How do you make sure your muscles only grow when they have to?
- Thread starter Kerpal
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stronglifts
Master Don Juan
If you mean, how do you make sure you have max muscles at your bodyweight: lift heavy, eat strong/healthy food so fat levels are low & focus on strength to make muscles efficient.
[S]alvatore
Master Don Juan
Make sure you're not eating enough to put on weight.
spesmilitis
Master Don Juan
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Are you asking how to get the most strength per size ratio out of your muscles?
If so, do very low reps, like 1-5. Maybe even 1-3. I think the 7-12 rep range is where you build muscle mass and thats what body builders usually do. For squats, 20 reppers are optimal for mass on your legs.
In my experience huge diet and rest are the biggest factors of gaining weight. However, I have a feeling that if you stick to very low reps, you'll still not gain muscle mass until your muscles are 'saturated' with strength. I'm not too sure though, hopefully someone with more insight can add to this.
How come you don't want to get bigger? Competing in a weight class?
If so, do very low reps, like 1-5. Maybe even 1-3. I think the 7-12 rep range is where you build muscle mass and thats what body builders usually do. For squats, 20 reppers are optimal for mass on your legs.
In my experience huge diet and rest are the biggest factors of gaining weight. However, I have a feeling that if you stick to very low reps, you'll still not gain muscle mass until your muscles are 'saturated' with strength. I'm not too sure though, hopefully someone with more insight can add to this.
How come you don't want to get bigger? Competing in a weight class?
Dont lift, and if you dont need to get stronger, they wont adapt.Kerpal said:
If you dont want to get ran over while crossing the street, dont close your eyes when crossing :yes:
This is my answer in simple without using words that aren't necessary explaining unless I have to on this topic. I could suggest the overload principle, and tell you not to overload the muscles any more and no they wont grow. Also too, strength is not always a factor of who has the bigger muscles. There are guys heavier than I am in the gym and have bigger muscles, but I can lift more.
I'm not sure why you really want to figure this out? Anyway, more info would be helpful as to why you ask.
The 1-3 rep range is almost all neural improvements. A decently high frequency of performing the same lift keeps the neural side of things on the ball too. The 5 rep range will definitely put on mass (given calories). That's getting into the "powerbuilder" range and you can just look at any of those 5x5 type programs to see that that will pack on weight.
And yeah if you only eat maintenance calories you won't change weight. You may change body composition though.
A lot of this stuff is very general and will even depend on your individual muscle fiber types in each muscle. But generally really low reps aren't going to cause a lot of muscle growth. And it's not like you don't notice if suddenly you start putting on weight.
The thing about the low reps though is that they carry over decently into the higher rep ranges pushing further hypertrophy when you do the higher reps. A lot of bodybuilders get this wrong if they're only trying to improve the higher rep ranges.
Maybe you should look into doing the olympic lifts. Aren't they for fully functional strength that carries over easily into real life activities? If you're only wanting to get strong without getting bigger it sounds like you're doing it for sport.
And yeah if you only eat maintenance calories you won't change weight. You may change body composition though.
A lot of this stuff is very general and will even depend on your individual muscle fiber types in each muscle. But generally really low reps aren't going to cause a lot of muscle growth. And it's not like you don't notice if suddenly you start putting on weight.
The thing about the low reps though is that they carry over decently into the higher rep ranges pushing further hypertrophy when you do the higher reps. A lot of bodybuilders get this wrong if they're only trying to improve the higher rep ranges.
Maybe you should look into doing the olympic lifts. Aren't they for fully functional strength that carries over easily into real life activities? If you're only wanting to get strong without getting bigger it sounds like you're doing it for sport.
Lost me on that one. For instance lets say you are lifting a 20lb dumbbell which I am sure you can do. The muscle is 100% efficient. You've got your concentric and eccentric phase going on, and that weight went up and down.Kerpal said:
Now, did you just recruit every muscle fiber you had? No because not every muscle fiber will be used for that. But you recruited what you needed to get the job done.
You could argue... Well Omen, I just picked up a 100lb one and couldn't curl it, so my muscles are not 100% efficient. Not the same story.
Hopefully someone answered your question. If not you need to get in more detail.
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