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He's Skinny But INSANELY Strong! (HERE'S HOW)

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Rating: 4.5; Vote: 2

Have you wondered how someone can be skinny but insanely strong? In this video, I am going to cover how Jesse is not the biggest guy in the room, but is certainly crazy strong, especially for his bodyweight. Not only that, but Jesse is going to share with you his tips for getting insanely strong while being skinny. First things first, people often get wrong Jesse's dimensions when they take a look at him. Some of his stats may actually surprise you. Height: 5 foot, 10. 75 inches Weight: 165 lbs So while he doesn't look like he can lift any crazy weights, you might just be surprised at how strong Jesse really is. Believe me, it's probably a lot stronger than most would think he would be based on his body size. The first lift that Jesse covers is the deadlift and what he did to get to the point where he hit a 550 lb deadlift personal best. His first tip for skinny guys looking to get strong is to use leverages to your advantage and utilize the wedge. Instead of pulling the bar straight up his shins and thighs, he pulls the bar back into his legs while pulling straight up. By wedging himself under the bar, he finds that lifting hundreds of pounds off the ground to be a lot easier. The second tip for the deadlift is the change in volume and intensity that Jesse was doing when it came to his deadlift sessions. He decided to trade in volume for intensity to get insanely strong. This meant that instead of performing sets of 5 or more reps, Jesse was performing singles, doubles, and triples with heavier weight than he normally would. Obviously, he had to cut back how many deadlift sessions he was doing each week, but the trade of volume for intensity worked for him. For skinny guys looking to get stronger legs and a stronger squat, Jesse has two tips here that helped him to build up to a 430 lb squat. First is a tip on technique and squat form; raising the chest while moving it at the same time as the pelvis. Instead of pointing the nipples to the ground, he raised his chest up and pinched his shoulder blades back, which in turn helped him to move his hips at the same time as his chest when ascending on the squat. The second tip the Jesse has for skinny guys to get stronger is based on, again, his programming. Because the squat is not as taxing on the body, he was able to do 3 squat sessions every 10 days. However, he was still using heavy enough weight to be performing triples, doubles, and single repetitions. Knowing that the best way to get better at performing a lift is to practice doing the lift, Jesse believes that practicing the lift and getting better at the entire movement is invaluable to getting stronger. While some might say that there is no way that Jesse is a strong bench presser, they might be right, but for a reason you might not expect. He broke his collarbone snowboarding a few years back and it has caused him some pain and discomfort whenever he performs the barbell bench press. However, Jesse made an adjustment and instead of benching through pain or not benching at all, he utilized dumbbells instead. While you might not think a skinny guy is strong, especially when it comes to bench pressing, you might be surprised by Jesse's strength. His first tip for getting stronger on the bench press is to eliminate the discomfort. To do this, Jesse took a tip from Jeff and found the proper touch point on his chest. This allowed for the stacking of the elbow under the wrist under the dumbbell which helped create stability an stability is one of the key things to look for when dealing with shoulder pain or discomfort. Jesse's second tip to get stronger on the bench press is to utilize a technique called leg drive. Leg drive allows you to almost slide your body up the bench which helps create a small amount of momentum to help press heavier weight. This applies to both the dumbbell bench press and the barbell bench press. The other thing it does is to help create the natural path of the weights on the press, keeping you strong and healthy at the same time. I'm sure you've heard the argument that pullups are easy for anyone that's skinny. However, to get really strong on the pullup, Jesse has two tips that you can bring to the gym with you. The first tip is to add weight to the exercise. Doing weighted pullups, even a few sets and reps, will help you get stronger so that when you return to bodyweight, you will fly up and down on the bar. Be sure to watch the video for Jesse's second tip on how to get stronger on the pullups.
Date: 2023-09-25

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Comments and reviews: 20

william
I've been watching you guys for years. Love you guys and the videos (with the light humor!
I too am 5'10'' and small/skinny, but still have some strength left at 63. Yes, I too am dealing with a shoulder injury among others from things in my past like sprinting, ice skating, and 15 years of 10-speeding. I do 3 sets of 8 at 135lbs for both squats and bench with no issues (like being winded, tired, etc. Eventually I will progress to more weight, but the problem right now is that I only have access to a Smith machine, which I don't like, especially when doing the squats.
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HeadCannon
Jesse is a REAL hard gainer. 5'10 165 is pretty light. I'm 5'10 but I like the Marius Pujanowski look. Jesse adding 45 lbs to a pullup makes him equal to me at 210. If I put -45lbs on the pullup assist machine I would fly through 20 pullups too. Hmm, I might try that for fun just to see what it would be like.
If I were Jesse I would be working on mass gaining with higher rep ranges/ lower weight. But he may like his skinny fit look.
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sport
Thanks for another great video!
Would still love to see a sit down with Jeff and Thomas Delauer.
As a sufferer of psoriatic arthritis I couldn't lift free weights any more.
Thanks to Jeffs resistance band workout and Thomas's anti-inflamatory mediteranean
keto, I've lost almost 100 pounds and my arthritis is way more manageable.
Sometimes I forget I have it.
Anyways, I'll keep on harping about that sit down vid.
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Dan
I've been training consistently since 1979, been in a lot of gyms, trained with and seen a lot of strong lifters and those lifts are pretty impressive for a natural guy. The problem today is that most of the people we see posting on social media are on the sauce and watching the weights they lift skews the viewers' perceptions of what heavy is. 3. 3x bodyweight deads, 2. 6 squat and 100lb dbl presses at 165 are no joke. Props to you.
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Jon
Definitely been enjoying jesse's progression throughout the years, he should try a power lifting competition as he's 2 weight classes under me but he's throwing weight like guys only a class under me (i'm in the 90KG just for reference, he'd do great (would have to figure out a way on the bench as they have you pause for a good bit at the bottom of the press)
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bingS4
So my first impressions watching Jesse deadlift are that the speed of his attack on the bar and his back position (appearing rounded) seem like they could expose him to more possibility of injury. But knowing that he's working with Jeff, I assume it's just fine. Anyone else have any thoughts about that? I'm certainly no deadlift expert so I'm curious.
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Two
Impressive and inspiring. I can't wait to start making gains. I have just a couple major pieces of gym equipment to install this month and as long as my shoulder joints and other issues heal. I should be making Jesse type gains in no time. Keep up the good work. Moving hips and chest in unison during squat is the good form I hope to achieve.
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Ivan
So, deadlift once a week real heavy?
And for squats 3 times in 10 days and also heavy?
Probably you are recovering very well. I'm doing 531 and I do heavy once a week + supplementary work which is 5x10 60% of my training max. And this heavy set is As Many Reps As Possible (AMRAP. Maybe I should consider doing some triples too?
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Korriel
I ve always been a hard gainer, and seeing Jesse s progress has been super inspirational because it s real and shows me the kind of realistic gains I can get with hard work. It s something I can believe I can achieve, because so many people end up giving up thinking this is only achievable by giving up being natty
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Edge
He's actually not skinny. It's just nowadays, Americans eat so much and are all just big. Even in high school lol. A long time ago, more of the people were slim. There are still certain areas in the world where ppl eat a normal amount and aren't all big for nothing. But canada and america. they are not good.
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Benjamin
I was always tiny and strong for my size especially when I was working out a lot I was able to move very heavy weight at work and really big guys were not able to the being big makes it kind of strong because of your weight hard to be moved around but strength from moving heavy objects is different
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German
Eh, the strength level is intermediate when it comes to people that lift regularly, but I can't help that this guy thinks his lifts are more impressive than they are. I'm really not trying to hate, I just think you have a ton of room for growth and you can be much stronger but you don't realize it
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XAUCADTrader
Damn, after 8-10 years of lifting, I never got that high as a 200 pounder. 405D/315S/360B, blew out L5S1on squat and it was all over. Stay safe everyone! If you get injured, the PRs stop completely. I barely felt I had control of my bladder/sphincter back then when it happened.
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sport
No one s saying he isn t strong. He just doesn t put on muscle very well. He prob has to eat like 5000-8000 cals per day everyday and that s bad for your body over time. The weight he lifts he should be at least 175-185 lean / ripped if he was able to put on the size.
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Jon
Jesse-
You and I are built the same except I m 6 0 and 163lb. Thanks for sharing your workouts! This will be a huge help to me as I plan to incorporate this into my next workout evolution.
I also started competing in HYROX last year and hope to do it again.
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Shams
I'm happy for you J (I'm personally a stamina over strength kind of guy - we are not in the stone ages. It's more meaningful to build your stamina when building your physique. Hope you improve on the diet and rest; so we can see more of those natural gains.
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Kim
Do people actually make mean comments like this! Those poor souls; someone must've really hurt them at some point. :( In any case, Jesse, this video was informative and well made. And as if we needed any convincing, YES, we are convinced: You strong, bro!
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TripleM__QGTM
100% on the wieghted pullups, been doing them about 2 weeks and my pullup rep count has increased as well as the size of my lats. Dips the same, I use dips for chesr with a lean and my lower pecs are growing bigtime.
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Czechbound
Ha ha, that was EXCELLENT. Jesse, you are a true blue inspiration. Only yesterday you were skinny and not strong. Now you're noticeably bigger, and very, very strong. Fantastic achievement! Greetings from Prague, CZ
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Oleksii
very encouraging (and entertaining! sounds like Jesse experimented quite a bit with reps per set to maximise gainz. a good reminder to look for alternative approaches if whatever you're doing isn't getting you results.
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