Originally posted by: PipBoy
Originally posted by: incallisto
Originally posted by: machintos
3. You can gain 20 pounds of muscle in a few months. FALSE!
Ummm, I gained about 20 pounds of muscle in about 3 months... so... TRUE!!!
Hell, when I first started lifting I put on 68lbs of lean mass in 90 days. Most of what the article says is true, but this statement (you can gain 20lbs of muscle in a few months - FALSE!) is BS.
Unless you had been ill and lost a lot of weight before starting to train, I call BS on this. No way to gain that much muscle that fast. Unless by "lean mass" you mean you had a muscular 3rd arm grafted to your back.
I don't understand. Are you saying you permanently change the static length of a muscle with endurance exercise? And how does that lead to definition?Originally posted by: MadRat
1. They are wrong. Muscles respond by shortening when put into overload via long endurance workouts. You have to realize we are talking extreme numbers, closer to one hundred than the ten to twenty reps that most beginners use. Powerlifters that use few but heavy weights increase the girth of the muscle as a response as the muscle tries to build phosphagen storage. The shortening of the muscle, without the bulking, gives it a more defined look. The response of the muscle is limited to your natural enzyme response level, not necessarily the number of reps in your workout. If you don't have the enzymes condusive to endurance then your muscles don't necessarily respond like they did for the soloflex guy. Thats a fact, Jack.
If you're still maintaining that you put on 68 pounds of _muscle_ in 90 days I don't believe it. A pound of muscle has 600 calories (most of muscle is water afterall). That's 150 grams of protein per pound. So you'd have had to be making perfect efficient use of over 100 grams of protein each and every day.No, I was a skinny 18 year old. I started competitive bodybuilding (NPC) and worked with professional trainers and nutritionists to develop a plan. Three months later, BANG! I was in the middle-weight class. Almost everyone I work out with gained more than 20lbs. of lean mass in their first two or three months.
Originally posted by: Skoorb
If you're still maintaining that you put on 68 pounds of _muscle_ in 90 days I don't believe it. A pound of muscle has 600 calories (most of muscle is water afterall). That's 150 grams of protein per pound. So you'd have had to be making perfect efficient use of over 100 grams of protein each and every day.No, I was a skinny 18 year old. I started competitive bodybuilding (NPC) and worked with professional trainers and nutritionists to develop a plan. Three months later, BANG! I was in the middle-weight class. Almost everyone I work out with gained more than 20lbs. of lean mass in their first two or three months.
I've read a lot of stuff and I've never once read anything by a professional (they have superior genetics) saying that they put anything like this on when they started working out. There was more going on here if you really did increase your body weight by 68 pounds in 90 days.
Originally posted by: LordMaul
OK, ready to debunk more of that crappy article...you do NOT make "microscopic tears" in your muscle which "causes it to rebuild bigger than before"....working out simply stresses the muscle and induces it to grow larger.
Originally posted by: SludgeFactory
I don't understand. Are you saying you permanently change the static length of a muscle with endurance exercise? And how does that lead to definition?Originally posted by: MadRat
1. They are wrong. Muscles respond by shortening when put into overload via long endurance workouts. You have to realize we are talking extreme numbers, closer to one hundred than the ten to twenty reps that most beginners use. Powerlifters that use few but heavy weights increase the girth of the muscle as a response as the muscle tries to build phosphagen storage. The shortening of the muscle, without the bulking, gives it a more defined look. The response of the muscle is limited to your natural enzyme response level, not necessarily the number of reps in your workout. If you don't have the enzymes condusive to endurance then your muscles don't necessarily respond like they did for the soloflex guy. Thats a fact, Jack.
So you're saying there's no permanent change in the length of the muscle, only a temporary shortening?Originally posted by: MadRat
The effect is not static; the tonicity of the muscle is short-lived. The tension in the muscle can relax in as little as four days of atrophy.
Originally posted by: Viper GTS
8. Muscle weighs more than fat. FALSE!
If I place one pound of muscle on a scale and one pound of fat on a scale, they will both weigh one pound. The difference is in total volume! One pound of muscle may appear to be the size of baseball; one pound of fat will be three times the size and look like a squiggly bowl of JELL-O.
Umm... So what's his point?
Any genius should realize the "lie" refers to density.
Viper GTS
Originally posted by: machintos
I started with 140 pounds (I'm only 5'5") and 11% body fat.
Lean muscle mass = 124.6
Fat mass = 15.4 lbs
Now I'm 160 lbs with 6% body fat
Lean muscle mass = 150.4
Fat Mass = 9.6 lbs
So I gained about 25 pounds and lost some fat.
Not to mentioned that my bench press went from 100 lbs for reps up to 185lbs for reps.
Originally posted by: MadRat
Originally posted by: LordMaul
OK, ready to debunk more of that crappy article...you do NOT make "microscopic tears" in your muscle which "causes it to rebuild bigger than before"....working out simply stresses the muscle and induces it to grow larger.
Actually research has shown that 2 things happen:
1. you get microscopic tears in your muscles when you overload the muscle
2. your muscle cells can divide; you are not born with an ever decreasing number of muscles
The two are not related. The cell division does make "more" muscle. Repaired tears leave behind scare tissue, not more muscle.
Originally posted by: SludgeFactory
I don't understand. Are you saying you permanently change the static length of a muscle with endurance exercise? And how does that lead to definition?Originally posted by: MadRat
1. They are wrong. Muscles respond by shortening when put into overload via long endurance workouts. You have to realize we are talking extreme numbers, closer to one hundred than the ten to twenty reps that most beginners use. Powerlifters that use few but heavy weights increase the girth of the muscle as a response as the muscle tries to build phosphagen storage. The shortening of the muscle, without the bulking, gives it a more defined look. The response of the muscle is limited to your natural enzyme response level, not necessarily the number of reps in your workout. If you don't have the enzymes condusive to endurance then your muscles don't necessarily respond like they did for the soloflex guy. Thats a fact, Jack.
The effect is not static; the tonicity of the muscle is short-lived. The tension in the muscle can relax in as little as four days of atrophy.
Originally posted by: Amused
So all you're doing is pumping yourself up. There is no real long term effect on muscle mass, size, or shape lifting light weights. That was his claim, and you just agreed to it.
Originally posted by: Ian
What is a lot? Of course doing tons of cardio will make you lose muscle and body fat but
your body doesnt really go catabolic that easily. You can be safe doing 40-60 mins of cardio and still be fine.
Originally posted by: Ian
>9. You can put on a lot of muscle and lose a lot of fat at the same time. FALSE!
What is a lot?!?! If a person is really out of shape, they could easily put on a good
20 lbs of muscle while losing a lot of fat at the same time
Originally posted by: acidvoodoo
check out this guy, he gained 27 pounds in 13 days, interesting read....
Thread on bodybuilding.com forums
that has pics and chitter chatter
Atricle about how he did it
Actually, a POUND of GOLD weighs LESS than a POUND of either cotton or lead.Originally posted by: yellowfiero
8. Muscle weighs more than fat. FALSE!
If I place one pound of muscle on a scale and one pound of fat on a scale, they will both weigh one pound. The difference is in total volume! One pound of muscle may appear to be the size of baseball; one pound of fat will be three times the size and look like a squiggly bowl of JELL-O.
Gee, let me guess, he's a physics major???????? If I put 1 lb of lead on a scale and 1 lb of cotton, wow! they weigh the same!!!!
Originally posted by: apoppin
Actually, a POUND of GOLD weighs LESS than a POUND of either cotton or lead.![]()
Sure, in a totally untrained person. They initially get a few pounds of leg muscle if they get up from the TV and start running. Those adaptations happen rapidly, what about continuing to add an appreciable amount of muscle? How is extensive endurance training going to help? What about the upper body if you just run or bike? How do you reasonably incorporate periodization into an endurance workout? If you want muscle hypertrophy, lift increasingly heavy weights, eat, adapt, get stronger and bigger.Originally posted by: MadRat
Amused, he was wrong because he implied you cannot overload with lighter weights. (The myth around here that muscle doesn't grow from endurance workouts is utter bull.)
How do you explain distance runners who look like toothpicks, including their legs? A high amount of cardiovascular exercise is catabolic and definitely not conducive to muscle growth. Moderate amounts of cardio are fine and are an essential component of developing overall health. The author's words here were "excessive cardio". Part of the problem is that he doesn't even attempt to define what that is.Muscles will repond by growing when doing cardio. Cardio workouts do not take away muscle!
Once a trainee has diet and lifting techniques and strategies in order, their best period of muscular development will be in the relatively early stages of focused, disciplined training. Or not. Most people accomplish a lot in the beginning without knowing anything. Either way, the gains begin to taper off as the years go by and you get closer to the limits of your genetic potential. It's a game of diminishing returns. By the time a natural lifter has several years under his belt, annual muscle gains are most likely in the < 5 lb range.Ian, the untrained individual individuals gains muscle slower than a trained individual. The untrained individual gains most of their strength responses from nerve changes.
Yes, bodybuilders think in terms of bulking and cutting, in two distinct phases. They know not to try to do it simultaneously, because that's a good recipe for stagnation. Progress tends to be much slower if you don't make up your mind and go with bulking or cutting. Which was another of the author's points that was contested. The conditions for gaining weight (muscle & fat) and losing weight (fat & hopefully minimal muscle) are directly opposed. One requires caloric surplus, the other a deficit. Hormone levels and protein synthesis adjust accordingly for each condition and compound the problem of trying to do two things at once. Sure, you can cruise along at near-maintenance levels of calories while you lift and never put your body in a favorable state for gaining or losing. That's not the most effective use of your time and effort if you plan to make changes in your body composition though.The truth is that bodybuilders get fatter in the off season and do it to bulk up their muscle. Your gains are most likely to happen when you have an excess of nutrients, not an excess of calories. The problem is that its hard to get the right natural nutrients into the body without overeating.
Originally posted by: SludgeFactory
How do you explain distance runners who look like toothpicks, including their legs? A high amount of cardiovascular exercise is catabolic and definitely not conducive to muscle growth.
Originally posted by: SludgeFactory
The runners and cyclists and rowers who love what they do are the ones who stay active as part of their lifestyle and don't have to worry about expanding ass syndrome. If you go that route and get serious, you're probably going to develop great cardiovascular fitness, get really good at covering long distances, and develop a physique that at least somewhat resembles the professionals in your sport.
Originally posted by: SludgeFactory
Neural adaptations are another issue. Yes, they're responsible for a lot of the beginner's strength gains. They happen rapidly. There's also an initial burst of hypertrophy when you move from the couch to the gym. The person who wishes to lift heavier weights must eventually grow muscles of thicker cross section to be able to lift them, and that happens more quickly in the earlier stages of a lifter's career.
Originally posted by: SludgeFactory
I still don't understand the muscle-shortening and definition idea. If I temporarily shorten a muscle in an agonist/antagonist pair, what does that do for definition? And what does that have to do with the subcutaneous fat that presumably is obscuring it in the first place (i.e., the very definition of "definition")?
Originally posted by: machintos
I started with 140 pounds (I'm only 5'5") and 11% body fat.
Lean muscle mass = 124.6
Fat mass = 15.4 lbs
Now I'm 160 lbs with 6% body fat
Lean muscle mass = 150.4
Fat Mass = 9.6 lbs
So I gained about 25 pounds and lost some fat.
Not to mentioned that my bench press went from 100 lbs for reps up to 185lbs for reps.
The degree of hypertrophy is far different. Are you saying you can build serious mass by running? My point in bringing up the distance runner's physique is to illustrate what high levels of cardiovascular exercise will tend to do to the body. Those guys are cramming down food and are still skinny.Originally posted by: MadRat
Hypertrophy does and will happen from any type of overload training, heavy or light. Heavy weights do not ellicit any more response than light weights, the changes are different.
It's totally relevant. The cross-section of the entire muscle directly determines the amount of force a muscle can exert. It's what changes when you begin to lift weights and synthesize protein. It's a measure of hypertrophy, which was my point in mentioning it.The cross-section of the muscle is another point that isn't necessarily relevant
I'd can look that up on Medline if you have the title/authors. I'm confused, are you saying the subjects in this study are high schoolers and college age -- (I'm assuming) ~15-22 yr olds? If so, how can you make any conclusions about older people? And as for the reduction in growth potential with aging, of course that's true. Testosterone peaks at some point in your adult life and falls from there. How does that relate to the difference between trained/untrained individuals with comparable hormonal profiles (the only reasonable comparison you can make)? Again, I'd have to at least see the abstract to figure out what's going on here.Thats actually not what we observed in scientific studies of high schoolers to college men and women. The untrained individuals were far slower to gain than the ones that seriously trained. If you've reached your plateau then its not likely your gains will be as incredible as when you have room left to grow, true, but the untrained older gentlemen in the group showed almost no changes except in lean body mass when compared to trained men in their same age group. There seems to be a real physical limitation to serious growth without the help of anabolics once people hit their mid- to late twenties.
And in response to Ian's valid argument that an out of shape fatass can gain LBM and lose fat simultaneously, you said9. Total wank bull in this guy's claim. The body is not good at one thing. The body does load up on enzymes that sometimes compete for the same nutrients, yes, but losing fat and gaining muscle can be done simultaneously! This guy is using subjectives when the effects are measurable objectively. Plain and simply he's full of crap.
Perhaps I confused things by choosing to quote the latter statement rather than your original statement on the matter. Sorry.Ian, the untrained individual individuals gains muscle slower than a trained individual. The untrained individual gains most of their strength responses from nerve changes. The untrained individual can gain more lean mass faster, true, but not more muscle.
What does that have to do with muscular definition in the human body? And, so you hold a muscle at a certain length and it shortens -- that means you made yourself inflexible, are possibly upsetting the balance between agonist/antagonist muscles, and are possibly compromising joint stability. Why would you want to do that?Eventually the natural resting length of the muscle is trainable over the scale of time in years. The longer you hold the muscle at a certain length the more likely it is to assume that length indefinitely. I assumed the previous guy asking the question was talking about short term benefits.
Whoa, huge difference from endurance training. You're totally changing positions on me here. That's HIIT-style cardio, which is far more effective at burning fat and sparing muscle than moderate heart-rate, long-distance cardio. And competitive sprinters do a lot more weight training than distance guys, which further blurs the difference between "runner" and "lifter". Sprinters train with weights for explosive power. They are completely different athletes from endurance athletes. Your original point was about endurance cardio being used to build muscle. If you meant sprinting/HIIT, you should have said that.Originally posted by: MadRat
1. Yes, you can build serious bulk with sprinting. A skinny runner may be the result of something other than his diet. It may be because the goal of running is usually for covering distance for time. You gain speed alot of times by either cutting weight altogether, or by shifting muscle mass to where it helps most. I stand by my assertion that someone can bulk up by running.
lol, I'm trying to find a link here and all I come up with are discussions of how big the dinosaurs could have been based on assumed muscular size.2. No, the cross-section is immaterial to the force generated. The range of motion has more effect on power than diameter of the muscle.
The work Accomplished by Muscles.?For practical uses this should be expressed in kilogrammeters. In order to reckon the amount of work which a muscle can perform under the most favorable conditions it is necessary to know (1) its physiological cross-section (2) the maximum shortening, and (3) the position of the joint when the latter is obtained.
Work = lifted weight x height through which the weight is lifted; or
Work = tension x distance; tension = physiological cross-section x absolute muscle strength.
If a muscle has a physiological cross-section of 5 sq. cm. its tension strength = 5 x 10 or 50 kg. If it shortens 5 cm. the work = 50 x .05 = 2.5 kilogrammeters. If one determines then the physiological cross-section and multiplies the absolute muscle strength, 10 kg. by this, the amount of tension is easily obtained. Then one must determine only the amount of shortening of the muscle for any particular position of the joint in order to determine the amount of work the muscle can do, since work = tension x distance.
OK, I will take a look.3. You'd have to search through the research from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Berg is who led the classes. It was long term research that may still be going on to some degree. I'll have to trust Dr. Berg as he's the one that stated the history of the research. I really didn't care for the field of Exercise Physiology and was in it as an elective for a degree in Education. Was kind of hoping that it was a more exciting field than it turned out to be.
I'm having trouble with that too4/5. I thought we were talking about gaining muscle and not LBM. I tie the idea of bulking up to adding raw muscle mass. Its easy to lose site of the topics when the threads get so long.![]()
I agree that balance is good for the joint. I just am unclear how one of the muscles in a pair can be shortened without losing that balance. The ends of the muscle are fixed. If one gets shorter and tighter, the opposing muscle can't get shorter and tighter to maintain the balance. It's constrained by its pinned ends.6. Actually the resting length of the muscle doesn't necessarily affect your range of motion. We are talking relative lengths. Muscle toneness in the trained individual is more compact than that of someone in an untrained individual. Whoever, the range of motion is normally greater for the trained individual than the untrained. Would you not agree a joint is more stable when both sides of the joint have a balanced tension against them? Untrained individuals often get injuries from have laxness in the tendons around their joints for the very opposite reason. I've seen alot of fallen arches from untrained people trying to suddenly become marathon runners.![]()
Originally posted by: Amused
Originally posted by: ed21x
running alot really DOES give you tone and definition, and so does lifting smaller weights. Why are they trying to lie to the public?
Running a lot cuts your body fat, but it can also cost you muscle mass, especially in your upper body. Sure, you'll "look" more "cut," but you wont get any bigger. As I said, you can "cut" or you can add mass, but trying to do both at the same time will only wear you out and frustrate you.
Have you ever seen a marathon runner who looked like a body builder? Of course not. The two are anathema to each other. You can either be a body builder, or a marathon runner... but not both. Marathon runners are extremely thin, and have very small muscles for a reason... because they run so damn much.
Lifting lighter weights is pointless unless you're trying to preserve mass only. You're just taking longer to do what you could have done in a shorter amount of time with more effort. Lighter weights may help you preserve what mass you have, but you wont gain much, if any.
He's not lying, he's simply pointing out fact. Ask any natural body builder how they put on mass, and they'll tell you exactly what this guy is telling you.
Originally posted by: Jhill
8. Muscle weighs more than fat. FALSE!
"If I place one pound of muscle on a scale and one pound of fat on a scale, they will both weigh one pound."
No kidding. If you put one pound of feathers and one pound of lead on a scale they will both weigh one pound also. So I guess lead isn't heavier than feathers.