Does strength gain (without muscles getting bigger) lead to greater flexibility?

Asked by: Mariah Thompson

Does muscle strength affect flexibility?

Contrary to common gym lore, resistance training does not reduce flexibility. When an exercise is performed properly, through a full range of motion, it will actually help increase your flexibility.

Do Bigger muscles mean less flexibility?

Does building bigger muscles decrease flexibility? “Building bigger muscles doesn’t necessarily mean a decrease in flexibility, provided that resistance training is performed through a full range of motion,” explains Obayuvana.

Does strength training make you more flexible?

Both stretching and strength training performed equally well at improving hamstring flexibility, and both were superior to no exercise. Resistance training was superior to no intervention at improving hip flexibility, but stretch training was no better than doing nothing.

How do you build strength without losing flexibility?

Try integrating plyometrics, complex exercises, and functional training into your routine. All three of these types of exercises will help increase body awareness, which is vital in flexibility training.

Do you need strength to be flexible?

To function at its best, your body needs to be flexible and strong. Flexibility without strength is useless at best, harmful at worst.

Why do I gain strength but not size?

You Don’t Have Enough Training Volume



Hypertrophy adaptations (I.E. building muscle) are ruled by the principle of volume. The more volume in your training (more sets and reps) the greater the hypertrophy response you will get (up to a point of course).

Can you be strong without muscles?

“People that have a higher percentage of fast twitch muscle fibers have a greater capacity to produce more force,” Buresh says. Fast twitch fibers also have a greater potential to get big. THE BOTTOM LINE: Yes, it is possible to be strong—and to get stronger—without having enormous muscles.

Why am I getting stronger but not bigger?

When you first do an exercise, you’ll get stronger rapidly. Just so you know: this is not because your muscle got a lot bigger. But, rather, because of your brain’s improved ability to activate that muscle during the exercise. This is what we call neurological adaptations, which lasts about 8-12 weeks.

Can you be strong without looking strong?

Size fortunately there are some factors. Some variables that influence strength without having a big impact on size and that's what we're going to focus on here.

Do Bigger muscles mean more strength?

Larger muscle fibers generally produce more force than smaller muscle fibers, which shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Bigger muscle fibers tend to be stronger muscle fibers. From Gilliver, 2009. However, while absolute strength of muscle fibers tends to increase with fiber size, relative strength tends to decrease.