Can You Lose Muscle but Get Stronger?

[Firehawk734]

I hope it's very unlikely, but for a natural lifter, can you lose muscle but yet stay just as strong or get stronger?

I know pullinbig said somethin in another thread that has really stuck with me and changed my direction as far as bodybuilding routines go.

He said "the key to muscle growth is strength, not the other way around". That stuck with me, and ive been thinking alot about that. So, the question at hand people....all input welcome.

 

[iron addict]

Yes, but the increased strength will be from neural adaptations. And is only going to be a short term thing if significant amounts of muscle are being lost. You are on the right track. You need to be training for strength. PB knows of what he speaks.

Iron Addict

 

[DADAWG]

PB knows of what he speaks.

Iron Addict

yes he does and so does IA

 

[Mudge]

Not that likely, but strength is not as much directly a product of muscular size, but of recruited fiber percentage by way of training for strength specifically.

The more experienced one would become though, the better their CNS has adapted to utilizing more of those fibers at any one time. So if that person lost size I'd say strength loss is somewhat likely.

 

[Princess]

i agree- I think its possible to give the illusion of lost muscle- ie, a smaller size through bodyfat loss, but for the most part, the muscle fiber itself would remain.

 

[Firehawk734]

Alright, well reason I ask is over this year ive dropped 70+ lbs and until the fall time, I was keeping my Lean mass very consistent. Hell i even thought i gained a few lbs of lean mass.

But when it started to get a bit cooler, i noticed my BF% was going up a little bit or staying the same even though i was dropping weight. I was still getting stronger continuously through all of this, and still am. That's why I'm asking. I dont' look like I'm dropping muscle mass.

I measure with an electrical impulse scale, which could be why. I know that hydration is key, and also the temperature of the senses on the scale can affect the readings. I was charting my progress every day at the same time of day, at about the same levels of hydration.

Basically all of a sudden i went from 205lbs of LBM on a regular basis to 200 and 198, or sometimes even lower, just out of nowhere.

It worried me, but the whole time ive been getting stronger.

 

[Mudge]

I have one of those Tanita scales, what does your bodyfat come out too? Mine hasn't given me anything better than 27%, complete bullshit. I had to prove it to myself.

I come out to 13.1% with calipers.

 

[Firehawk734]

OMG you have the exact same problem then. I have the same Tanita scale. When i first bought it, it was reading about 30-31%, which is what i figured it to be anyway. Then i lost a shitload of weight and it dropped as low as about 27%, same as you. Now no matter what i do it won't go down. Sometimes it goes UP for no reason.

I make sure i am 100% hydrated, literally pissing every 20-30 minutes clear as the atlantic ocean lol, and it still reads 27% even when i should be lower.

It's nice to see that someone else has the same trouble. I could drop 10 lbs and it would read the same Mother F'n number man! Right now I figure i should be at 24%.

Hell some days I will come home from work, absolutely fully hydrated, and the son of a bitch reads 29%. Some days Ill come home and the son of a bitch reads 27% and i haven't drank a drop of water all day. Makes NO sense at all man. And the bitch is i paid 80bucks for the thing too.

 

[Injectyourspinach]

It depends on the way you've trained in the past. Higher rep training can dispose to sarcoplasmic growth as well as heavy growth of the Type I fibers. Focused heavy training tends to leave the Type I's to atrophy and previous sarcoplasmic gains to be lost.