Many people want to be strong and fit, but not bulky like a bodybuilder. The right exercises and nutrition make it possible to become powerful without excess mass.
Bodybuilding isn’t universally appealing or ideal for health and functionality. Martial artists often favor functional strength and agility over muscle mass. With specific diets and workouts, one can gain strength without significant mass, maintaining a slim but strong physique.
Bodybuilding is a popular form of body modification, especially within the United States. Bulking up and building a body that looks as though it was chiseled out of marble to resemble the Incredible Hulk is the goal of some, but it isn’t ideal for everyone.
Having a bodybuilder’s physical isn’t necessarily healthy, regardless of how it looks. Some cultures, such as Asian and some Middle-Eastern ones, typically find it unattractive, preferring something slim but powerful. Some people don’t like it just because they find that such a body hinders functional strength and flexibility.
Indeed, many martial artists try to avoid having a massive, lumbering body. Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan both designed workouts meant to increase functional strength while still leaving them slim and fast enough to perform their martial arts and stunts.
Bruce Lee did try bulking up for a while but found that it slowed him down and made him too large a target, so he focused his energy on building strength without mass.
Not everyone wants a bulky bodybuilder body. Yet most people don’t have to worry about this, because it takes tremendous effort and nutrition to achieve. For many body types, gaining strength and fitness without big mass gains is possible.
So, how do you do it?
First of all, it’s not incredibly difficult to gain strength without mass. It takes specific diets and supplements to achieve a bodybuilder’s body type. Just going to the gym isn’t going to make you look like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Hulk Hogan, so you can leave those fears outside where they belong. This is true for both women and men. After all, gymnasts are the strongest athletes, per pound anyway, on the planet, yet they’re very slim.
You will gain some mass. That’s inevitable as your muscles grow, but you still won’t find yourself looking like the Macho Man, Randy Savage. Look at the physic of Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee vs that of David Tennant or Johnny Depp back in his Edward Scissorhands role. Both sets of men are slim, but Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan have slightly bigger muscles.
Gymnasts are typically very strong, yet still slim.
The Best Exercises for Strength Without Bulk
The following are some of the best exercises for building strength. Remember to stay safe. If you feel any pain (not burn; that’s different) or discomfort, stop immediately. Pain is your body’s way of warning you that something isn’t right and you can easily suffer injury if you persist.
Squats
Squats are fantastic strength-building shortcuts, as they work virtually every muscle in your body from the waist down. The hips, hamstrings, glutes, calves, and quadriceps are all given a thorough workout during this exercise.
Beginners should perform a squat by lowering themselves into a sitting position. You don’t crouch when you’re at your lowest point but pretend instead as though you’re sitting in an imaginary chair. Pause when you’re at your lowest (you determine how many counts you can handle) and then rise.
Intermediate squatters can add a jump to the end of their squat instead of simply rising back into a standing position. Around this stage, some people prefer not to hold the squatting position, allowing the explosive rise into a jump to work most of the muscle training.
Advanced practitioners can add hand weights, an exercise band, or place a barbell across your shoulders. Some advanced squatters also prefer not to pause and hold when they’re at the bottom of their squat but to rise again immediately, allowing the weights to strengthen and tighten their muscles rather than simply holding their own body weight.
Remember to keep your back straight as you perform squats, especially if you have weights across your shoulders. Inhale as you rise and exhale as you go into the squat.
Burpee
A burpee is similar to a squat, but it has added steps to increase its cardio and help strengthen shoulders as well.
You begin with a standing position then drop into a squat and place your hands on the ground. It may look like you’re getting ready to lift something off the floor.
Next, you extend your legs into a plank position. If you’re having trouble visualizing this, it’ll look like you’re about to do a push-up. Your arms are extended, not folded beneath the weight of your upper body.
Don’t lower yourself to the ground as you would in a push-up; rise back into a squat position. Try to keep the motion fluid before finally raising yourself back into a standing position.
Burpees aren’t meant to be performed in a leisurely manner. Instead, you should see how many you can do per minute, trying to increase the number of burpees you can successfully perform. The United States army likes its soldiers to be able to perform around 40 burpees within 20 seconds. Remember not to push yourself beyond your limit, though! Everyone starts at a different number and most won’t achieve the kinds of numbers required by the military.
Rotating Sit-Up
Sit-ups are an exercise staple when it comes to strengthening your abs or your core. There are many ways to perform sit-ups with rotating sit-ups being more advanced.
Beginners can start with the basic sit-up. Lay on the floor with your legs bent and place your hands behind your head or across your chest. You can mix up these methods as you’ll get different benefits from each. Just use your abs to lift yourself up and lower yourself down.
When you’re comfortable with that, you can move into a rotating sit-up. There are two different kinds of these.
The first is to place your hands behind your head and lift yourself up. However, when you’re upright, twist your torso so that your left elbow swings over to your right knee. Lower yourself back to the floor and do it again, this time swinging your right elbow to your left knee. Continue to alternate.
The second variation is when your arms are across your chest. When you rise, you alternate between touching your right ankle with your left hand and touching your left ankle with your right hand.
Clean and Press
Before you read on, be advised that clean and press exercises should first be demonstrated by an instructor or fitness coach. At the very least, you should watch a video of how to safely perform them, as it’s easy to hurt yourself with this exercise.
That being said, it’s a very effective exercise to incorporate into your workout routine. It strengthens your abs, shoulders, back, and arms all in one exercise, potentially cutting down the number of different exercises needed to work these muscle groups individually.
You begin with a barbell resting on the ground. If you’re just starting out, don’t pile the weight on. In fact, you should never just pile weight on, as it’s too easy to accidentally injure yourself if the barbell slips from your grip. You want just enough weight to make the muscles do some work when you’re going through the movements.
Squatting down, you pick up the barbell and, in an explosion of energy and driving through the heels, bring the barbell to rest on the front of your shoulders. Don’t lean back to balance the barbell or you could hurt yourself!
Next, you bend your knees slightly and, driving through the hips, thrust the barbell up and hold it above your head, arms extended. You may choose to pause and hold for a count or two or you can bring the barbell back to the floor right away. It’s lowered back to the ground in a single movement, so don’t first return the weight to your chest.
Again, start with light weights and work up. It can be dangerous to perform this exercise with a lot of weight, and if you start feeling any pain, stop immediately.
Pullover
Though this exercise is less common nowadays, it’s effective at strengthening the triceps, biceps, back, and chest area. Beginners should use a dumbbell but more advanced practitioners can use a barbell.
Lay flat on a bench and place the weight in your hands. The dumbbell should be gripped on one end by both hands while a barbell should be gripped shoulder-width apart. Bring your arms behind your head, bend the elbows, then reverse to bring the weights level with your chest again.
This is a simple exercise and is appropriate for all fitness levels.
Curls
This exercise can be done with either dumbbells or barbells and it primarily works the biceps and forearms and improves grip strength. You’re probably already aware of this exercise to some degree.
You take two dumbbells, one in each hand, or grip a barbell shoulder-width apart, palms facing inward. Bend your knees slightly and contract your biceps, curling the weights up to the upper pectorals. Then you slowly lower the weights back to their starting position.
This is another simple, safe exercise for building strength in your hands and arms.
Bench Press
Time to end on a classic. This exercise is incorporated into many people’s fitness routines and is a great way to improve strength in your grip, biceps, and chest. Be aware that this exercise can add some size to your chest, so martial artists and those looking to keep a slim figure advise you to curtail them.
Lay flat on a bench, to begin with. Grip a barbell at the shoulder-width length and push the barbell off the support pins, extending your arms as far as they can go. Slowly bring the barbell back down to your chest, exhaling as you do, then push it back up.
Remember not to start with too much weight. Some people have become pinned beneath their own weights, and this can be fatal. Use caution and common sense and this exercise can become one of your favorites.
Remember to Not Try and Work Through Pain
Feeling ‘the burn’ is normal, and feeling some minor aches or cramps in the muscles is normal, too. However, any pain means you should stop. Try re-evaluating how you’re performing an exercise, move on to a new one, or maybe see your doctor if you feel that your experience is particularly abnormal.
It’s easy to build functional strength without packing on a lot of mass and by focusing on exercises that work multiple muscle groups at once, you can cut down on your workout time.
40 burpees in 20 seconds isn’t required in U.S. Army.