strength necessary for muscle growth?

This doesnt pertain to beginners or even guys with a couple of years of training. Im referring to advanced trainers. For instance, guys that have been training 5 plus years. Do you guys think that a strength increase is necessary to induce muscle growth? This has me very interested since most IGF users arent experiencing strength increases, but they seem to be putting on some tissue. To put it bluntly, would your strength on chest exercises have to increase to correspond to an increase in muscle tissue??

not sure bro, I can only offer this...I have been training hard and competitivly for 7+ years and to get where I wanted to be in gaining size i had to gain strength as well, however the past couple years I have added more lean mass then without realy getting much stronger at all, not sure how this coralates to ur question but just my experience

Um...I don't understand the question really...Wouldn't you want to increase strength while increasing muscle size?

BiggerStronger said:

Um...I don't understand the question really...Wouldn't you want to increase strength while increasing muscle size?

Click to expand...

I think he was asking if it's possible.

O.K. ...... example.
At 21 and at a bodyweight of 215 and 7% I could handle 365 on the incline for 6-7. Squat 495 for 10, D.L. 500 for 12.
Now at 23, 238lbs 8% I can handle only 315 for 10, 365 I wouldnt even try. Squat 405 for 10, D.L. about the same. I no longer use knee wraps, but Im definately not stronger. I cant handle the loads on chest b/c of injuries. My point is that I have 20 or so more pounds of muscle and no additional strength. Or am I missing something??

No I understand...I was just being semi-sarcastic. My goal is to increase muscle mass and strength. I'm sure muscle size isn't necessarily dependent on how strong you are. There are small guys who can lift a ton and big guys that can't. It has to do with the way you train...eat...and supplements taken.

Your correct muscle mass and strength are two seperate things.....but mass can aid strength. Increases in strength from resistance exercise has been attributed to several neural adaptations including altered recruitment patterns, rate coding, motor unit synchronization, reflex potentiation, prime mover antagonist activity, and prime mover agonist activity. Aside from incremental changes in the number of contractile filaments, voluntary force production is largely a matter of "activating" motor units.

So a guy with little muscle mass can be strong or weak and a guy with lots of muscle mass can be strong or weak. Although I would think the guy with more muscle mass is going to have the advantage if you trained for all out strength.

in the case of 2 different individuals comparing strength and mass other things need to be considered also such as tendon arrangement, mitochondria concentration within muscle tissue and a lot more. However just pertaining to one individual i can certainly empathize with Thompson as i have noticed the same phenomenon in myself over a greater time period than he mentioned. Also consider what kind of gear you may be using(if you are at all) Tren gives great strength increases with minimal weight gain,winnie and anavar even moreso.

Exactly what I was asking. Just curious to see if it was a common phenomena. I know it depends heavily on neural adaptation and motor patterns as well as technique varying from person to person. I was more interested in whether this seemingly mutually exclusive pattern of size/strength development has happened to other individuals over a period of time. Thanks