Strength gains without weight gain?

Question

What if my goal is only to gain strength and not to appear any larger or gain any weight? In fact, my goal is to gain strength while increasing my weight as little as possible. I would like to see my lift numbers increase as much as possible but I would like to increase my bodyweight as little as possible or even not at all! What is the best way to do this? Do I still need a caloric surplus to gain strength even if I don't want to gain weight or can I do this with a high protein diet to let the muscles recover but maintain a caloric deficit in order to lean out as much as possible?

Answer 1

really it depends on where your at right now with your training. if you are untrained you will gain a great amount of strength if you are well trained you will not gain strength without gaining size. is there some reason you want to gain strength without gaining size?. it also depends on what your body fat % is. if you have fat to lose you can eat a healthy diet high in protine and work out and you will lose body fat and gain muscle.

Answer 2

Talk to your coach.  He should know what to do.  Wrestling in the 160 lb class with 16% body fat you have plenty of room to move around with (the next class is around 175 lbs right?).  Definitely do weights.  It is the part of any wrestler's training (but please don't neglect your technique).  Do not be caloric deficient especially during weight training; what I'm not sure about are supplements and such - you'll get varying advice on in take of protein powder and such.  Monitor your weight and increase cardio as necessary, while maintaining the same food intake, rather than reducing your strength training.

Keep your weight below the amount that you are comfortably cutting in the sauna (do not overestimate yourself; I've seen successfully cut the weight, but then get so tired they can't wrestle).  When it comes closer to weigh-ins at competitions then you should cut back on the strength training and focus on weight management.

Answer 3

chinups, situps, pushups etc. theres loads of advanced ones that are alot harder to do then u would thing. this will help u build inner body strength rather then make u put on weight.