Skinny Strong: How it Happens and a Technique (G.T.G.) for achieving it

[Music] Strength and power are often associated with size,  yet throughout history athletes who are small in stature have displayed tremendous power and nearly  unbelievable strength. A prime example of this is 1980s boxing Superstar Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, a man  whose power was so legendary that at a height of only 5' 4" and weighing only 135 pounds, he routinely  had to spar heavy weights in order to avoid consistently knocking out his training partners.  A more recent example is the incredibly strong school teacher and British weightlifting champion  Jaswant Shergill, who had a body weight of only 67 kilograms on a rather thin frame, was able to lift an  incredibly impressive 155 kg overhead in 2023.

So how are such extraordinary feats of power and  strength possible without a correspondingly large physique. Strength is built primarily by one of two mechanisms. The first is the one everybody immediately thinks about, changing the mechanical  strength of the muscle fibers themselves.

This type of strength training is seen in most strength  training methods and results in increases in the actual size and strength of the muscle  fibers that make up the muscles being trained. The second mechanism is much less talked about but  no less important and it is known as neuromuscular efficiency. Strength and power gains stemming from  this mechanism are not due to the strength of the muscle fibers, but are instead created by the highly  efficient use of the nervous system that controls those muscle fibers.

Effective neuromuscular  strength means that your nervous system can recruit high levels of muscle fibers while  also ensuring that the fibers selected are the most appropriate and efficient for the movement  patterns being used. On top of this, there is a far more effective synchronization of efforts between  the primary muscular movers and the supplementary muscles responsible for stabilizing and assisting  the body during strength production. There are many training modalities with the potential to greatly  increase neuromuscular strength and efficiency, but today we're going to focus on what amounts to a  gamification of the effect known as "greasing the groove".

This is a term coined by kettlebell Guru  Paval Tsatsouline, and has been used to great effect in both kettlebell and calisthenic circles for decades  now. However, its use is certainly not limited to these modalities and is equally effective for  all strength based movement patterns. The idea behind the method is that while muscular  gains are elicited from the breakdown and subsequent repair of muscle fibers from exercise, neuromuscular adaptation is best created from high repetition.

The more experience the nervous  system has with a movement, the stronger the neural pathways which produce that movement become, and the more opportunities the individual has to develop skill within that movement pattern. However, there is a problem with just cranking out endless repetitions. After a short time the muscles and  nervous system fatigue and the quality of each repetition begins to diminish.

Causing poor quality  neuromuscular habits to form. Also, once the muscles are fatigued and broken down you must wait until  they recover often days later in order to continue training, thereby decreasing the total repetitions  you can perform. To solve for these limitations the "grease and the groove" technique has you perform  a small amount of repetitions at a time, almost always five or less.

And at an intensity level  that's easier for you to manage, often anywhere between 35 and 70% of your one rep max. This is  then repeated at multiple intervals throughout the day, and anywhere between 4 and 6 days a week. This allows you to get a high number of total repetitions throughout the day without fatiguing  the muscles and while keeping the quality of the repetitions very high.

The results are often  dramatic strength or strength endurance gains in a relatively short period of time. A classically  utilized example of this is with pull-ups. It is common for people to see the consecutive number  of pull-ups they are able to perform nearly double often only after 8 to 12 weeks.

There are two  primary schools of thought about how to structure the use of this technique the first is to have it  all planned out. For example, maybe 3 reps at a time, 5 days a week for the first week. Then add a  rep each week until you get to 5 reps.

At this point you can increase the weight of the exercise  and drop the reps back down to 3 again. The other school of thought, is to go by more of an  intuitive approach and to do only what you feel you can do each day. This is to ensure that you  at no point overtrain yourself into soreness or fatigue.

I've also seen other people turn this  into a game, in fact my first introduction to the technique was from my cousin back in  college. He had put a pull-up bar in the doorway of his bedroom and every time he  walked through the bedroom door he would do two pull-ups as perfectly as he could. By  the end of each day he would easily rack up between 15 and 20 high quality pull-ups and  felt virtually no fatigue from the effort.

However you choose to utilize this technique, keep  these rough guidelines in mind. One, never use this technique on more than 2 movement patterns at a  time. Two, whichever muscle group you're targeting the most with this technique take out of your  normal exercise routine until you're "grease the groove" program runs its course.

For instance, if  greasing the groove with pull-ups for 8 weeks, during that time keep the latissimus dorsi fresh by not doing  any pull downs or pullovers. Three, stay mindful of your form and make sure each repetition is  as high quality as possible. You don't want to develop strong neural pathways with poor  exercise form.

This is very hard to undo later on. If you've ever tried this technique let us  know what kind of results you had and if you have any other tips that you can provide the  community in the comment section below. If you enjoyed the content be sure to like, subscribe,  and hit the notification bell to be notified of future content.

Good luck with your training  and until next time, keep moving my friends.