How to Get Bigger with Strength Training
Mar 19th, 2008 by Mehdi Tags: Build Muscle, Strength Training
Mariusz Pudzianowski flexing. Image credit: Pete90291
Picture above is Mariusz Pudzianowski. Polish strongman. 31 y old, 6′1″/1m85 & 315lbs/143kg. 4 times winner of World’s Strongest Man competition. Deadlifts close to 900lbs/400kg and Squats close to 800lbs/360kg.
Mariusz tested positively for performance-enhancing drugs in 2004. But taking drugs while sitting in your couch all day doesn’t make you big & strong like him. You must work hard. Here’s how to get bigger with strength training.
1. Get Stronger. Strength training forces your body out of comfort zone. Your body reacts by growing stronger & bigger. Building muscle is one of the side effects of strength training. More strength is more muscle.
Get on StrongLifts 5×5. You’ll lose the skinny look once you can Squat 1.5x & Deadlift 2x your body-weight for at least 1 rep. Your whole body will increase in size: legs from moving the weight, but also arms from squeezing the bar hard.
2. Use Compound Exercises. Exercises that hit several muscles at the same time increase the release of growth hormone. Your routine must include Squats but also Deadlifts, Overhead Press, Bench Press, Barbell Rows & Power Cleans.
Next on the list are body-weight compound exercises like Pull-ups, Chin-ups and Dips. Any other exercise is a variation of the previous ones. Remember barbells work best: you have to stabilize the weight and you can use more weight.
3. Increase Volume. Sets x reps x weight is volume. Volume forces your body to build muscle. 25 reps per exercise for a total of 4-5 exercises per workout works best for a mix of strength and size.
If you can do more exercises in 1 workout, you’re not doing the right exercises or not training hard enough. Start doing 4-5 compound exercises for 6 sets of 4 reps or 5 sets of 5 reps or 4 sets of 6 reps.
4. Add Weight. If total reps remain equal, you can only push your body out of comfort zone over & over by adding weight. Don’t lift the same weight forever. Add weight systematically. If you stall: 1 step back, 2 step forward.
5. Eat More. If you weigh 150lbs at 6′1″ and want to weigh 200lbs, strength training won’t make you gain 50lbs. You need to eat more food. Read how to gain weight without gaining fat.
If you don’t care about gaining some fat, do the Squats & Milk program. Squat 3x per week and drink 1 gallon whole milk daily. You can gain 40-60lbs per year using this method depending on how skinny you are.
If you’re 280lbs with 30% body fat, you don’t need to eat more. You already have the size, you just need to lose fat. Continue getting stronger & eating healthy. The fat will take care of itself.
Tired of the way you look? You want to build muscle & lose fat while getting stronger? Click here to download my 52 pages 100% FREE eBook.
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Under Section 2 Use Compound Exercises:
“Next on the list are free weight compound exercises like Pull-ups, Chin-ups and Dips.”
Do you mean body weight compound exercises? I guess it would be free weight if you did them weighted…
Great article again, Mehdi. I love the pic. Mariusz is the man!!! I saw him several times on ESPN on the World’s Strongest Man Competition. I have seen several videos of him working out too. He is definitely strong and he looks bad to the bone. Before I discovered Stonglifts, I was searching for a routine on the web where I could just do bodyweight exercises and just cut down (lose fat, but not necessarily build muscle). After discovering stronglifts and getting into strength training I am no longer worried about my weight. I am 6′1″ and weigh 262 lbs. right now. I originally set a goal to get down to 230 lbs. but I set it ignorantly. I would rather stay big now, and just lose the fat. I have already went from 25-30% (not able to measure accurately at the beginning) BF% to 18-19% BF now. I wouldn’t care if I weighed 315 like Mariusz if I could look like him and lift like him. Great article. Keep up the good work.
@bRobert
Fixed it, thanks. Should have read body-weigth compound exercises indeed.
@Tony
Thanks Tony, your progress is becoming an inspirationf or all of us of here. Keep up the good work.
i love strength training, i love deadlifts,presses,squats,dips,pullups and bent rows…. but it seems like i cant get any bigger but my strength at least is still going up..
but good article man, make more about this topic!!
I know it takes hard work to get big, but can we not see examples of people that do not take performance-enhancing drugs?
It seems like most people who are big take enhancing drugs in weight/strength training circles.
Nice article.
I just made a thread a few days ago about how i can get calories, as i’m really skinny ( 126 lbs, 5″9.5).
Someone suggested simply adding loads of milk to my diet, which I am starting as of Friday.
I hadn’t heard of the squats and milk program but after reading am interested in doing it. I was wondering if i could replace the squat part of the squats and milk program into the 5×5.
So, 3 warm up sets, then one set of 20 and then after just carry on with the 5×5 as normal.
@Ro you will over traing way to quickly just simply add the milk and continue on stronglifts 5X5. I have went from 112-130 in under 3 months eating more and doing stronglifts 5X5 at the height of 5′6″ and I have a super fast metabolism so you have no excuses just try out 5X5 with more milk.
@Ro
Listen to Young Athlete. 20 reps squats is a squat done with 20 reps using a weight you can do 10 reps with but not 11. So you get to 20 with that weight by taking a lot of rest during reps while holding the back on your back. You need good technique, and if you use the correct weight, you can’t do 5×5 afterwards. Stick to the program and add the milk.
Agree with Gee.
I think taking drugs to increase weight or endurance is cheating and completely againgst oneself. How do you explain that they keep it secret until for some reason it comes out?
And thne ther’s the never mentioned side effects but that’s another topic . . .
Your right. I tried this with the 5×5 workout about 10 years ago. At the time I walked about 10 - 15 miles a day because of the job I had at the time. I still gained 15 lbs. From 135 to 150. I’m short at 5ft. 4in. It really helped me. Probably not now though since I am closer to 40 it would really be hard not to gain to much fat. Great article.
Squats and Milk program is very effective! I went from 150 lbs to 185 lbs in about 4 1/2 months through heavy 20 rep squats, overhead presses, weighted dips, stiff-leg deadlifts,etc. ,and by drinking 1-1.5 gallons of whole raw milk a day. Do the 20 reps 2x a week, add 5-10 lbs. each time, do your other compound lifts with heavy weights, drink your milk (raw is best!) and you will grow like nobody’s business!Be ready to buy new jeans!
Good article Mehdi. The squats and milk routine looks very interesting. I’m a 6ft, 140lbs total beginner obviously looking to gain mass. Do you think S & M would be overkill for someone like me? Might there be a danger of injury when a newbie does such a strenuous routine? The routine’s results (as shown by jake and the article) are of course really attractive though. Many thanks for your advice.