Progressing in strength but not body weight

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Just wanted to know yall’s thoughts on getting stronger but not gaining weight. I’ve been doing PH3 by Layne Norton and I’ve increased steadily in my weights as the weeks go on (8th week in), but my weight hasn’t gone up very much if any. I can tell my bench, squat and deadlift have increased week by week by doing more reps or increased weights and wanted to know if there has to be a correlation between getting stronger and body weight gain. As I am preparing for a meet in the future (no date yet) I feel like I don’t necessarily need to be gaining much weight so I can be in the 181 weight class. I’m currently weighing around 183 at 5’9.

2

Are you asking if it’s possible to get stronger without gaining weight?

3

In a way, just wondered about yall’s thoughts progressing without gaining body weight. Watching your Q&A off Alan’s channel it seems you want your clients to gain weight (ie drinking a glass of milk with every meal) while weight training. Do you stay around the same body weight and continually get stronger? Or would you say you’ve increased your body weight as the years go on? As a powerlifter it seems beneficial not to gain weight and get stronger. Appreciate your time Austin.

4

We only “want” our clients to gain weight if they’re starting out underweight.

You should watch this:

5

For sure, funny thing is I watched that video a few days later and it pretty much went along with my question. What federation and what meet are you doing Austin? It’d be awesome to see you in an upcoming PL meet.

Another question if you don’t mind for either of you guys, going from squats and benching 3x weekly, deadlifts 2x, would trying the bridge program be around the same amount of volume and be beneficial to do after my current workout plan?

6

I competed in a local USAPL meet here in San Antonio last weekend.

We don’t know anything about your current workout plan, so… I dunno. If you’re curious about the volume comparison, just add up the amount of training volume per lift in your current program and compare it to what you see listed in the Bridge.