Yesterday I wrote about how, for now at least, building strength is taking priority in my life, and gaining weight and my overall mass will be mostly taken care of after I feel I’ve become significantly stronger (still need to define what “significantly” constitutes).
The question you may have though is, what changes? And that’s what I want to share, some tips and strategies for placing your focus on strength in the initial stages rather than trying to balance it with weight gain.
- See the long term. Building strength over size, will not lead you to being bigger straight away, but it also ease’s the pressure considerably, and simplifies the strength building process overall. So, while in the short term you may not resemble the Incredible Hulk, the fact that you’re in this for the long haul (right?) means the gains will come. Just with time.
- Focus on lifting progress only. While you can still expect to get a bit heavier as long as you don’t pull to far back on your diet (remember, you still need plenty of protein and some saturated fat to build muscle) it’s fairly inconsequential when you’re focus revolves solely on your strength. So, instead of your weight, use your lifts – pull ups, squats etc – as your main benchmarks. As long as you’re progressively able to lift more weight over the ensuing weeks and months then you’re moving forward, and that’s what really matters for now.
- Understand the importance. When it comes down to it, strength is simply more important than size – strength is functional while size is mostly for aesthetics. Once you’re able to lift more, and feel more capable strength-wise there are options to quickly gain weight like drinking a gallon of milk per day for a month. But, if you try to do that before you have any strength you’re just going to get fat.
It can be difficult to de-focus on how big your are, because I know that as a skinny guy, one of the main reasons you want to build muscle is to not longer resemble a stick figure. Even so, have faith that it’s the way to go. Strength is a valuable asset that opens you up to a world of opportunities, and I imagine it’s worth the patience.
