eatting like a mass gainer?
 

Will training for strength and eating an extra 500+ calories (of the right food) still get you to gain like both training and eating like a mass gainer? Or is training stricktly for strength activate your muscles in a different way in which they just get stronger without actually growing?

I ask because I am more interested in strength, but I still want to put on another 5-10 pounds of muscle.

Eating like a mass gainer...? Are you talking about consuming a weight gainer shake? If so, it's the same difference as eating extra carbs & protein.

No, for example if I wanted to gain strength and maintain my weight I would eat an exact amount of calories and adjust my workouts to gain strength, and to gain mass, I would eat a surplus and have more of a hypertrophy type workout. I am asking if no matter which way you lift, if you eat a calorie surplus, will you still gain muscle mass. Or is strength training different enough to only get your muscle stronger, but not enough to get it to actually grow in size.

You'll most likely still gain mass. Kind of depends on the person though.

Alright, thanks.

Strength training tends to focus more on lower reps--powerlifters often do several sets of 3 reps, for example. As the previous poster mentioned, the size you'd get kind of depends on your own physiology. Having said that, you'll probably get more size from slightly higher rep ranges, like 5-8.

so I would gain more strength w/ 5 sets of 3 and more mass from 3 sets of 10?

and what about the difference in weight between those two?

there would have to be a difference in weight there. :)

a lot of it is contingent upon weather you're just starting out or weather you're intermediate, advanced, etc. etc.

personally i think a beginner would do better in both areas with sets of 5's. its enough volume for most and the intensity will be a hell of a lot higher than sets of 10.

generally speaking though calories are the key to any bodyweight changes. a beginner can make good gains in both areas if they eat enough....as one advances, more specific types of training will need to be brought into the mix based on the trainees goals but calories will still be the key if bodyweight changes (or NO changes) are desired regardless of the training methods used.
generally, a calorie surplus helps drive progression (a tailwind as madcow puts it) weather you'r training purely for strength or are also looking to pack on some size.

Alright, that was pretty much the exact answer I was looking for..thank you.