Calisthenics Myth of Relative Strength

The myth of relative strength is - adding more muscle-mass will make you heavier, thus bodyweight exercises become harder. 

Let's define the mechanisms by which you get stronger first:

1. Hypertrophy - adding lean muscle mass. 

2. Neurological Efficiency - the nervous system gets better at firing all motor-units by improving synchronization between different muscle groups and between different muscle fibers within each muscle group. 

3. Technical Efficiency - applying certain cues that enables you to exhibit more strength with less effort. Example - squeeze the elbows towards your body in a push-up.

Trying to get stronger whilst maintaining the exact same body weight will work when:

1. you introduce a new exercise so the technical aspect is yet to be acquired and the nervous system has to learn the movement.

2. you introduce a new repetition range so the nervous system will become more efficient at the specific demands.

These adaptations are viable only for 3-6 months, even in calisthenics and gymnastics strength where exercises are very technically dependent. Pass that point you are basically left with hypertrophy as the last and only mechanism to get stronger by.

As a complete beginner you are able to make fast linear progress for a good 1-2 years, in perfect overlap with your body's ability to grow new muscle. Once 'newbie gains' stop, progression rate significantly decreases, even when introducing new exercises/rep-range.

You probably know what I mean. 

Allow yourself to slowly add 1-2 kg in weight (with good nutrition and recovery) the next time progress stalls and watch new personal records being set. 

When will adding more mass NOT work?

1. You added a lot of fat mass and no/little lean mass. Fat tissue is not contractile tissue, it does not aid in moving better, faster.

2. You gained lean muscle mass in the wrong places/ratios. Add mass by training the movements themselves - if your goal is freestanding hspu, then train the hspu, wall supported hspu, pike push-ups, so on. Doing leg presses will result in irrelevant addition of lean mass to the task.

Look at ring specialists - amongst all gymnasts they are the biggest, most jacked. The muscle mass they acquired is one of the main reasons they are able to perform these skills.

Some athletes will have to add more muscle mass than others to become stronger, whilst other athletes can obtain strength with a relatively skinnier physique. It depends on leverages etc. 

In addition - the extra calories will help you to recover faster, have better mood, more motivation to train, optimal hormonal state and so on.

Once you reach a higher body fat percentage, cut down to your previous body weight and enjoy the new levels of strength.