Choosing Between Strength or Size? Get Both with These 3 Proven Training Principles

If you’ve coached clients in the gym, you’ve probably heard one (or both) of these goals:

✅ “I want to build more muscle.”
✅ “I want to get stronger.”

Most people assume they need to choose one and focus their efforts either on hypertrophy (muscle growth) or strength training exclusively.

But what if I told you that you don’t have to pick one or the other? That building strength and size can happen at the same time… as long as you structure your workouts correctly.

It all comes down to:

• The right programming approach and effective exercise selection.
• Managing load across exercises.
• Setting clear intentions for effort and progression

In this article, I’ll break down exactly how to design workouts that maximize both muscle growth and strength gains, so your clients can achieve the best of both worlds.

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KEY POINTS AND COMMON MYTHS

Before diving in, there are a few key research-backed principles you need to understand to get the most out of this article:

1. Muscle growth can happen across a wide rep range. Anywhere from 5 to 30 reps can be effective.
2. The primary driver of hypertrophy is intramuscular tension and maximizing the co-contraction of as many sarcomeres as possible.
3. Excess muscle lactate and hydrogen ion buildup reduces contractile efficiency, impacting performance.
4. Developing maximal strength generally requires lower rep ranges, as heavier loads provide the strongest stimulus for neural adaptations.

In addition to these 4 points, it’s important that we avoid some common myths in regard to lifting weights and building muscle:

• Excessive muscle damage is not going to help you build more muscle.
• High volume workouts are not going to help you build more muscle. 
• Lifting to failure across all sets is not going to help you build more muscle.

Understanding these points is necessary for you to think critically when designing programs for your clients.

Point #1 – Programing and Exercise Selection for Strength AND Muscle Gains

If we recall the key points from earlier, notably that muscle-building can still occur with reps as low as 5, we can design a program that optimizes both strength and hypertrophy.

The First Rule: Prioritize Strength First

The first exercise(s) of your workout should focus on strength. Why?

• Strength-based movements require coordination and minimal fatigue.
• Heavy, multi-joint movements demand the most neuromuscular output.
• Placing these at the start of your session ensures maximum force production.

It wouldn’t make sense to leave heavy strength work for the end when both mental and physical fatigue are at their highest.

✅ Suggestion: Start your workout with 1-2 compound movements performed in lower rep ranges.

Note: Beginner clients will not perform well with very low rep ranges, it’s best that you begin with anywhere between 8-12 reps and work on execution first. The following example is generalized for an intermediate lifter.

For an upper body workout, this might look like:
🔹 Seated Barbell Overhead Press – 3-4 x 5-7
🔹 Chin-Up – 3-4 x 5-7

For a lower body workout, we might begin simply with:
🔹 Back Squat – 3-4 x 5-7

These compound movements are relatively simple, and are easy to apply progressive overload to over time.

The Second Rule: Follow Up with Hypertrophy Work

Just because the first exercises focus on strength doesn’t mean they don’t build muscle. However, for both safety and long-term progressive overload, it’s not always smart to train these heavy lifts to absolute failure.

This is where hypertrophy-focused exercises come in.

• These secondary movements allow for higher reps, controlled fatigue, and better isolation of individual muscles.
• This is where we shift from maximal force output to maximizing intramuscular tension.

✅Suggestion: Follow your strength work with 2-3 exercises focused on muscle growth, using moderate rep ranges (8-12 reps). 

Note: You can choose to perform higher reps than 12, but ask yourself “why”?. If they can get a similar hypertrophy response with 8-12 reps, why is it important they complete more?

For an upper body workout, this might look like:
🔹 Seated Machine Press – 3 x 8-10
🔹 Seated Cable Row – 3 x 10-12

For a lower body workout, we might follow up with:
🔹 Seated Leg Curl – 3 x 8-10
🔹 Leg Press – 3 x 10-12

These exercises allow you to train closer to failure more safely, ensuring you fully activate as many sarcomeres as possible without the risk of excessive fatigue on complex movements. We talk more about machine-work in this article, click here to read it!

The Takeaway:

• Strength comes first. Heavy, low-rep compound lifts set the foundation.
• Hypertrophy follows. Moderate-rep, more isolated movements allow you to push closer to failure safely.
• More muscle helps you produce more force, but the stronger you get, the more strategic you have to be with volume, because heavier lifts take a greater toll on your recovery.

By structuring your workouts this way, you’ll build strength and muscle simultaneously, without sacrificing one for the other.

Point #2 – Managing Load Across Exercises

This next discussion point is critical to understand.

When I talk about managing load, I’m referring to your ability to adjust the weight you’re using based on how you’re performing, both in the moment and throughout the session.

If you get this wrong, it’s not just about missing progress in strength or size. It can lead to nagging joint pain, overuse injuries, and setbacks that can stall your clients’ momentum for weeks.

Knowing how to manage load properly lets you:

• Train hard without breaking down
• Make smart adjustments on days when things feel off
• Keep progressing without burning out

To illustrate how to approach loading for strength movements, let’s look at two contrasting examples.

Example 1 — Lower Body Workout: Squats, 3 to 4 sets of 5 to 7 reps

• Week 1: 4 sets at 6, 5, 4, 3 reps using 200 lbs
• Week 2: 4 sets at 6, 5, 5, 4 reps using 200 lbs
• Week 3: 4 sets at 7, 6, 6, 5 reps using 200 lbs
  By week 3, the client mentions lower back discomfort and increased fatigue. You observe compensation in the final reps of the last few sets across each session.

Example 2 — Same Exercise

• • Week 1: 3 sets at 7, 7, 6 reps using 185 lbs
  • Week 2: 3 sets at 6, 6, 5 reps using 195 lbs
  • Week 3: 4 sets at 7, 6, 5, 5 reps using 205 lbs
    The client shows minimal to no compensation and reports no pain. Technique holds up under load, and bar speed remains strong throughout the concentric portion.

The difference between the two is clear.

In Example 1, the client started too heavy and by the final two sets had already dropped below the intended rep range. You decide to keep the weight the same for week two, and while performance improves slightly, with just two more reps across the session, it still falls short on the final set. So the weight stays the same for week three, where progress remains minimal, now paired with lower back pain and elevated fatigue that negatively impacts the rest of the workout.

This is an example of poor load management. If this continued, the likely outcomes would be injury, stagnation, or both.

In Example 2, the client starts with a manageable weight, maintains strong technique, shows minimal compensation, and even displays solid bar speed on the concentric phase. Because the load is appropriate, progression is steady, performance is clean, and their body is able to recover between sessions.

Now let’s move on to the hypertrophy-focused exercises.

Load management still matters during hypertrophy work, but the priority shifts toward training close to failure and observing rep quality, especially as fatigue sets in. A clear slowdown in concentric speed is a strong sign the muscle is under high tension and nearing its limit, indicating effective sarcomere recruitment.

Instead of just tracking weight, your focus becomes how the set unfolds, how hard the client is working, how well their form holds, and how much control they maintain. Strength gains can still occur here, but since these exercises follow heavier compound lifts, fatigue will limit week-to-week progress. That’s normal. You shouldn’t expect load increases every week on these movements.

Video of leg curl close to failure with slow concentric

The Takeaway:

• Start lighter than you think, especially with strength-focused lifts. Allow performance and form to guide your load selection.
• Avoid chasing numbers at the expense of technique. Progress happens when the weight is challenging, but controlled.
• Use bar speed and rep quality as indicators of fatigue and stimulus. If reps are grinding from the start, you’re too heavy.
• In hypertrophy work, prioritize proximity to failure over weight lifted. Slower concentrics near the end of a set signal you’re in the right zone.
• You don’t need to increase load on every exercise, every week. Sustainable progress comes from making smart, timely adjustments and not by forcing PRs.

Point #3 – Setting Clear Intentions for Effort and Progression

This ties into the previous section but deserves its own spotlight.Your intention when coaching strength movements is not the same as for hypertrophy movements. Each has its own set of expectations and standards, and when you make those clear to your clients, their performance and results improve dramatically.

Here’s how to approach each:

Strength Movements

• Reps should be very high quality, with minimal compensation (aim for 95% or better).
• Tempo must be consistent—rep to rep, set to set, and session to session. (check this article out to better understand the role of tempo for hypertrophy)
• Bar speed should only drop about 10 to 20% from the first rep to the last. If it’s slowing down more than that, the load may be too heavy.
• Failure is not the goal. In fact, using slightly less weight often leads to better long-term strength gains by allowing more consistent recovery and better execution.
• Progressive overload is your primary progress marker over weeks and months. This only works if the above standards are met and recovery is sufficient to come back stronger. Think small, sustainable increases like 2 to 4% more weight per week when possible. (Read this article on how to improve your client’s recovery)

Hypertrophy-Movements

• Reps should still be high quality, but some breakdown or incomplete reps are acceptable as you approach failure.
• Tempo should be mostly standardized, but it’s less important than with strength work. 
• Bar speed should drop significantly near the end of the set. If the last two or three reps look and feel just like the first few, your client is nowhere near failure.
• Proximity to failure is the key driver of hypertrophy here, but that doesn’t mean sloppy reps. You need to push with intention. A lazy rep doesn’t count. Cue and motivate your clients through those final reps to stay tight and push with all their effort.
• Progressive overload should still occur, but expect smaller jumps and slower progression due to cumulative fatigue. The strength gained from the earlier exercises will help carry progress here over time.

Your clients don’t need to pick between strength or size.
If you program with intention, manage load properly, and coach the right effort, they can build both at the same time.

Keep it simple, stick to the principles, and help them train in a way that actually moves the needle!


References:

Fernandes, H. (2025). A systematic review about results of low load on resistance training for muscle hypertrophy. Journal of Medical Research and Clinical Review, 1(1), 1–7.

Schoenfeld, B. J., Grgic, J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2017). Strength and hypertrophy adaptations between low- vs. high-load resistance training: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 31(12), 3508–3523. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000002200