Thanks Pat. Between you and I, we shall conquer this board and drop some knowledge bombs.....
Marykaa, I did get your PM and I did respond, so hopefully that clears things up. Generally speaking, you can't just magically make muscle appear out of sweat alone and training hard (although that certainly helps), you HAVE to provide the raw nutrients in the form of food in order to do so. So, if you DO feel that you're putting on too much muscle, then drop down the kcals a bit. It is certainly possible to get a helluva lot stronger without necessarily adding a lot of LBM.......just look at relative strength. Powerlifters who train in lower weight classes (example Eric Cressey) are able to add on to their totals each meet and improve their relative strength without adding on much LBM. It really comes down to total calories and nutrient partitioning (where those calories go and what they're being used for). If you're not providing enough calories to promote an anabolic environment for muscle growth, then it's not going to happen. Strength training has more to do with neural adaptations which I touched upon earlier.