Hey Athletes! Want to learn more about when you should train hypertrophy or strength? Then make sure to catch this week’s episode of Ask Me Anything!
Episode 62 of Ask Me Anything is up!
Ask Me Anything: When You Should Train Hypertrophy Vs Strength
This week Jerred and Joe answer a question from Steven. He asks if there’s a benefit to working more on hypertrophy and then strength or vice versa. The guys dive right in and give Steven their advice on this!
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Jerred
Transcript:
Jerred Moon
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the garage mathlete podcast Jerred. Moon here with Joe Courtney. What’s up, Joe? Oh, man, not much doing some ama’s It seems like all the ama’s these days are from some variation of Steven. Or Stefan just
Joe Courtney
or maybe there’s just like an unknown anonymous, like the anonymous now is just Steven.
Jerred Moon
Yeah, everyone’s just gonna submit their question and say there, Steven.
Joe Courtney
Yeah,
Jerred Moon
we’re going with it. That’s what the name says. So, the question is from Steven, is there a benefit to working more on hypertrophy? And then strength? Or vice versa? Let’s be honest, everyone wants to be big and strong. What do you think, Joe?
Joe Courtney
For if there’s a benefit for hypertrophy and strength?
Jerred Moon
So what he’s saying is like, should we it’s almost kind of like, should you lose fat? And then try and gain muscle? Or should you do it at the same time? And I think that’s what he’s asking. So should you? Should you try and gain some strength? Because we we covered this in a study right with the kind of the difference between strength and hypertrophy. And so he’s asking, should you do some muscle growth work, and then some strength work, or should you do at the same time, you have an opinion on it.
Joe Courtney
So I think it depends on where you’re starting from and what your training is, if you are absolutely brand new to training and weightlifting, I think you probably could use some hypertrophy, because you’re not going to have a ton of muscle to work with. And hypertrophy is going to help you build that muscle so that you can get stronger, also doing more hypertrophy, if you’re brand new, we’ll help you to, I guess, find a better mind muscle connection to activate and use those muscles more. And just that you know, as a muscle contraction practice, so that when you do start to lift heavier, versus more reps, you can access it better. So I think, if you’re brand new hypertrophy should be worked in, early on and more than heavy lifting. But as you progress more, if you’ve already been training, you’ve already done some strength growth in the past, then maybe you’ve done more hypertrophy work, you actually need to do more strength work, and dial back the hypertrophy and the volume and, you know, vice versa. And maybe once you hit a plateau swap,
Jerred Moon
yeah, I’m not going to say Joe nailed it perfectly. Now, I do agree, I fully agree with you. So it kind of does depend on your starting point. But a lot of times, because if you’re, if you’re overweight, let’s just say, very overweight, you’re probably not that concerned about gaining muscle, you’re more concerned with losing fat. And the people who typically ask these questions are on the skinnier side, maybe like a guy with a really fast metabolism who wants to gain some muscle. And it’s kind of torn, because a pulling a really heavy deadlift is cool, but that’s strength, but having bigger muscles is cool, you know, because people want that. And so and I get, I get both of them. And so if you need to pack on some muscle, a lot of times that can be the answer to gaining more strength. And so if you kind of, like, I feel like you can max out your genetic potential, this is kind of my view of it, you can kind of max out, like, if you are a five foot 10 male who weighs 165 pounds. Like there’s a certain level of strength that you can get to, and I’m not talking about, like perfectly maxed out because they’re dudes like professional power lifters, in the in the bottom on the lighter weight classes who can lift a ridiculous amount of weight. But let’s just say the without being a professional power lifter, like you’re going to kind of get tapped out, you’re gonna start hitting plateaus on the strength. And really, the only way to continue to gain strength is going to be to gain mass. So to work on the hypertrophy thing, and to be honest, that is it power lifters answer to strength, gaining more strength, always it’s mass, mass, movement mass, so go gain more weight, if you want to move more weight. That’s what power lifters will always tell you. But there is definitely true. There’s a lot of truth to that. So I do think that you should cycle between the two one I think hypertrophy in the long term, and we always take a long term approach is the safest way to do strength training. I just think people need to be mindful about getting into the aesthetics world and like how that can affect your psyche. You don’t always want to be chasing numbers on the scale or bicep size and stuff. But I do think if you put on some more mass through hypertrophy, that you will be able to gain more strength. So it does help to cycle back and forth from those in the biggest takeaway. I always want people to know when we have these conversations, and I say it all the time. Just know that there is a difference between the two. A lot of people I feel like they don’t they just think weightlifting is weightlifting, or let’s just say lifting weights is lifting weights. And that’s not the case you can get stronger without gaining an ounce. You can gain muscle. And typically when you’re gaining muscle, you’re going to get a little bit stronger, but it’s still not going to be it’s not a 500 pound back squat strong. You know, it’s not like big weight strong. It’s just A little bit stronger. And so that’s why I like professional bodybuilders are typically not. They have these massive muscles, right? But they couldn’t, they couldn’t place, you know, middle of the pack at a powerlifting meet most of these guys, because it’s just very different, very different training. So as long as you know the difference in their cycling back and forth, I think you’ll be good to go.
Joe Courtney
Yeah, I think in the three or four years I’ve gained like within 10 pounds, but I think I’ve added about 50 or so pounds to my back squat 30 or so pounds, device press, things like that. So that’s just adding strength, but I think there comes a point where I know where I when I get to a sticking point. And I think I need to, I know I need to add in more hypertrophy and stuff, which is why I do like sexy Saturdays and stuff like that, because I need to balance that out to add it because more the most work I do is actual strength versus hypertrophy.
Jerred Moon
Yeah, I think I’m a really good. Let’s case study for this. Like, if I mean, Joe, you’ve seen me in person, but if anyone else were to meet me in person, I, I look fairly athletic. But you wouldn’t think I’m that strong. You wouldn’t be like, yeah, okay, that dude’s like, frickin strong. And I’m not saying I’m crazy strong. But I’m, most of the time I’m a lot stronger than people think than I am. Especially with like the squat and the deadlift. Because I don’t I did hypertrophy stuff for so long. I’m just kind of over it. I don’t think it’s bad. We still program and I think it’s great for people. It’s just, it’s actually hard for me to execute when it is programmed, because it’s so boring to me, because I’ve done it for so long. But I a lot stronger than people give me credit for just from looking at me. But if I were to do a bunch of hypertrophy work and, and looked a different way, people like, oh, that dude’s really strong. You know, so they are very different. And you just kind of have to know what your goals are and what you like doing to like, I just don’t enjoy hypertrophy training anymore. I’m sure I’ll cycle back around at some point, but it’s just not that fun for me.
Joe Courtney
Yeah, just on occasion. Saturday. Yeah, I
Jerred Moon
remember I did a sexy Saturday A few weeks ago, I couldn’t even move my biceps afterwards. So it seems like I need to be doing a little bit more of it but I just don’t cool. Alright, that’s it for this one. Guys. You have a question. Go to garage, gym athlete comm slash ama and we will answer your question. And if you’re on YouTube watching us right now, make sure you subscribe to the channel. You can even ask us a question in the comments if you don’t feel like going to that link. And then give us a thumbs up and then if you are on the podcast five star review positive comment really help us out. But that’s it for this one, guys. Thanks for watching or listening