Are rep-maxed indicative muscle-mass?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alek
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A

Alek

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Hey guys, is it TRUE that if you don't lose strenght, that's a GUARANTEE you're only losing fat? Pure fat...

I remember Labrada mentioning how when cutting he kept logs of the poundages used, and if the poundages weren't going down while his bodyweight was, it was a good indication that there is no muscle loss...

I was wondering about how true that is. Personally i've gotten onto a nice smooth train downards and been losing pretty well for the past 1-2 months. And i've been increasing all my rep-maxes (5s, 10s, and 15s) by 5-10% each cycle. Is that a guarantee that all the weight I have lost is just fat?

Also in general, aside from when cutting. How much of an indicator of muscle gains is the increase of poundages? I mean is there any correlation? Because for the average person if a 10% increase in poundages meant a 10% increase in muscle mass... we'd be gaining 20-30 pounds of muscle a year on HST lol
 
Muscle physiology. Strenght gains are more based on neural functions than muscle hypertrophy. A muscle which is gets stronger has either a)increased its neural ability to contract the muscle more efficiently for a heavier force contraction, or b) increased its cross-section area through hypertrophy of the muscle fiber, or c) a combination of the two.

Strengthgains DO NOT always mean muslce gain or lack of muscle loss. Labrada was making a general statement which is fairly accurate. A deeply trained individual isn't likely to see much in neural gains compared to a beginner. If that trianed person is losing weight and strength is maintained, then it is a good indicator that as much lean mass as possible is being held while fat is lost. It is of course, no guarantee!
 
There are no guarantees. You will always lose some lean mass while dieting. Likewise, strength losses do not necessarily mean you are losing muscle either.
 
''I was wondering about how true that is. Personally i've gotten onto a nice smooth train downards and been losing pretty well for the past 1-2 months. And i've been increasing all my rep-maxes (5s, 10s, and 15s) by 5-10% each cycle. Is that a guarantee that all the weight I have lost is just fat?''

As said, no but its a good sign!

''Also in general, aside from when cutting. How much of an indicator of muscle gains is the increase of poundages? I mean is there any correlation? Because for the average person if a 10% increase in poundages meant a 10% increase in muscle mass... we'd be gaining 20-30 pounds of muscle a year on HST lol''

Good question, We'v already established that you can gain strength while losing weight gradually. In my experience a few pounds of muscle tissue gained usually comes with a decent strength increase, I have no figures though
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