Thread: Muscle Density?

you'll always have the same number of muscle fibers. you can't add new fibers, but you can make the ones you have much larger and stronger. size is not necessarily an indication of strength, there's a guy who was featured in M&F a while ago who was only like 160-170 lbs but could curl 300. he was shooting to be the first man under 170 pounds to curl 400 pounds. he does a full-body workout once every two weeks, with only two sets of one rep each per body part, one rep at 85% and on the next set one rep at 100%. size is an indicator of strength, but not necessarily. there's guys with bigger arms than me curling less than me, and guys with bigger chests repping 155 lbs on their bench

it boils down to pretty much nervous system efficiency and each person's unique anatomy (such as insertions of tendons, and length of bones etc.)

Yep.

Why the hell would someone want to curl 400 pounds?

bragging rights?

genetics play a big part, also note that strength /= size.
to be truly strong you also need to have strong tendons.
of course if you lift weight to gain size you will also gain strength, and vice versa, but there is always a specific method to reach each goal.

different people have different genetics and muscle composition, you are born with the amount of muscle fibre you have, you can't increase them but you can make them bigger (hypertrophy).

to expand on what wtfzor said, the definition of hypertrophy is: "A nontumorous enlargement of an organ or a tissue as a result of an increase in the size rather than the number of constituent cells"

be aware that hypertrophy CAN occur without muscle soreness. muscle soreness is NOT necessarily an indicator of hypertrophy. but it is hypertrophy that we are aiming for when we lift weights.

Originally Posted by DimebagDarrell

you'll always have the same number of muscle fibers. you can't add new fibers,

This is called Hyperplasia athough it has not been scientifically proven in humans yet. It has in rats (and other animals eg cats) so we can't say one way or the other right now if we can add knew fibers through Hyperplasia just yet.
Muscle strength has more to do with nervous system adaptions and nuromuscular addaptions than muscle size (that is why powerlifters and stongmen train diffrently than Bodybuilders)

interesting.......nervous system adaptations.... so this means your muscles may possess a much much greater potential to perform, but your nervous system may have put a "limiter" on it? hmmmmmm... tell more, How do these adaptations occur?

Originally Posted by Deezus

interesting.......nervous system adaptations.... so this means your muscles may possess a much much greater potential to perform, but your nervous system may have put a "limiter" on it? hmmmmmm... tell more, How do these adaptations occur?

I'm just going to copy and paste what I said in another thread:

The reason one gains strength without increasing muscle mass is many fold. First, there are the intramuscular forms of improving strength:

• Increased neuromuscular efficiency is the main reason. Basically, your central nervous system is able to activate a greater number of motor units, and therefore muscle fibers, to complete the task at hand.

• Rate coding is also very important. Essentially, a higher level of rate coding means that motor units have increased their firing rates, which leads to increased force generation.

• Motor unit synchronization can also help. I think the name of this form of adaptation is pretty self-explanatory.

• Increased rate of force generation is yet another reason. More motor units can be activated in less time. This creates a greater acceleration of the weight being moved.

Intermuscular improvements are also important. The basic idea is that your body, and more specifically your central nervous system, can coordinate movements among separate muscles in such a way that the desired movement is performed in the most efficient manner possible.

Originally Posted by Duncans Donuts

Yep.

Why the hell would someone want to curl 400 pounds?

lol

thanks for the reply Cowpimp.... What kind of things could one do to acheive these greater force generation and Rate Coding? High concentration? Varied exersices for same muscle group? Sounds like something I would like to know more about......