Ahh.. what to do now..

[BlkWS6]

Contrary to what the low volume fanatics will say, the 5x5 is an awesome routine. EVERYONE that I know who has tried it has made very, very impressive gains. Granted, I may not have given DC training the amount of time I should have, but with all things being equal I gained more strength off of the 5x5 then I did off of DC training, and my lifting partner and I followed both routines exaclty. And in fact, I had better recovery habits with DC training then I did with the 5x5 and still felt as though I made better progress on the 5x5. I know this is utter blasphemy for some of you, but Im just telling it as it is and as it happened to me and many others.

NOTE: Im not at all bagging on DC training, Im just giving the 5x5 the credit it deserves.

 

[Legion Kreinak2]

I love the 5x5. I plan to try DC afterwards.

By the way, Vinyl, you can increase in strength and not size from one thing I know -- CNS adaptation.

 

[spatts]

Perhaps you need to examine the difference between hypertrophy and hyperplasia.

 

[jeremys]

Perhaps you need to examine the difference between hypertrophy and hyperplasia.

i dont even know what hyperplasia is yet. care to enlighten me? also, what IS the difference between the two? thanks..

 

[spatts]

One is growth by increasing the size of a fiber, the other is growth by creating MORE fibers. Some people have more of one type of fiber than another, and I believe that the routine a person "grows" best with is largely determined by that. For this cause, I believe this is why WSB and 5x5 lend such enormous strength and size....more variety, more fiber types hit.

 

[BlkWS6]

Spatts: I remember that hyperplasia was addressed in the DC sticky, and some were saying that it isnt possible in humans, or that no studies have proved that it is possible in human beings. I searched the net and couldnt really come up with any decent material regarding hyperplasia. Do you know of any studies addressing hyperplasia? Thanks.

In the DC sticky (if you didnt read it) they were arguing about the extreme stretches inducing hyperplasia.

 

[spatts]

You're right...hyperplasia is not common.

I was just addressing the argument about size:strength ratios. You can get stronger without putting on much size if you are more dense on one fiber type than another.

This is why you see so many lifting records expressed in terms of strength to body weight ratios...and why it's so impressive.

TheProject, himself, is a great example. He's not fast twitch dense...and especially not in his lower body. He can lift as much as me, but his quads are almost 10 inches smaller than mine.

Over time, yes strength should technically lead to size, but there is more than one road to strength, and the variety therein can make all the difference.

 

[argent]

Call me ignorant, but i hear that all the time and it still baffles me. I can't see how a muscle can get stronger yet not larger.

For heavy weights, such as those involved in a 1RM, when a PR is broken it is mostly due to increased efficiency of the CNS not actual hypertrophy. So Nasser El Sonbaty may be significantly larger than Chuck Vogelpohl, but Chuck can lift more than Nasser (in the 3 powerlifts at least). This is b/c of increased recruitment of motor units by the CNS.

 

[spatts]

I agree, for the most part...but don't forget that a motor "unit" is a muscle fiber AND a nerve.

Also, Chuck TRAINS for size, and strength, and speed, and GPP....WSB. When you're hitting every possible fiber type, it's hard to NOT get results. When you're doing EVERYTHING, something's going to happen.

 

[casualbb]

Only trainees that use steroids experience hyperplasia to any significant degree.

To Debaser: Okay because you and a couple people have done both programs and grew better on DC, it must be better. How can you really make that conclusion? Seriously. I've read the DC stuff and you've been totally brainwashed by his pennies literature. How do you know you were eating correctly and performing HST correctly when you did it? Anyone who actually understands how muscles work either does HST or hasn't heard of it yet.

-casualbb