iron addict
New member
Actually, that's the tricky misunderstanding that a lot of people have about strength training and hypertrophy.
From the standpoint of myofibrillar hypertrophy (i.e. triggering machinery that leads to satellite cell donation), whether you work at 60% of 1RM or 99% of 1RM doesn't have a lot of meaning. What really drives it is progressive load. And what that means is that the most probable stimulus for stimulating growth won't be intensity, MVC, or relative 1RM, but the actual weight itself.
If you do nothing but 5-rep and singles in your training, but you don't actually increase the weight, yes you're training heavy but you won't grow after a few weeks. Whereas if you do 15 reps, but you increase that load every week, you'll be significantly larger by week 10 than you were at week 1.
Likewise, when you can no longer increase the weight, you've almost hit the ceiling in terms of growth potential. At this point, you have to do modulate your program, either deloading to recover and develop more strength, or detrain to resensitize the muscle to lighter loads.
All long term successful hypertrophy programs must implement progressive load into their scheme. And most of these programs must further develop strength in order to bump up the ceiling and lengthen the period of productive growth for the bulk.
There is some compromise in regards to issues relating to strength vs. hypertrophy. You must have a good enough strength foundation in order to facilitate progressive loading with your designated movements (in particular, isolation and stretch work if you add any.) But, you must be far enough from your genetic potential, so that you can continue to build strength and thus continue progressive loading.
Strength vs. size can be broken into four stages of development:
1) At the novice level, virtually any serious exercise with reasonable instruction and diet will trigger both size and strength. That stage is not relevant to the discussion.
2) At the beginner level, training for size must be training for strength. Without developing an adequate strength foundation in the compound movements, most ancillary strategies (such as using isolation movements in stretch positions) cannot sustain growth. There simply isn't enough "load room" for progressive load to be sustained throughout the bulking cycle.
3) At the intermediate level (when native strength on major lifts is roughly double of beginner level), the strength and hypertrophy roads start to bifurcate. Although progressive load still drives anything, the characteristics of how progressive load drives both starts to vary a little. Also, other issues such as metabolic conditioning and tendon growth come into play. A strength-oriented programme is still best policy, but now it's not such a bad time to look at volume-oriented schemes; though if you do, you must still abide by load progression in order to see long-term progress. In other words, periodization matters now. Also, bodybuilders may start looking seriously at bulk/cut recomp strategies in order to enhance what they have.
4) At the advanced level -- when you've tripled bench, squad, and dead -- then you have to make the compromise. Because, now, you're approaching the upper end of what you can functionally perform, you have to decide whether you want to train emphasizing strength or train emphasizing size. And, yes, the divergence is large. Of course, if you did reach this advanced level, you would be 300/400/500 and already large. Whatever compromises you make is built upon a beast that is your body.
Most of your non-productive weight training career will be between beginner and intermediate. It's just a bloody long road before you get your act together and realize that strength=size should be your guide. And when you get to the intermediate level, then you can really start thinking long-terms plans for your dreams.
From the standpoint of myofibrillar hypertrophy (i.e. triggering machinery that leads to satellite cell donation), whether you work at 60% of 1RM or 99% of 1RM doesn't have a lot of meaning. What really drives it is progressive load. And what that means is that the most probable stimulus for stimulating growth won't be intensity, MVC, or relative 1RM, but the actual weight itself.
If you do nothing but 5-rep and singles in your training, but you don't actually increase the weight, yes you're training heavy but you won't grow after a few weeks. Whereas if you do 15 reps, but you increase that load every week, you'll be significantly larger by week 10 than you were at week 1.
Likewise, when you can no longer increase the weight, you've almost hit the ceiling in terms of growth potential. At this point, you have to do modulate your program, either deloading to recover and develop more strength, or detrain to resensitize the muscle to lighter loads.
All long term successful hypertrophy programs must implement progressive load into their scheme. And most of these programs must further develop strength in order to bump up the ceiling and lengthen the period of productive growth for the bulk.
There is some compromise in regards to issues relating to strength vs. hypertrophy. You must have a good enough strength foundation in order to facilitate progressive loading with your designated movements (in particular, isolation and stretch work if you add any.) But, you must be far enough from your genetic potential, so that you can continue to build strength and thus continue progressive loading.
Strength vs. size can be broken into four stages of development:
1) At the novice level, virtually any serious exercise with reasonable instruction and diet will trigger both size and strength. That stage is not relevant to the discussion.
2) At the beginner level, training for size must be training for strength. Without developing an adequate strength foundation in the compound movements, most ancillary strategies (such as using isolation movements in stretch positions) cannot sustain growth. There simply isn't enough "load room" for progressive load to be sustained throughout the bulking cycle.
3) At the intermediate level (when native strength on major lifts is roughly double of beginner level), the strength and hypertrophy roads start to bifurcate. Although progressive load still drives anything, the characteristics of how progressive load drives both starts to vary a little. Also, other issues such as metabolic conditioning and tendon growth come into play. A strength-oriented programme is still best policy, but now it's not such a bad time to look at volume-oriented schemes; though if you do, you must still abide by load progression in order to see long-term progress. In other words, periodization matters now. Also, bodybuilders may start looking seriously at bulk/cut recomp strategies in order to enhance what they have.
4) At the advanced level -- when you've tripled bench, squad, and dead -- then you have to make the compromise. Because, now, you're approaching the upper end of what you can functionally perform, you have to decide whether you want to train emphasizing strength or train emphasizing size. And, yes, the divergence is large. Of course, if you did reach this advanced level, you would be 300/400/500 and already large. Whatever compromises you make is built upon a beast that is your body.
Most of your non-productive weight training career will be between beginner and intermediate. It's just a bloody long road before you get your act together and realize that strength=size should be your guide. And when you get to the intermediate level, then you can really start thinking long-terms plans for your dreams.
