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Size or Strength? Most Lifters Chase the Wrong One

Titan Coach

21,615 views

A huge guy benches less than an ordinary-looking one. That isn't a paradox, and understanding why tells you whether your training is building size, strength, or neither.

In this video I break down why size and strength are two different adaptations that live in the same body. Why beginners get stronger for weeks before any muscle grows (Moritani and deVries, 1979), how motor units, firing rate and coordination make strength a skill, and why training one arm makes the other one stronger. Then what muscle growth actually needs, the 2016 study where lifters who only practiced a one-rep max got as strong as a normal training group, and Brad Schoenfeld's 2014 powerlifting vs bodybuilding study: same growth, very different cost in time and joints. After that, the mistake chain that stalls most lifters, why powerlifters and bodybuilders look so different, how to tell which one you've been training, and a full week of training for either goal.

0:00 Two lifters, one bench press
0:53 Does a bigger muscle lift more?
1:15 Strength before size: the first weeks
2:03 What actually gets stronger: motor units
3:24 Cross education: the untrained arm gets stronger
4:00 Why the big guy loses a one-rep test
4:44 How muscle growth really works
6:19 Strength can grow in a deficit, size can't
7:07 The study where one rep a session was enough
8:07 Powerlifting vs bodybuilding: Schoenfeld 2014
9:00 The results
9:30 The hidden cost: time and joints
9:51 Light vs heavy sets to failure
10:08 Why joints complain before muscles
11:01 The mistake chain that stalls size
11:51 The opposite mistake
12:09 How to tell what you've been training
12:47 Why powerlifters and bodybuilders look different
13:20 Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and leverages
13:57 In the long run, size sets the ceiling
14:36 Muscle memory
15:13 Three questions to pick your goal
16:18 Beginners: you don't have to choose yet
16:47 The size-first structure
17:23 How long to rest
17:46 A full four-day week
18:47 If strength is your goal
19:41 Testing and tracking progress
20:19 What to expect in a year
21:06 The answer to the two lifters

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13 Comments

@DrinkingStar 10 days ago Pinned

I agree with most of what you stated. I am a natural for life 81 year old retired bodybuilder with 2 Master's degrees, one in science and the other in human nutrition. Your advice is very good at to which training protocol one should pursue. Like most young people, when I was in my teen years, I thought the heavier the weight, the bigger the muscle would grow. As I later discovered some 18 years later, I so very wrong. I also did some other things wrong too. So at 36, I started training using the bodybuilding training protocol. At 37, I won my 1st contest. I competed and won titles in bodybuilding at the state, regional and national levels in contests that tested for anabolics and other physique enhancing drugs and in contests that did not test for them. I have written articles that were published in the former ANBC(American Natural Bodybuilding Conference) magazine, in Muscular Development and also in a computer magazine. The computer magazine contained the computer code(computer program)that I wrote which would calculate ideal physique dimensions, body fat%, body fat poundage and caloric requirement for protein, fat and carbs. The results were based on height, wrist and ankle measurements along with hours of and types of training. It also differentiated between male and female. I used my program to help me in preparing for contests. I also used the program in my Master's thesis in human nutrition to determine the progress of the test subjects in my Master's thesis.

@buddyryan875 7 days ago

Been lifting for 27 years and this was pretty good video and true of most concepts I learned. Made my early progress going heavy but your joints will eventually get in your way. Then it was a constant cycle of go too heavy, get injured, take time off, come back, work hard until too heavy again, get injured again, take time off. So for about 10 years I did that grind and many times quit for long periods. What has actually worked the past 8 years was doing lighter weights to failure then progressing the weight. More like time under tension I actually track the time. Now I never get injured and if something starts bothering me I just keep decreasing the weight until it doesn't or switch to a pain free variation

@josephmartin3145 6 days ago

Do a video about pullups, and chin ups. Also the variations e.g. neutral Grip and wide grip.

@Tokiomy 1 day ago (edited)

Once I stop training for size and train for strenght I grew biger in my first year of strenght training than my last 3 years of hypertrophi.
I do bouth training methods now.

@mementomori29231 9 days ago

Interesting video. I've seen a lot of exercise videos that dance around this topic, and this video actually distills the topic elegantly and precisely. Video is not clickbait and actually really valuable. Well done.

@thejackalchannel5673 3 days ago

I loved this video. I workout with weights 3x a week and add cardio on the other 2, with the weekend off. Each weight day starts with the heavy lifts and moves to volume based accessory work. Watching this video will help me dial in the accessory work as my big 3 are increasing as I am chasing a bit of both physique and strength.

@BigPress253 9 days ago (edited)

That bench press rack must have been designed for a "Jefferson Bench Press" where you lie on the bench and press it with one hand over your head and the other over you waist, or something like that. Also, I have never seen a barbell that bends upward during the press.

@T-Bone5160 2 days ago

Yes, within first 6months at 61 years old. I want size and will work for strength. I want size first. How do I do that? 😅😅😅😅

@CosmicawarenessCitizen 8 days ago

I mean if you are chasing size why would you ever test 1 Rep max ? It doesn't make sense to me !

@kel63546 2 days ago

I'm sure this could of been explained in a 1 minute video .. lol

@Warhead-h3o 6 days ago

Mass almost always matters when it comes to power iv trained for 20 years with breaks im 18 stone at 5”8 the bigger I get the stronger I get it’s always been the way however iv come across very small people with extreme strength that defys all logic I truly believe genetics have a huge part to play in strength and where it can take you but for the average guy the bigger you get the stronger you get all you have to do is look to the worlds strongest man competition they are all beyond enormous size matters for power its as simple as that

@JohnD-f2o 9 days ago

A lot of big guys are strong, but they are also a lot fatter. than smaller guys. who lift the same weight. If the big guy lost the fat they would be the same size as the smaller guy.