 First question is from Jenny Jane 36. What is the difference between strength gains and muscle gains? Strength versus muscle. All right. So strength is obviously a function of performance Muscle contributes heavily to that but so does technique So does your skill and your ability of your muscles to communicate with each other This is why a much bigger bodybuilder might not be as strong as someone much smaller So can you develop more strength without building more muscle? Yes, you can. Can you build muscle without necessarily gaining more strength? Yes, also now bigger muscles always contract harder So a bigger muscle is stronger in its contraction But if you can't translate it to skill and technique Then you'll have bigger muscles that just aren't moving as effectively and so you're not going to be as strong Now the beauty of it is this they're so closely connected Yeah, that training for one or the other will probably give you both It's an interesting question that you know, I've gotten quite a few times And it I remember geeking out on this a lot as a kid because I would see guys that weren't that huge But we're insanely strong and I'm like where where are they getting this from because all the guys I used to idolize were just huge Arnold type You know bodybuilder guys that were on action movies and and and meanwhile you see, you know Kind of a scrawny looking dude like being able to pull off these amazing feats of strength But then I started learning more about the central nervous system. I started learning more about force output I started learning, you know about technique and mastery of technique and things like that and then you really see like there's There's a different way to train to manipulate both of those and sometimes they both You know bode well for each other as well Well, there's definitely carry over in both But I mean like Olympic athletes are such a great example of this conversation Like they don't just keep getting bigger and bigger. I mean you look like I compete in my classes Yeah, like our buddy sunny Webster. You look at like his his body, you know shape size. I mean, he's built Yeah, but he's not a bodybuilder. Yeah, but he can crush a bodybuilder. Oh, yeah, he's incredibly strong So it really highlights how much room there is to improve CNS and and technique Mastery really getting good at that that there's you can you could scale strength quite a bit without getting Massive or building a ton of extra muscle just by getting better at the movement itself Yeah and a lot of those movements don't like big bulky muscles we get in the way of You know the fluidity of it of you know, really, you know it like being able to being able to move with ferocity and more force and Power and so, you know, like we literally build our bodies and we Determine what the outcome is based on the way that we're moving and we're stimulating it There's also highlights So the other side of that which is that you don't necessarily always have to move a ton of weight to build a very aesthetic physique Correct. I mean, I actually was I fell in that camp for most of my training career I actually I mean, I have I have chased PRs and and singles and heavy lifts More in the last six years with you guys and I did my previous 15 years of lifting I never cared about that. It was like it was always about how I looked and so I was all technique guy all about diet and building muscle and Constantly phasing my workouts and really like trying to maximize that I and I rarely ever would lift to it because I was too much Risk for me. It's like, yeah I know if I if I train the skill of this and I focus more on my output I could get better possibly and the gains could carry over into my physique But I was so focused on my physique that I was like, I don't really care about that The risk wasn't I was too high for me at that point now What I have learned with my experience today. I think there's a nice balance totally like I do think that I got I got tremendous value as a pro Starting to strength train and and working in the more performance aspect of training That carried over into building a better physique. So yeah, that being said, I would say to the average person You just focus on getting stronger. Now, you don't need to be a competitive lifter You don't even need to just focus on the big three lifts But just getting stronger you're gonna get a great deal of both I think when it starts to become more important to focus where you're gonna go Whatever is once you start to get advanced once the weight really starts to get heavy, you know, okay Now I'm squatting 300 pounds Should I push to get to 400 or should I slow my reps down and contract and squeeze and just focus on developing a better body? That becomes more of a you know more of an important debate, but if you're new or intermediate Just get stronger. That's the most of you're gonna get more out of that than almost anything Yeah, building a strong foundational base will give you so many more options to build off of from there totally