Strength Training ➡️ Hypertrophy

Good morning friends.

So yesterday I hit a pretty gnarly accomplishment, 315 for 2 reps on deadlift.

I think no more than maybe 3-4 months ago I couldn’t do more than 225 for 4 or 5, but I hadn’t even tried seeing what my 1 or 2 rep max was.

I would guess 275 for 1 rep would probably have been where I was at.

So that’s kind of cool for me to see really massive strength gains, but yesterday was the last day of my strength training protocol.

Before last month, I did about 4 months straight of a hypertrophy program, and I saw an awesome transformation in my physique.

But I got to a point where I was like, well how strong am I really?

For those of you who don’t know…

Hypertrophy refers to increasing the size of the muscle, which is done by increasing the overall volume of your workout (sets x reps). Strength training refers to increasing the ability of a muscle to produce force, which is done through lifting heavier weights (above 85% of 1 rep max).

So I decided last month that I was going to start focusing more on lifting some heavy ass weights and really pushing myself to the limit.

It was pretty great to see that I totally have the ability to lift heavy, but I realized this is a lot like Icarus flying too close to the sun.

Strength training opens you up to so many more injuries because your body really has to exert itself to work with that heavy ass weight.

And you don’t really see much increase in overall muscle definition, it’s mainly just the increase in the numbers you’re pumping out.

I mean you do see some physical gains, but not much. Here’s where I’m at…

On the left was the end of last month, and on the right is today.

I definitely can see some more mass on my chest and a little more development in my core (probably from deadlifts)...

But other than that, my shoulders, arms, and traps look virtually the same.

Keep in mind both of these photos are without a pump, I took both of them first thing in the morning.

During this past month, I was eating about an 800-calorie surplus, so I wasn’t eating enough to get me to bulking like crazy, it was mainly just for the purpose of getting extra fuel for the lifts.

I’m not at the point yet where I want to do a serious bulk.

So I can keep lifting heavier and heavier but what’s the point?

I think it’s cool to see where you’re at as like a benchmark, but for the most part, if you’re not competing I don’t think it makes sense to keep training strength.

However, I do think that ONLY staying just in Hypertrophy is also kind of lame, because what’s the point of having all those muscles if you can’t lift heavy shit?

Tom Platz said it best…

“Should you do heavy weights for low reps? Or should you do high reps with low weight? It’s an ongoing dilemma. The problem is you gotta do heavy weights for a lot of reps. You’ve got to train and condition yourself to do heavy weights for a lot of reps. It takes time. It takes years. It takes a career.”

That’s the goal…

High reps with heavy weight.

I don’t think you can get there if you only stick in one realm of the arena, hypertrophy or strength, you have to do both but obviously not at the same time.

Hypertrophy builds your muscle’s endurance with high reps…

Strength training builds your muscle’s strength with low reps…

And I’m sure there’s some science guy who can prove me wrong, I just speak on what’s worked for me, I don’t have any certifications, and I don’t read about this shit.

I just lift.

I try not to overcomplicate something that inherently should be simple.

So…

This next week I’m going to use as a deload week and still hit lifts but definitely lower the overall weight and just let my body get some rest in.

Following that, I’m going to be going into another cutting/leaning out phase and I really want to push myself even harder than the last one I did.

I’ll keep you all posted on that too.

All the best.