How to get the most strength with least mass.

Discuss your weight training questions, concerns and tips!

Moderators: cassiegose, Boss Man

Post Reply
XanderYork
STARTING OUT
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2016 4:18 am

How to get the most strength with least mass.

Post by XanderYork »

Hello everybody! I'm very interested in starting mixed martial arts but I'm relatively short at 5'6". Since I'm this short I want to build up as much strength with the least muscle mass possible. I'm pretty active, but I know nothing about training or exercising. Boxing, Muay Thai, and BJJ are main interests. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
User avatar
Boss Man
SITE ADMIN
Posts: 15457
Joined: Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:27 pm

Re: How to get the most strength with least mass.

Post by Boss Man »

Hi Xander, good to talk to you.

What sort of times do you eat at and what foods do you eat at those times?

Have you tried any exercise before and if so what was it and what would you be willing to do I:E: train in a gym, train at home with or without equipment etc.
XanderYork
STARTING OUT
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2016 4:18 am

Re: How to get the most strength with least mass.

Post by XanderYork »

For the past 3 months I've been eating a Ketosis diet and lost about 25 pounds. I don't really have a set time that I eat every day. I just try to eat something within an hour of waking up.

As for exercises, I know the basics like push-ups and crunches. I've never done any weight training or anything like that. I'd be willing to go to a gym, there's a few close to house. I just want some knowledge on fitness before I go and waste money and time by not knowing what to do.
User avatar
Boss Man
SITE ADMIN
Posts: 15457
Joined: Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:27 pm

Re: How to get the most strength with least mass.

Post by Boss Man »

I've given this strategy to people before, so hopefully it should work for you.

Breakfast

Option 1.

Bowl of Whole-grain Cereal and 1 rasher of Bacon, fat trimmed off and scrambled Eggs, (2 Egg Whites + Yolk)

Option 2.

Protein shake, small portion of Nuts, (excluding higher carb ones like Cashews, Chestnuts and Grapenuts), + Apple. Give the Apple 10-15 minutes to digest to improve digestion.


Snack

Option 1.

Portion of Turkey + Orange

Option 2.

Small Portion of Peanuts, some Chicken + Raw Carrott.


Lunch

Option 1.

Large Beef Sandwich with trimmings, I.E. Tomato, Lettuce, Cucumber etc.

Option 2.

Bowl of Chicken Soup, + Pot of yoghurt.


Snack

Option 1.

Turkey + Cashews

Option 2.

Ham + 2 large Tomatos


Dinner

Option 1.

Pork with mashed Potato.

Option 2.

Chicken and Rice

Option 3.

100g Halibut + Broccoli


Snack

Option 1.

Beans on Toast

Option 2.

Ham Sandwich, no trimmings.

Easy on the bread with both options.

You could add a few things to certain meals, like Sea Salt, Cracked Black Pepper, Parsley, Mustard, Herbs, Garlic.

As for the training you could do a schedule something like this

Squats, 2 sets, 10 reps

Lunges, 2 sets, 10 reps

Deadlifts, 2 sets, 10 reps

Bench press, 2 sets, 10 reps

Bent over Rows, 2 sets, 10 reps

Shrugs, 2 sets, 10 reps

Planks 30 seconds.

You would do that 3x a week every other day.

As for what you lift, go for the second smallest dumbbells on bench press, lunges and squats, the smallest dumbbells on shrugs and the smallest barbell on bent over rows and deadlifts

This is how your schedule could look per week

Day 1. Weights

Day 2. Cardio

Day 3. Weights

Day 4. Day off

Day 5. Cardio

Day 6. Weights

Day 7. Day off.

This prevents you doing 5 days straight and 2 days of nothing, as I think that's allowing too much consecutive taxation and 2 days of your body doing nothing, slowly starting to adjust to it, before 5 days of grind again, which might take the edge off progress potential, so the 5 split days should be better for you.
MartialAthletes
STARTING OUT
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2016 6:00 pm

Re: How to get the most strength with least mass.

Post by MartialAthletes »

Hey,

I have been traning martial arts for over 21 years. Throughout training I have played many team sports that required heavy weight training and a lot of olympic lifts which are not the best for martial artist. After finishing collegate football and getting back into martial arts training full time I noticed how bad mobility had become. I stated to implement in a lot of mobility trainiing in the hips and shoulders along with adding circuit training in so that I would be burning major calories but maintaining mass. I now do limited heavy lifting during the week and more circuit training with the kettle bells, steel mace, steel clubs and battle ropes. A lot of fighters are switching to this style of training and I have personally benefited.

- Chad Cannon ( Karate and Taewkondo Black Belt/World Champion Martial Artist)
-Cheif Editor
www.martialathletes.com
AnthonyDee
STARTING OUT
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2016 4:53 am

Re: How to get the most strength with least mass.

Post by AnthonyDee »

Well, the main components of strength are muscle hypertrophy, rate coding and technique.

Give this article a read: https://breakingmuscle.com/strength-con ... ing-bigger

If you want to develop as much strength (and speed strength) with as little muscle gain as possible, focus on:
1. Lifting heavy loads for low reps with low overall training volume
2. Lifting moderate loads explosively for low reps with low overall training volume

With regards to nutrition, eat at maintenance so that you don't gain weight.
GingerBread
STARTING OUT
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2017 5:17 pm

Re: How to get the most strength with least mass.

Post by GingerBread »

You need to do strength training such as 5x5. I hear madcow 5x5 is pretty good.
anju123
STARTING OUT
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Apr 26, 2018 6:55 am

Re: How to get the most strength with least mass.

Post by anju123 »

Boss Man wrote:I've given this strategy to people before, so hopefully it should work for you.

Breakfast

Option 1.

Bowl of Whole-grain Cereal and 1 rasher of Bacon, fat trimmed off and scrambled Eggs, (2 Egg Whites + Yolk)

Option 2.

Protein shake, small portion of Nuts, (excluding higher carb ones like Cashews, Chestnuts and Grapenuts), + Apple. Give the Apple 10-15 minutes to digest to improve digestion.


Snack

Option 1.

Portion of Turkey + Orange

Option 2.

Small Portion of Peanuts, some Chicken + Raw Carrott.


Lunch

Option 1.

Large Beef Sandwich with trimmings, I.E. Tomato, Lettuce, Cucumber etc.

Option 2.

Bowl of Chicken Soup, + Pot of yoghurt.


Snack

Option 1.

Turkey + Cashews

Option 2.

Ham + 2 large Tomatos


Dinner

Option 1.

Pork with mashed Potato.

Option 2.

Chicken and Rice

Option 3.

100g Halibut + Broccoli


Snack

Option 1.

Beans on Toast

Option 2.

Ham Sandwich, no trimmings.

Easy on the bread with both options.

You could add a few things to certain meals, like Sea Salt, Cracked Black Pepper, Parsley, Mustard, Herbs, Garlic.

As for the training you could do a schedule something like this

Squats, 2 sets, 10 reps

Lunges, 2 sets, 10 reps

Deadlifts, 2 sets, 10 reps

Bench press, 2 sets, 10 reps

Bent over Rows, 2 sets, 10 reps

Shrugs, 2 sets, 10 reps

Planks 30 seconds.

You would do that 3x a week every other day.

As for what you lift, go for the second smallest dumbbells on bench press, lunges and squats, the smallest dumbbells on shrugs and the smallest barbell on bent over rows and deadlifts

This is how your schedule could look per week

Day 1. Weights

Day 2. Cardio

Day 3. Weights

Day 4. Day off

Day 5. Cardio

Day 6. Weights

Day 7. Day off.

This prevents you doing 5 days straight and 2 days of nothing, as I think that's allowing too much consecutive taxation and 2 days of your body doing nothing, slowly starting to adjust to it, before 5 days of grind again, which might take the edge off progress potential, so the 5 split days should be better for you.
I really want to say thanks to you for giving such nice plan. I am going with these routine and let's see the result in upcoming days.
DSarchWorkout
STARTING OUT
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Jun 14, 2018 12:39 am

Re: How to get the most strength with least mass.

Post by DSarchWorkout »

Yup low rep workouts with heavy weights will be best for maintaining your weight whilst increasing your strength, but it mostly comes down to diet :).
allstar2020
STARTING OUT
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2018 3:34 pm

Re: How to get the most strength with least mass.

Post by allstar2020 »

DSarch,

definitely right about diet. The trick here is to have enough protein and calories to increase strength
but not consume to much as to enter caloric surplus. also want to avoid high volume lifting which will
induce hypertrophy and pack muscle mass, so go for lower reps but higher weight to keep strength high
Jackri
STARTING OUT
Posts: 4
Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2018 9:14 am

Re: How to get the most strength with least mass.

Post by Jackri »

Yeah there are many ways to get most strength specially when you join a boot camp or fitness club for maintaining your own. In this busy era everyone like shot things with maximum results as i also visit in tulsa last month for fitness inspirations of tulsa. I got the fitness club as a blessing for mine great coach and trainers that keely observe your workout and suggested a lot am really happy to become a member of them.
rvn2590@yahoo.com
STARTING OUT
Posts: 17
Joined: Fri Oct 02, 2020 11:51 pm

Re: How to get the most strength with least mass.

Post by rvn2590@yahoo.com »

In order to keep the weight down drink lots of water. Many people have the standard of drinking a gallon of water a day. It has many benefits including filling you up with zero calories!
Post Reply