One of the longest-running debates in the gym is whether training for size is really different from training for strength. People argue about everything from rep ranges to exercise selection to how much weight you should lift. Sure, veteran lifters know there’s overlap (you can’t build size without strength and vice versa), but how you approach your training still depends on what you’re trying to achieve.
The key differences often come down to how your body responds and recovers. Training for strength is about moving heavier weights and building neural efficiency, while training for size focuses on muscle fatigue, pump, and volume. Knowing which approach to emphasize can help you structure your workouts smarter and see faster results.
In a recent video, Mike Israetel, Ph.D., exercise scientist and co-founder of RP Strength, explains the key differences between training for size and strength and how you can use that knowledge to get better results.
3 Major Differences Between Training for Size and Strength
Exercise Selection
One of the biggest differences between training for strength and hypertrophy is exercise selection. For hypertrophy, you choose movements that isolate the muscle you want to grow—like a dumbbell bicep curl. Strength training, on the other hand, focuses on compound lifts that engage multiple muscle groups, such as the bench press. Israetel breaks it down using the glutes as an example:
“When we’re training our glutes for hypertrophy, we ask the question of which exercise really targets the glutes,” Israetel says. We don’t really care about how much weight is on the bar or what exercise is used in competition because there is no competition hypertrophy training. So, a front foot elevated Smith machine lunge is an amazing glute exercise. But in powerlifting, for example, and training for strength, we want to train for specific movements because that’s how we test them. So deadlifts are an excellent movement that also stimulates plenty of glute hypertrophy.”
Related: The Brutal Leg Workout That’ll Test Your Limits (and Your Quads)
Rep Ranges
The second major difference is the repetition range. If your main goal is to get stronger, Israetel suggests sticking to a range of roughly three to six reps. If you want the sweet spot between building both size and strength, sets of five to 10 work best.
“If you’re a powerlifter and you need bigger legs because you want to squat more, building your big legs with sets of five to 10 is going to convert to bigger numbers on your squat than building your bigger legs with sets of 10 to 15 reps, for example,” Israetel says.
If your main goal is muscle growth, the rep range broadens to five to 30 reps per set, as long as you’re working close to failure. The exact number of reps depends on your goals and circumstances, but hypertrophy-focused sets are generally higher than strength-focused sets.
Volumes
If you’re working through your next program, you might wonder—how much do I need to train each muscle group per week to see results? Well, according to Israel, that will once again depend on your goals. If you want to gain strength, you should aim for around five to 15 sets per muscle group and/or movement per week. If your goal is muscle hypertrophy, you should look to hit that muscle group or exercise with 10 to 30 (or better yet, 20 to 30) sets per week.
“If your chest just isn’t growing and you’ve been doing sets of eight per week, it’s a great way to get your chest strong for sure,” he says. “But to get to the maximum size, you’re going to want to flirt over 10 and then considerably over 10, especially if you ease in.”
