Its been discussed:
- Muscle fibre cross section increase
- Muscle fibre “cell splitting”
- Muscle fibre holding more fluid
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
B.b. in stress! wrote:
I just realized that in order to get bigger, the only way is to get stronger. Am I correct? But I once heard that there were different kinds of hypertrophy, like sarcoplasmic and myofibrial, or something like that?
Is that a harsh truth that we must all consider- the only to get bigger is to get stronger?
A person who can bench press 135 pounds looks like he can bench press 135 pounds. A person who can bench press 400 pounds looks like he can bench press 400 pounds.
Are there people who truly think that there are guys with huge chests who are only benching 135 pounds?[/quote]
If they’re fat maybe. As others have noted, there’s some relationship between size & strength, but it’s it’s not an absolute correlation. A powerlifter with high BF can look a lot like a fat guy who doesn’t work out. I also see messages on this board complaining that they see guys at the gym who are smaller than they are yet lift more.
Another factor is the size & proportion of limbs. Short limbs offer a greater leverage advantage than long limbs. If you could measure muscle strength independent of leverage created by limbs & joints, you’d find that between two guys with the same muscule strength, the one with the shorter limbs will be able to user more weight on some lifts.
[quote]TreadStone wrote:
Why is this surprising? When you see a small guy pulling over 600lbs, it’s hardly a stretch of the imagination that some people will conclude that there is little relationship between size and strength.
And the reality is actually closer to the middle than some would suggest. If there were a direct relationship between strength and size EC, and guys like him, wouldn’t be that small.
Obviously there is way more to it than just “Get strong, noob!”
awaits for someone to assume that I’m suggesting training with pink DB
[/quote]
Let’s fill up a room. On one side of the room, we will put everyone who can bench press 400 pounds. On the other side of the room, we will put everyone who can bench press 225 pounds or less.
Do you really want to argue that you would not be able to tell (without looking at anyone) which side of the room would contain the big guys?
[quote]dancar wrote:
I also see messages on this board complaining that they see guys at the gym who are smaller than they are yet lift more
[/quote]
Delusion. The people posting in those threads have an inflated view of their largesse. It’s really that simple.
The more posts I read, the more patterns I see emerge. One pattern is this: “Big” means 5’10" and 170#.
“I train hard” means “I do tricep kickbacks, sometimes, when I feel like it.”
“I eat a lot” means, “I skip breakfast, and eat 1200-1500 calories the entire day.”
“I do MMA” means, “I took a couple of BJJ classes.”
Etc.
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
TreadStone wrote:
Why is this surprising? When you see a small guy pulling over 600lbs, it’s hardly a stretch of the imagination that some people will conclude that there is little relationship between size and strength.
And the reality is actually closer to the middle than some would suggest. If there were a direct relationship between strength and size EC, and guys like him, wouldn’t be that small.
Obviously there is way more to it than just “Get strong, noob!”
awaits for someone to assume that I’m suggesting training with pink DB
Let’s fill up a room. On one side of the room, we will put everyone who can bench press 400 pounds. On the other side of the room, we will put everyone who can bench press 225 pounds or less.
Do you really want to argue that you would not be able to tell (without looking at anyone) which side of the room would contain the big guys?[/quote]
Listen I don’t want to argue this for a few reasons.
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I think people should lift heavy if they are to “weight lift”.
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I really couldnt care less about the bodybuilding vs powerlifting debate, but if you put top ranked bodybuilders (of varying weight classes) in a room on one side and top ranked powerlifters (of varying weight classes) and tried to guess who was the strongest by looking at them, most people who arent involved in the sport would guess that the bodybuilders are stronger despite the fact that the powerlifters could outlift them in most compound lifts 80% of the time.
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So does that mean that I dont think you need to get strong to get big? No, but I am saying that there isnt a perfect relation between the two. If so, EC wouldnt look like a twig despite the fact that he could outlift guys who clearly look stronger than him.
So where does that leave us? Well, we know that bodybuilders are not weak, that is for certain, but at the same time there has to be something other than just strength that develops such a physique (Again ,or else EC wouldnt look like that).