Gaining strength, but not adding mass

[eksatx]

I started hitting the gym at the beginning of the year with the help of a personal trainer. I am naturally pretty skinny (started out at 5'9", 135lb.). I made pretty good progress both gaining strength and adding muscle mass for the first several months, but I have hit a plateau.

 

I am still getting stronger from week to week, but (according to the scale) I am not gaining muscle mass. In fact, for the past couple of weeks the scale at the gym says I am actually losing muscle mass and adding fat.

 

• Are those scales simply too inaccurate to bother with?
  
• It it really possible to gain strength without actually adding muscle mass?
  
• Any suggestions for the first place to make a change that might jump-start things (more protein, modify training, cardio, etc.)?

[VeganEssentials]

1. Scales that are supposed to read bodyfat percentages are rarely accurate, so I wouldn't think much of it. Better that if you can corner a trainer who can use a calipers to measure more accurately than to go with those scales.

 

2. You can definitely gain strength without adding much mass. I've known people who got crazy strong but never grew much past a certain point, so it is possible.

 

3. If you want to add more mass, maybe changing up your program will help (no idea what you're doing now, so any info is helpful), definitely try eating more protein if you're not already stuffing yourself with it like crazy, but steer clear of the cardio, it's not going to make you gain any size whatsoever.

[Cold Fission]

Eat moar food.Try to eat 7-8 large meals a day.

[eksatx]

Thanks for the responses -- it's a big help.

 

The trainer I am working with has me in the gym 5 days a week. He put together 5 different upper and lower body workouts. I do an upper body workout on Su, lower on M, Tu off, 30 min of interval / endurance training on W, different upper body on Th, different lower on F, and Sa off. That way I don't repeat any one workout for two weeks.

 

The focus is mostly bench press, deadlifts, squats, dips, etc. with some isolation movements.

 

Almost all of the exercises are done in supersets. For example, between bench press sets he'll have me do a set of back flys.

 

Input on that is much appreciated. Again, I'm pleased that from week to week I'm consistently lifting heavier weights. Still, I'd like to add more mass.

 

You are probably right about more protein. I thought I was getting enough, but I'll try bumping that up for a couple weeks and see what happens.

 

Any suggestions on the best protein powder for this purpose? For the last couple weeks I had been trying Manitoba Harvest Hemp Pro 70.

[Duncan_Idaho]

Your trainer seems to know what he's doing giving you squats and deadlifts - basically, that's what you need. Dips, etc too - basic exercises to increase your strength and add mass. It is a bit strange that he makes you do flies and other exercised between the sets - this could waste energy and resources but on the other hand it could be a way to overcome the plateau. Eat protein, eat carbs, eat vegetables. Never eat on an empty stomach!

 

On strength and gaining mass - much has been written, it's out on the internet. The baseline is that mass and strength usually go together. There are three things about muscle contractions: innervation, muscle response and duration of the response. If you reach failure in 1-4 reps (generally) you train innervation - that's recruiting more fibers as a percentage of the muscle to act at once (The maximum % of your muscle that you can contract is about 30-40). With 6-10 reps generally you increase the muscle's capacity to store and utilize nutrients - that's mass. With over 12 reps you train duration, no mass, just endurance (aerobic energy, oxygen used by the mytochondria).

Things are not black and white. For example if you do 100 pushups, your last pushups could have a trianing effect on the innervation/strength. Usually it's a good thing to build strength, then go for the other things.

 

Have a nice pumping!

[fuscia]

mass, in the bodybuilding sense, and strength don't always go together. check out how unmassive this litte twirp is, but she's deadlifting more than three times her bodyweight -

even chakarov is no more massive than a typical nfl quarterback - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mL2d6WaPIM

[eksatx]

Thanks for the replies -- they have been very helpful.

 

The trainer I am working with has put together a new routine for me. He said this routine has helped him bust through plateaus in the past. It has me lifting weights only three days per week instead of four and hits each main muscle group only once per week. Lots of tear-down sets. I'll post again after I see what results I get for a couple weeks.

 

I also bumped up my calories and protein a bit.

 

I asked this before but nobody responded: what type of protein powder do you recommend? I had been trying Manitoba Harvest Hemp Pro 70, and now I'm trying Garden Life Raw Protein. Any recommendations are much appreciated.

 

Thanks again!

[chrisjs]

Yeah, what VE said.

 

Those body fat scales aren't accurate. My tanita says I'm 12% and my calipers say 6%, neither of which is correct. They can be useful to track progress, but especially the electrical resistance ones are very susceptible to things like hydration throwing them off.

 

Cardio definitely will not help in the mass department.

 

I order bulk protein from trueprotein.com. I like a 70% gemma pea 30% rice mix. Search the forums here for trueprotein there's tons of posts about them. If you do order from them and plan on just mixing with water or soymilk, be sure to spring for a premium flavor.

[NicholasV]

Probably you are not eating enough or you are eating enough but of the wrong things. You need a certain ratio of protein/fat/carbs.

 

For me I had a serious deficiency of fat in my diet, I believe. Very recently I started buying coconut milk cans that are 13.5oz and have 5 servings of 150 calories and 22% fat content. Before that I did not gain weight like I should have since I was fat starved.

[crashnburn]

Op - Major different between how you workout & food.. for Strength, Hypertrophy or Met con.. look it up.