Most People Don’t Realize This: You Should Train *Inefficiently* for Muscle Growth but *Efficiently* for Strength Gains

Should you train to get bigger or stronger? What if you want both? It’s a common question that beginners and veteran lifters alike often wrestle with.

In a recent breakdown from Athlean-X, Jeff Cavaliere dives deep into the science and practice of size versus strength training.

Through personal experiences, research-backed methods, and coaching insights, he shows the key differences—and overlap—between chasing muscle hypertrophy and maximizing strength.

This ultimate guide explores everything from rep ranges and intensity to strategic fatigue management so you’ll walk away with a clear game plan tailored to your goals.

Understanding the Big Picture: Size vs. Strength

At the core of this discussion lies one critical distinction:

• Hypertrophy: The increase in muscle size through cellular growth and structural changes.
• Strength: The increase in maximal force output, deeply influenced by neural adaptation and movement efficiency.

You can become stronger without significantly growing in size, just as you can add mass without seeing huge gains in your one-rep max. That’s why the style you choose will influence how you train—everything from technique to rest intervals to weekly volume.

Efficiency vs. Inefficiency: The Technique Divide

To Get Stronger: Make Movements More Efficient

Training for strength is about getting better at performing compound lifts like bench press, squat, and deadlifts. Success hinges on:

• Efficient bar path: Moving the weight in as straight a line as possible
• Maximal muscle coordination: Recruiting synergy from all contributing muscle groups
• Consistency under load: Practicing and refining mechanics over time

Strength training is essentially skill-based. You don’t just “get stronger”—you learn how to move better under heavy resistance.

To Get Bigger: Make Movements Less Efficient

Ironically, hypertrophy training benefits from less efficiency. The goal is to isolate and stress specific muscles, removing assistance from secondary movers.

On a bench press, for example, hypertrophy-focused lifters intentionally emphasize the chest, limiting help from triceps and front delts. That means slower tempos, higher reps, and more time under tension.

Reps and Effort: Where the Real Growth Happens

Hypertrophy: Wide Rep Range, Intensity to Failure

Muscle growth can be achieved in rep ranges from 5 to 30 (or even higher), provided the sets are taken close to failure. The key principle here is effective reps: the reps at the end of a set that generate the most growth.

Cavaliere stresses the importance of developing an honest gauge for failure, especially because subjective rep goals like “leave two in the tank” can be misleading. Many beginners pull up short—thinking they’ve reached failure when they haven’t.

Strength: Lower Reps, Submaximal Effort

In contrast, strength gains occur best between 3 to 8 reps per set, performed at submaximal intensity. Rather than chasing failure, lifters stop short to preserve technique and support recovery.

Classic schemes include:

• 5×5 (five sets of five)
• 5×3 (five sets of three)
• 3×5 (three sets of five)

Training Volume and Frequency: Structuring Your Week

Hypertrophy Guidelines

• Muscle sets per week: 9–20 per muscle group
• Sessions: 2+ per week per muscle
• Split: Can use full-body, upper/lower, or “educated bro splits”

While volume is important, it must be paired with adequate tension and intensity to ensure muscle growth. Spreading that volume across the week (rather than placing all 20 sets in one session) tends to yield better results due to greater frequency of muscle protein synthesis.

Strength Guidelines

• Sets per movement per week: 5–15 (not per muscle, per compound lift)
• Frequency: 2–4 times per week per lift

Because strength training involves learning and grooving movement patterns, weekly consistency is key. Exercises are repeated often with minimal variation during strength phases—boring, but effective.

Managing Fatigue and Recovery

Hypertrophy = Push Through Discomfort

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a common and acceptable byproduct of hypertrophy training. In fact, it usually means you effectively created micro-tears that need rebuilding. However, chronic soreness shouldn’t derail your workout schedule.

This is where training “around” sore muscles comes in: rotate focus from lower to upper body, or from push to pull, allowing sore areas to recover while maintaining weekly volume.

Strength = Minimize Fatigue

For strength, fatigue is the enemy. Too much soreness impairs technique, risks injury, and interferes with the neural adaptations central to performance.

To manage fatigue effectively:

• Avoid reaching failure in your big lifts
• Use longer rest periods (3–7 minutes)
• Incorporate light recovery sessions or low-effort movement patterning

Progression and Variation

Hypertrophy: Variety Sparks Growth

To keep muscles adapting, variety is encouraged. But variety doesn’t always mean new exercises. It can also mean:

• Slower tempos
• Pauses and partials
• Intensity techniques like drop sets or supersets

All of these increase muscle tension without overhauling your program.

Strength: Consistency Builds Skill

In contrast, strength programs maintain the same compound lifts weekly. Slight modifications—such as pause squats, banded bench presses, or deficit deadlifts—are used strategically to overcome sticking points or improve technique.

Combining Strength and Size: Can You Do Both?

Yes, and there are two proven strategies:

1. Concurrent Training

In every workout, begin with your heavy compound lifts using strength protocols (low reps, long rest). Then, follow up with isolation and accessory exercises performed in hypertrophy style (higher reps, shorter rest, potential use of intensity methods).

Example:

• Barbell Bench Press – 4×5 @ 85% 1RM
• Incline Dumbbell Press – 3×10
• Cable Crossovers – 3×15 with drop set

2. Phasic Training

Alternate between blocks focused explicitly on one goal. For example:

• 4 weeks strength-focused: Heavy squats, bench, deadlifts, minimal hypertrophy work
• 4 weeks hypertrophy-focused: Moderate loads with higher reps, multiple angles, volume tactics

This approach ensures maximum adaptation without overstressing your body in both ways at once.

Final Word: Know Your Goal, Then Train Accordingly

Whether you want to build dense muscle, gross strength, or both, the approach must match the objective.

• Training for size? Embrace inefficiency, push to failure, and rotate movements to hit muscles from all angles.
• Chasing strength? Move efficiently, stop short of failure, and master compound lifts with discipline.
• Want both? Start heavy, end with hypertrophy—and manage your fatigue wisely.

As Jeff Cavaliere puts it, “You can absolutely do both—you just can’t do them the same way.”

Train smart, recover smarter, and the results will come. 👊