Do muscles really grow in spurts or is this bull****?

[madgame]

I once read in a book about working out that muscles grow in spurts (and that its scientifically proven etc.), which means that you gain strength over a certain period of time and all of a sudden ur muscles get bigger over night after increasing your strength over a certain period of time. Besides it said that everybody whos been lifting has experienced this before..however I cant really say I have (though I have packed on quite a few pounds). I mean Id see gains if i compared my body to what it looked like before after a couple of months, but I never actually realized I had gained that weight "over night".

So..is this true or isnt it?

 

[NRM]

WELL, it kinda depends how they would define spurts.

Your body grows at rest. It doesn't grow at the gym when you're pumping 2 full body workouts into each and everyday. The time your body actually grows THE MOST is at rest if you are fully loaded with the energy to do so (diet). I wouldn't say it was an "all of a sudden" thing where one second your muscles are smaller and the next thing they are bigger. Blood gets pumped into your system when you work out and that gives it the plumper look for the time being, but your muscles repair and REALLY grow when you are at rest.

If you are pumping it hard at the gym, you're breaking down muscle, you go home, eat lots of protein and rich foods and your body will start to repair itself into a stronger condition. I'm not sure about using the word spurts, but it definitely doesn't grow continuously or at the same rate forever.

The idea behind 3-5 day splits is hitting a certain muscle once a week and then give it a week to repair and rebuild.

 

[madgame]

I know all of that, thx tho. But what Im trying to figure out is this:

Do your muscles grow each time you can put on a little bit more weight for a certain exercise (or do like one more rep with the same weight for that matter..)

or

do you increase the weight you can bench (for a certain number of reps) like a couple of times and after maybe increasing your bench by lets say 10lbs your chest muscle finally gets bigger all of a sudden "to catch up with the strength of your muscle fibers"?

(cause thats what it said in the book and Im wondering which one was true)