Is it necessary to continually up the poundages to grow?

[Trickie]

Or is this a myth? The thing is if the weights are not going up gradually over a peroid of time how can the muscle get bigger? And surely if you get stronger after lifting heavier weights you get bigger right?

 

[BOOEY]

Of course it's necessary. Adaptation, my friend

 

[Tom Treutlein]

I still never quite understood one thing, and that was, if you can manage to make small strength increases over time (past the 1-3 or maybe even 4 and 5 rep ranges) then why wouldn't you grow even if you ate 2 times a day? I mean, sure you wouldn't be making those strength gains too quickly, but if you are making them, then you'll most likely be growing, I would think.

 

[leatherface]

Or is this a myth? The thing is if the weights are not going up gradually over a peroid of time how can the muscle get bigger? And surely if you get stronger after lifting heavier weights you get bigger right?

You must progress somehow, and over a certain period of time the weight must increase.

By getting stronger via lifting heavier weight, you do not necissarily have to get bigger. Look at many people who must maintain a weight for a weightclass(wrestling, powerlifting). Your CNS will recruit more motor units(as opposed to muscle hypertrophy), and you can gain strength/speed that way, but im not going into a detailed description here

 

[muchmass]

Eating only two meals a day, means that they would have to be quite big meals, this is not a good idea since the body can only use a certain quantity of protein at once (its about 50g), and the rest is stored as fat, thats why you should always try to eat 5-7 small meals a day,... this would help allot in your progress...

 

[Tom Treutlein]

That's false, that you can only digest 50 grams of protein in a sitting.

Also, I'm not saying I eat in such a way. I eat 8 small meals a day. My point was, so long as the weight increases, the size of the muscle will increase as well.

The reason I said past the 3, or maybe even 5 rep range was because at that point it's not as much about recruiting the central nervous system (8-12 rep range) so the whole CNS adapation thing wouldn't come into play as much. Besides, bench 100 and reach 250, you're bound to have grown, whether you've eaten or not. I don't feel you could get massive in this way (anywhere past 15-16" arms) but I think size and strength can be added without the aid of thousands of calories.

Just my thoughts, I may be wrong. It just makes sense to me.

 

[string_bean00]

You must progress somehow, and over a certain period of time the weight must increase.

By getting stronger via lifting heavier weight, you do not necissarily have to get bigger. Look at many people who must maintain a weight for a weightclass(wrestling, powerlifting). Your CNS will recruit more motor units(as opposed to muscle hypertrophy), and you can gain strength/speed that way, but im not going into a detailed description here

This is true. On 5x5 I experience a lot of strength gains, but little in the way of hypertrophy.

 

[psychedout]

Eating only two meals a day, means that they would have to be quite big meals, this is not a good idea since the body can only use a certain quantity of protein at once (its about 50g), and the rest is stored as fat, thats why you should always try to eat 5-7 small meals a day,... this would help allot in your progress...

You are wrong my friend!

Needsize made a thread a while back and it pretty much debunked the whole myth that the body can only make use of 50 grams of protien in one stitting.

 

[Jandy]

When you first start lifting there's not much you can do to NOT grow, but over time you need to get into the cycle of: Increase poundage <== Muscle Requires hypertrophy to lift heavier poundage <== feed muscle

 

[muchmass]

You are wrong my friend!

Needsize made a thread a while back and it pretty much debunked the whole myth that the body can only make use of 50 grams of protien in one stitting.

thnx for the reply, I kept reading this all the time in different mags, I’ll rethink my eating plan!