12 months of HST

I think what he meant by that was simply to point out that weights even as light as 20-205RM can cause growth in certain cases, meaning they aren't "too light for growth", from which he reasonably points out it probably still causes some connective tissue growth - or at the very least retains the connective tissue present instead of making them go away.

Personally, I'm not sure right now what to agree on. I still have to take a look at more CT stuff before I can pitch in, so I don't give "myths" or old folklore :)

Anyhoo, regards,
-JV
 
Yes but when you're 2 years old, if you held your arms out parallel to the floor for long enough you'd prob. elicit growth...

Anyway....my question remains: will your muscles (and why would they) maintain adaptations derived from heavy lifting (5RM and up) if you're only loading with 15s for 2 weeks....?
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Anyway....my question remains: will your muscles (and why would they) maintain adaptations derived from heavy lifting (5RM and up) if you're only loading with 15s for 2 weeks....?
Click to expand...
Jester, I don't think there is a definitive answer to your question, or at least we are not aware of any studies that could back up one theory or the other. There is the possibility that 2 weeks of 30's or even 15's may be (nearly) as effective as an SD, but we are not sure.

The whole point here is to try and decondition the muscle so that lighter weights will be effective again. The SD is the "extreme" path to achieve this; no weight lifting at all. Maybe 2 weeks with light weights will have a similar effect, but to be on the safe side we choose to SD.

However, I cannot see how deloading can be superior to SD, when our only goal is hypertrophy. Maybe deloading could help with fitness in general or even strength, I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that lying on your bed all day long is the most efficient way to decondition the muscle.

Now, if someone absolutely hates SD and can't stay away from the gym even for a week, he/she could choose something that resembles as much as possible the extreme solution (that is SD). The lighter the weight, the better our chances to achieve our goal (decondition the muscle).

I don't believe there is a strict "threshold" which determines whether we will maintain adaptations or not. It is not like an "on-off" thing. If I was forced to express an opinion, I'd probably say that adaptations from heavy loading will diminish over time with 15's, but we could achieve the same effect more quickly with a full SD. Anyway, thanks for listening. :)

Regards,
Dimitris
 
I agree, I don't think there IS a definitive answer to the question.

And yes, the reason we SD is to re-sensitise muscles to the weights (particularly those weights nowhere near our 5/1RM).

However, I don't do the 15s or 10s anymore. I like the heavy cycles and heavy weights. Coupled to this, there are other programs that don't use light(er) weights.

The stimulus we apply determines the level of adaptation/conditioning (however/whatever that specifically is). And in return, that level of adaptation determines the (new/increased) stimulus required to continue growth.

e.g. We work with 15RM for a year. RBE 'sets in' to the point that 15RM no longer provides growth. We then work with 10RM for a year, same thing happens..and so on until we can no longer increase weights. And then we SD.

But what if SD'ing fully isn't necessary if you're only going to work @ heavy weights? If this IS the case, I'm sure many people would prefer 2 weeks of light weights to 2 weeks of nothing. Just as some would prefer to leave the gym alone for 2 weeks.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]The stimulus we apply determines the level of adaptation/conditioning (however/whatever that specifically is). And in return, that level of adaptation determines the (new/increased) stimulus required to continue growth.
Click to expand...
Exactly. I couldn't agree more. All I wanted to say was that the SD would probably do a better job at deconditioning the muscle than 2 weeks of 15's. But if someone plans to start right away with the 5's after deloading for two weeks with 15's, then maybe either way will not make much of a difference (since there will be such a sudden increase in load) . Maybe. I don't know, that's for sure. Perhaps more knowledgeable guys here can make a more substantial statement/estimation.

Cheers,
Dimitris
 
Haha, this conversation just went through a giant loop... but the whole idea of deloading is only useful for the heavy weights of the 5 rep range and so forth.
 
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