophy.
So I'll suggest using workouts with set ranges anywhere between 8-16 reps. Right now, I'm focusing on KCM. Usually her sets are reps of 8 or 10 or 16. She has several rotations listed on her website. I'm very happy with my results so far.
-Anita
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