The Art of Building Strength While Getting Lean
In the last article I discussed the Kinobody Lean Bulk Guide To Adding Muscle While Staying Lean.
This is great to use if you’re already pretty lean, in the 7-12% body fat range, and want to start packing on muscle.
However, some of you are probably not quite content with your current level of definition and if you bulk at this point you’ll end up like a bigger and puffier version of what you look like now.
Not exactly what we’re going for, eh?
As a result, some of you are going to want to use the fall and winter as a chance to lean down so that you’re absolutely chiseled come spring time. One great thing about getting lean for spring is that it can be an incredible opportunity to get into shrink wrap condition for the summer.
Now in this article I will be sharing some of the most effective strategies to optimize strength gains while undergoing a diet to develop a lean, chiseled and absolutely breathtaking physique. Let’s get started!
The Art of Building Strength While Getting Lean
The first thing you must understand is that the key to looking incredible is to get very lean while building up a great deal of strength.
When I take someone’s weight and body fat percentage down while greatly improving their strength, incredible things happen. Their entire body shape changes from overweight and weak to lean, defined and powerful. As well, they become true modern day warriors with incredible physical prowess – a high amount of strength relative to their body weight.
Another great thing about training to become very strong and lean is that it leads to very consistent improvements in physique development. As you get stronger, your muscles adapt and become bigger.
I know that if someone is struggling to add size to their shoulders, if I help them add 20 lbs onto their shoulder press, their shoulders will become significantly bigger. Too often people waste time trying to figure out the best routine to add muscle when they should find the best routine to get them strong. With strength comes muscle and when you combine that with a low body fat, physique mastery ensues.
Can You Really Build Strength While Getting Lean?
Can you gain strength on a cut?
It’s funny that people desperately swear that you can’t increase strength while dieting. This thinking is fundamentally flawed.
With the right training stimulus and a proper nutrition plan, increasing strength while getting leaner is very doable. In fact, in the last 4 years I’ve done quite a few cutting programs and each time my lifts went up. Granted, with my more recent cuts I usually maintain most of my lifts, as they are already at the highly advanced level, but a few of my lifts will actually increase by a significant amount.
Most of you are probably not close to the elite level of strength development. Therefore many of you will have no problem bringing up all your lifts while getting leaner each week. I’ve seen this time and time again with my clients and people that have been following my programs.
Achieving this requires a very methodical approach to training and nutrition. In fact, it requires you to be very careful with your training volume. Doing too much lifting or cardio can backfire and your strength gains will come to an abrupt halt. Further, going too low in calories and trying to lose fat too quickly can lead to a loss in strength and muscle mass.
Not to mention, drinking too much alcohol, not getting sufficient sleep, eating a nutrient poor diet and being overstressed can make things much harder than they need to be. These things are all very important but where most people go wrong and sabotage their efforts is in the gym. With further ado, let’s begin.
Five Tips To Building Strength While Getting Lean
1. Don’t train in the fatigued state
One of the most common reasons for why people can’t gain strength while cutting is that they try to build strength in suboptimal conditions.
People think they need to to use 3-4 exercises for a muscle group to make it grow. So for chest they’ll start with bench press, then incline, followed by decline and finally chest flyes.
The problem with this is that their chest is already very fatigued after incline bench press. By the time they hit decline, they will be working at about 80% of their potential. You won’t be triggering any real muscle growth and strength gains when you’re lifting in a weakened state. All you’re doing is depleting your muscles and providing your body with more work to recover from. The two additional exercises you’re performing are actually causing more harm than good.
If you really want to optimize strength gains then you must exercise some temperament. Two exercises per muscle group is just what the doctor ordered. Ideally rest 4-5 minutes before going into your second exercise for the same muscle group.
For example, usually after doing bench press I will take about 5 minutes rest before going into incline bench. When cutting I also usually only do 2 sets per muscle group. If I do three sets of bench press then I know I’ll be weaker for incline. However, if I only do two sets of my first chest exercise, I’ll still be quite close to my strength potential for incline press. When I switched my cutting programs down to 2 sets per exercise, my strength gains went up.
I very frequently get people from my blog ask me if they can do incline bench, flat bench and dips all in the same workout for three sets each. The answer is hell no! It’s not about the amount of exercises and set you do. It’s about how you progress at them. When you do three intense pushing movements for three sets each, while cutting, you’re spreading yourself too thin. You sacrifice strength improvement for variety and muscular fatigue, not a good tradeoff.
2. Don’t train heavy two days in a row
Throughout my 9 year strength training career, I have made the most consistent progress with an every other day lifting set up.
I have worked with hundreds of individuals and switched them from 5-6 lifts per week to 3 and sure enough their progress took off.
When you train every other day it allows for much better neural recovery. This means you hit the weights feeling light, fresh and full of vigor.
For people that have found it hard to gain strength on a consistent basis, three lifts per week is your ticket. When you lift 4-6 days per week, you’re going to be lifting under different conditions each session.
Some days you’ll feel strong and powerful and other days you’ll feel wiped. This makes steady strength gains appear to be an illusion or a mythical story at best.
Take that full rest day after each heavy lift and you will be recharging your neural battery for every session.
3. Don’t use forced reps
I always shake my head when I see someone have their friend spot them and help them get a few more reps.
There are only two types of people who regularly do these forced reps in their routine. People who are weak and people who are taking steroids.
The true natural lifters who are powerfully muscular rarely, if ever, do forced reps. Why you ask? Well because forced reps train you to become weak. They overburden your nervous system and sap your strength for the rest of the workout. You need to get each rep on your own for a truly productive set. Once you have someone step in and help you lift the weight, you are training yourself to become weak.
4. Give yourself some room to grow
If you’re starting a new workout routine fresh, I recommend leaving a rep or so in the tank. If you’re grinding out every last rep of each set, you’re going to be hard pressed to make steady strength gains for the next few months.
Incessant grinding of reps will overtax your nervous system and make strength gains more difficult. Contrarily, when every last rep is executed with strength and confidence, you can bet your behind that the weights will go up with ease.
This doesn’t mean training has to be easy, it won’t, it will be require fortitude and intensity.
All it means is that you will have to know when to walk out on a high note. If you think the next rep is going to be a struggle and a half to complete then there is no shame in racking the weight. Trust me, you’ll come back stronger the next workout if you do so.
By adhering to this rule you will leave the gm feeling exhilarated and powerful, unlike most people who leave feeling wiped and drained.
5. Rotate your key lifts
If you’ve been doing everything right in your strength training routine, but you’re stuck in a plateau then the solution is very simple.
You must rotate your key lifts.
You see, after several weeks of strength gains on a particular movement it is inevitable that you will stall. If you didn’t then you’d keep getting stronger until you’re lifting thousands of pounds.
Unfortunately this is simply unrealistic. You see, with time you will get burnt out hammering the same lift week in and week out. It is at this point in time that you must switch to a similar but fresh movement.
What will happen is that you will begin to hit personal bests (PB’s) again and for several more weeks. Then you will likely hit another plateau and it’s at that point in time that you should rotate to a third movement. After another 4-8 weeks you will go back to the original movement.
Below I will share my favorite exercise to cycle through for each of my key lifts.
Chin ups* – Pull ups and Parallel Chins
Incline Barbell Bench – Incline Dumbbell Bench and Close Grip Bench Press
Standing Barbell Press – Standing One Arm Dumbbell Press and Seated Dumbbell Press
Barbell Curls – Incline Dumbbell Curls and Standing Dumbbell Alternating Curls
Pistol Squats – Reverse Lunges and Bulgarian Split Squats
*Once you start adding weight, make sure you’re using a high-quality weight belt that won’t get in the way of your training.
The Warrior Shredding Program
For those of you who have been anxiously anticipating the release of my new warrior shredding program, I am happy to say it is finished.
This is my diet and training program that I have developed over the course of several years to make getting the lean and chiseled physique as effortless as possible. During this multi year process, I have followed nearly every effective diet known to man and I’ve tracked them to the tee.
Furthermore, I’ve worked with hundreds of clients utilizing different systems and protocols to get a wide variety of feedback. With time I started to uncover the most effective way to set up a nutrition and training plan that made fat loss and strength and muscle gain simple, enjoyable and most importantly, brutally effective.
Learn more about the Warrior Shredding Program
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Hey Greg. Really pumped about your Warrior Shredding Program!
I got a few questions, though.
1) Can the exercises be done at home? I don’t have any workout equipment at home currently, and I already have a gym membership, but it’d be nice to have the option if I’m strapped for time or whatever.
2) As long as we get calorie deficit and calorie surplus weeks, can we basically eat anything that gits our macros? I mean, if I’m already following a nutritional program before starting on the WSP.
3) What is the daily time investment in the gym? Anything above 30 minutes seems inefficient.
1) No. it can’t. Unless you follow the bodyweight program from my kinobody elite membership site.
2) Yes.
3) You’re lifting 3 days per week and that is around 40-50 minutes. On rest days you should be doing some light activity like walking for 45 minutes.
What part of your program should I adhere to if I’m doing crossfit? I’m 6’1 171 lbs and 15%bf. I wanna stay at 170 and get down to 10%bf so I need to lose 10lbs fat and gain 10lbs of muscle. I’m just really confused on how much I should eat to keep my strength up?
Well it’s going to be challenging to follow two programs at once.
Would you recommend rotate a exercise like lateral raises?
Greg what program should I get first visual impact or Greek god I have judo 2 times a week so how would I go with maintenance calories.
I would suggest greek god, it will also work better within the context of your judo training.
Oh good to know. Can you explain the difference between this and the warrior program.
Yeah this new course is more focused on losing fat at a much more aggressive pace. So for people that want to push hard to drop about 2 lbs of fat per week without hating life. It’s a simple approach but it works.
Greg,
when will you release your next new get shredded program?
It’s out right now, it’s focused on a more aggressive approach to fat loss but works fucking fantastically well – http://lp.kinobody.com/fat-loss/
Greg,
I followed your Kinobody Shredding Program Ebook (your first program, I love the ebook it’s awesome)
my problem is that I lost strength even I followed the book as outlined. (not sure where I made a mistake or is this normal???)
(I lost a lot of bodyfat, now my bodyfatlevel is around 13%)
Thx in advance
Yah I’d suggest ditching the 24 hour fast days for better muscle and strength retention. My new warrior shredding course works a lot better for maintain/building strength.
What 3 triceps exercise would you recommend rotate with?
Barbell Skull Crushers, Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extensions and Cable Rope Triceps Pushdowns
Hi Greg,
I have been training for a year now (effectively however for around 6 months) and I REALLY want to get lean mostly because of the way being sub 10% makes your face look how ever I would like to stay at this body fat or at least around it when i start to lean bulk again is this possible.
I am 152lbs, 5ft 11, around 14%bf.
By the way using your muscle building course i have built up my lifts significantly (OHP=100 lbs and Incline 150) Thank you.
Yah you can lean bulk while staying under 10% body fat. Great lifts man, keep it up Josh!
Hi Greg, I had a question about hitting PR’s.
The thing is I can hit PR’s as you said and the movements go very smoothly, but i get stretch marks, glowy red ones. Is this OK or should I slow down?
Cheers, awesome article
Sometimes stretch marks happen. Just don’t let your weight increase too fast and you should be fine. Aim for no more than 2 lbs of weight gain per month.
Greg!
1. Wanting to purchase either Greek God or your Warrior product…anyway you could steer me as to which one would be a better fit first? I have a very nice physique already by doing my own thing but want to be at my best potential.
2. I know you say for definition you want to be strong and lift low reps and also rest for 2-3 minutes between sets. However, is it ok to SUPERSET different muscle groups in this fashion? Example :Heavy Bench Press low reps followed by Heavy low reps Weighted Pullups (rest for at least 2mins Repeat). I just find that for times where I need to be in and out of the gym quicker than normal, the long waits between sets can add up time. Also i feel like i should be doing something in those 2 mins and this way at least there are less ‘waits’. Will this superset strategy’ take away from attaining max definition?
The super setting strategy will actually limit your strength potential. I wouldn’t recommend it! You don’t need to perform tons of movements so you should have know problem resting 2-3 minutes…..
Also, if you want to focus more on gaining muscle then you should do the Greek God course. If you need to drop fat then do the warrior course.
Hey Greg,
iv decided that I’m going to take a break from hitting the gym and focus on getting really strong at body weight movements for a while. I’m going to work through the progressions in the convict conditioning book. do you think if i master the one arm push up with perfect form for 8 reps (feet together on a raised surface) the one arm handstand push up, one arm pull up and pistol squat. that i will have a well developed “warrior physique” ? I’m going to keep performing the stand to stand bridges which i have already mastered after watching your tutorial. cheers man
First of all, I’m not fond of the progression of convict conditioning.
Don’t do one arm push ups with your feet together, it’s stupid. It ruins the nature of the movement by requiring you to bend your body to the side. Also puts more work on the obliques than the chest and triceps.
One arm handstand push ups are stupid and for show. It’s essentially all in the triceps becomes the range of motion is compromised. Do full range handstand push ups on blocks. One arm pull ups are simply not very feasible. They take years to work up to. Build up to assisted one arm chin ups.
Cheers for reply man, appreciate your insight. Iv created a 2 day split work out based on what you said.
Workout A
One arm push ups building upto 2x 10 reps with perfect form, feet shoulder width apart.
Handstand push up-full range build up to 2x 10 reps
Lateral raises – rest pause
Hanging leg raises 2 sets 12 reps
Workout B
Weighted chin ups build upto 2 sets of 10 reps with dumbell attached to belt
Pistol squats – build up 2 sets of 10
Dumbell curls 2 sets of 10
Rear delt flys- rest pause
Bridging.
I have access to adjustable dumbells that range from 7.5kg-32.5kg so can use them for additional exercises and to add weight to chin ups.
I also have a weighted vest that is adjustable upto 15 kg for when handstand push ups and one arm pushups get too easy.
What are your thoughts on this set up?
Looks good man! Nice work
Greg I have a quick question regarding training frequency. I am in the Military and due to a conflicting schedule with your outlined Strength/Cut Program, I am only guaranteed to Train Heavy two-days in a Row. The third days falls on a day in which I only have access to bodyweight work. What do you advise in this scenario? I know it’s not ideal. Thanks a million,
Mat
I would train two days in a row then! If that’s the way your schedule works then do that.
You could potentially do two weight training workouts and one bodyweight workout. That would also work quite well, especially if you emphasize challenging bodyweight movements like one arm push ups, muscle ups, pistol squats, handstand push ups.
Hi Greg!
What is your opinion on doing 2 to 3 exercices of only one working set to failure (of 5-8 reps) for a muscle group: eg for chest – 5-8 reps for inclined and flat press? in other words, do you really think there’s a benefit in doing more than one top set on an exercice in terms of cutting and bulking as long as you progress in weight overload overtime?
One set can work… Muscle growth will be a lot slower though. You need volume to trigger hypertrophy. I would advise 2-3 sets if you want to gain size. One may work for maintaining size and building strength.
Can I do Smith-Machine Incline Bench Press as my rotating exercise for Incline DB’s? Because, when I will do Incline Bench, I can only do it with 45 degrees which I dom’t really feel my upper chest. (I prefer 30 degrees.)
45 degrees is okay if you get your shoulders back and chest up properly
But, just in case, the bench isn’t an option, can I use the Smith Machine and get stronger on it instead, with the goal that when I switch back to Incline DB’s, I can lift more weight than before?
Yes
Would you recommend leave a rep in the thank on every exercise? or is there some exercises that could handle grinding out some half reps.
I use to grinde out reps on lateral raises and rear delt exercies.
Yah you can pump some partial reps on lateral raises and rear delts. That won’t really cause much central nervous system fatigue.
I can understand is very negative to grind out reps and go to failure and above on bigger exercise when your cutting. But when your on a calorie surplus and bulking, is it still negative for the training to do so?
Yes, even when bulking you need to be careful about grinding out reps. It can really sap strength
Hey Greg!
Im currently on your muscle building course, but bought the warrior shredding program aswell, since i’m going to try that out after christmas. I just noticed that in the muscle building course, you advice straight sets for biceps/triceps, but in the warrior shredding program you switched bb curls to RPT instead..
Is that because your cutting and need lower volume, or because you found RPT to be more effective than SS on these 2 exercises? – My question is, would you recommend to switch to RPT with BB curls and skull crushers, when doing you S&D from the mucle building course, on a recomp diet (3 weeks +500, 1 week-500)?
Thanks in advance ! – And sorry for the odd place to ask, i just wasn’t able to post under the muscle building tab!
It’s because you’re cutting so it’s best to reduce the intensity after one hard set.
If you want, you can do RPT in the muscle building course.
Thanks for the input, think i will just stay with the SS!
another question: i’m thinking of changing to incline db curls instead.
Do you recommend alternate them (first right, then left, then right, etc) or would you recommend to do all the reps on the left side, then all the reps on the right side?
I just think the biceps might get to much rest between reps if you alternate, instead of doing all on one arm first?
Alternate them! Definitely alternate them. They won’t get too much rest at all. If that was the case you’d be able to do an endless number of reps, but most people fatigue very fast on this exercise.
I am 18 years old from sweeden, 6 feet tall and 160 lbs at 10-12% bf.
In the last 5 months i have packed on 10 lbs of good muscles – bf have gone up a little bit i feel ( but my abs are still there).
But i want to get in good shape again like around 8-9% ( and have this bf year around)
Do you think that getting down to about 155 lbs would do the trick? And then start to put on some lean muscle. My goal is to be at 170 lbs.
Please reply :) anyway – thanks for the awsome motivation with a fit and healthy life !!! :D
Yeah if you lean down to 155 lbs slowly (1 lbs per week), you’ll be around 8-9% body fat. That’s perfect level of leanness. And from there you can slowly lean bulk up to 170 while staying lean.
* I’m not fat, I weigh around 45 kilograms and just want to get muscle, while maintaining a similar total body mass/weight.
Hey, Greg
I’m a 13 old boy in 8th grade with around 3 hours of free time one I’m back home from school. Could you suggest a simple routine for me that doesn’t need much equipment?
I’d recommend getting a chin up bar and maybe a pair of dumbbells from 10-35 lbs. You can do chin ups, push ups, curls, lateral raises, pistol squats or reverse lunges, hanging leg raises…
[…] mention Greg’s latest article series on this subject in the episode, which you can find here (PART I) and here (PART […]
Hi greg
Have you got any suggestions on how to include own bodyweight training into the warrior shredding program workout routine as i really wanna build up to be able to do muscle ups and pistol squats? But don’t wanna over do it
You can do pistol squats for the single leg exercise in the workout program. Also, getting strong on weighted chin ups will build up the power for you to be able to do a muscle up. Then it’s just a matter of practice. Get to doing chin ups with 50% of your bodyweight attached and you’ll have all the power you’ll ever need for muscle ups.
hey Greg, I have tried to get in contact with you through face book and warrior shredding program. I am 5’7 148 lbs 11.5 to 12 percent bodyfat.
I train BJj 2 to 3x per week and am currently training RPT 3 x per week using compound lifts 2 to 3 max exercises. will your new program work with my current schedule or will I be over training?
thanks for your time
Yes it will fit quite well actually!
Hi Greg
Great article!
I have one question (actually two)…
In Tip 2: “Don’t train heavy two days in a row,”
does that rule also apply to workout routines that hit opposite muscle groups on consecutive days for example;
Chest – Day 1 [5×5 parameters]
Back – Day 2 [5×5 parameters]
Rest – Day 3
Could this set up work?
And my second question is if you were planning on writing an article on how to increase reps on pullups?
I’ve seen you perform 20 wide-grip dead-hang before, so I’d like to know what steps you took to get to the 20 rep mark… cause that’s pretty bad-ass. :P
I’ve been able to hit 20 wide-grip dead-hang pull ups TWICE in my life, but those moments aren’t consistent. My max pullup reps at the moment is 15.
I know that avoiding failure is the key to gaining strength, but how do I increase my “endurance strength?”
I hope you consider writing an article about this topic soon!
Thanks Greg, and keep up the good work. :)
Yep it applies! Anytime you do a heavy lifting session, your strength will be recuperating for the next 48 hours. This is true even if you’re working completely different muscle groups. Your neural strength is recoverying.
No need to train specifically for pull up reps. My advice is to get very strong at weighted chin ups. When you can do 100 lbs for 5 clean reps then 20 bodyweight pull ups will be a joke. This is the most efficient way to train because you’ll be building strength, muscle, power and endurance.
Do you think hitting a muscle group 2x a week on a cut would be fine as long as you lowered the sets to 2?
Here’s an example:
Workout (A)
Incline Bench: Set 1 – (4-6) Set 2 – (6-8) (RPT)
Tricep Extensions: 2 Sets of 6-10 reps (Keep the same weight)
Squat: Set 1 – (4-6) Set 2 – (6-8) (RPT)
Calf Raises: 2 sets of 10-15 reps (Keep the same weight)
Box Jumps: 3 x 3-5 reps
Workout (B)
Shoulder Press: Set 1 – (4-6) Set 2 – (6-8) (RPT)
Deadlift: 1 set of 5 reps
Chin-Ups: Set 1 – (4-6) Set 2 – (6-8) (RPT)
Rear-Delt Flyes: 2-3 sets of 6-10 reps
Barbell Shrugs: Set 1 – (4-6) Set 2 – (6-9) (RPT)
Thanks man, any advice on exercises or rep/set schemes i should change would be much appreciated too.
SideNote: You do an amazing job at answering everyone’s comments as fast as possible. Thank you so much.
Yep that can work!
Hi Greg!
Great tips! I see that you prefer doing 2-3 sets only for each exercise so not to be fatigue on the next exercise. I am currently in the chest specialization routine in KMB for 6 weeks now, and in the book, you recommended doing 5 sets on inclines (5 6 8 8 8) and 3 sets on flats(6 8 10). After this article, should i do just 3 sets on the first exercise? Before i hit the work set, i do 3 warm up sets on incline just as it is written in the book.
thanks a lot Greg!
Well that chest workout works a bit more on fatigue. I’d just take 5 minutes rest after incline and you’ll be fine. If you don’t need as much volume on chest then just do 3 sets for incline.
What set/rep scheme would you use for getting stronger/building muscle for calf raises?
and how would you adjust the set/rep scheme if you’re going on a cut (still talking about set/rep scheme for calf raises)
Thanks dude
I would do 3 sets of 10-15 reps. If you’re cutting do 2-3 sets and if you’re bulking you can do 3-4 sets.
Which rep range should we use on major lifts, and should we use any warmup
I like the 5-8 rep range on heavy lifts. With my reverse pyramid sets I may go up to 8-10 reps. Do two progressively heavier warm up sets for the first couple lifts.
Hey Greg,
Great podcast on Lean Bulking…just listened to it! Apologies in advance if this question has been asked before, but what calculator (or calculation) are you using for determining your maintenance levels? I’ve consulted the IIFYM.com calculator, as well as one the Leigh Peele offers…was just wondering what your take is.
Thx!
Both those calculators are very accurate and great starting points. I like to use 15 calories per pound if getting one hour of exercise per day.
Hey Greg!
Another superb article! Regarding the warrior shredding program:
Can i add close grip bench on workout c?
Are the skull crushers with d.bells or barbell?
Can i do upright rows instead of lateral raise or just do laterals?
Do we perform hammer curls at the same time?
A lot of questions, but i really appreciate your input. Thanks a lot Greg!!!
1. There’s no need for close grip bench in addition to incline, flat and triceps. If you want to do close grip switch it with flat.
2. Barbell
3. Yes. You can do upright rows for a few weeks then switch back to laterals.
4. One at a time, hits the biceps harder that way.
Hey Greg another cool article and it complements the latest podcast which I just finished listening too. I had a question which relates to both this and what you were talking about in the podcast. I’m aiming to lean bulk at the moment and I’m very keen on going for the 3 week surplus/1 week cut you were advocating. I was just thinking then, for each 1 week cut segment would you suggest lowering the workout volume to 2 exercises of 2 sets each as you suggest here for people dieting. And then perhaps upping the volume again slightly when reverting back to surplus periods?
Enjoy California,
D
Yep, exactly Drew. Scale back on the volume for the low cal week then ramp it back up with the higher calorie weeks.
Hey Greg! I’m doing your new lean bulk protocol right now with your S&D routine from your muscle building course. Does that mean I should cut one set for each of the four exercices during the low cals week? I’m wondering because it would mean only 8 working sets per workout instead of 12.
Yep exactly!
Hey Greg I’m thinking of adding isometrics to my training, what do you think? Bruce lee used isometrics… My question: is it good for myofibrillar hypertrophy? Please reply
Isometrics won’t have much of an effect on building muscle. It will improve strength but mostly from improved neural capabilities. I’ve never used isometrics in my routine and have never had the need for them. I suppose it could be helpful to push through a strength sticking point but they should never be the staple of your routine.