Q: Hello, I wanted to ask how I can gain more strength without too much muscle mass growth. Is it in more reps and sets? I have a 10 kilogram (20 pounds approx.) dumbell, and I do 6 sets of 20. Is that right for more strength and less bulky muscle? And for the opposite? I'd appreciate some input. Thanks.

A: Usually stength is defined as being able to exert high maximal force or, in other words, being able to lift more weight at once. The way you are training, you won't develop strength but instead will develop what is called muscular endurance -- being able to lift a relatively light weight a lot of times. So you need to decide whether you're interested in strength or in muscular endurance and also whether you want to get stronger overall or for a specific sport or in a specific exercise or exercises?

To give you some ideas... The two Olympic weightlifting exercises are the snatch and the clean & jerk -- these exercises are about both strength and power (power is basically being able to exert strength at high speeds). The three powerlifting exercises are the squat, the deadlift, and the bench press (though called 'powerlifting' these exercises are about strength only). Many, if not all, sports benefit from strength and/or muscular endurance in one or more areas of the body. Many fitness enthusiasts try to do as many pullups or pushups as they can (this, especially with pushups, is an example of muscular endurance rather than strength). Finally many bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts achieve high strength over all of their muscle groups without necessarily focusing on any one exercise or part of the body.

It sounds like you're just doing bicep curls now -- that's just one exercise which uses less than 10% of your overall muscle mass. So you need to decide whther that is all you're looking to get strong at?

Once you decide that, you can start looking at what training is most appropriate for your goal. If you are just looking to be able to do as many bicep curls with a 10-kilo weight as possible, then you can pretty much continue what you're doing now. If you're interested in developing high strength over all of your body, you can follow almost any of the weighttraining routines I give in this section besides the no-equipment/dumbbell only ones. The no-equipment/dumbbell-only routines are more appropriate to develop a mix of some strength and some endurance. This is a powerlifting-specific routine if you specifically want to train for squat, deadlift, and bench press. I don't give any Olympic-style or sport-specific routines because they generally require good hands-on coaching to be effective (I may add some more info about them in the future).

Finally, a note about getting bulky muscles -- that won't happen unless you eat a lot and gain weight. Weightlifting does not make you bulky, it actually makes you lean... UNLESS you eat a lot at the same time. Eating a lot happens for a lot of people because lifting weights does make you hungry. So if you don't watch what and how much you eat you can end up bulky from both fat and muscle. But that's ENTIRELY due to the diet and not weightlifting. If you eat so you don't gain weight, you'll never ever become bulky no matter how strong you are.