Skeletal/Muscle changes in men during 20s

ForecasterJason

I've heard it said that men typically continue to fill out naturally from a skeletal and muscle perspective naturally during their 20s, long after the main body growth is done. I'd love to hear anecdotal accounts from others who are 30+ regarding this. As a caveat, I would imagine the changes would probably be easiest to see on someone who was normal weight and did not intentionally gain substantial amounts of muscle.

wilsoncl6

No real growth happens after puberty is over without exercise. That is unless you have some kind of genetic disorder that causes continuous growth. You can't just sit back and expect your body to just add on spontaneous muscle or continue to grow in height without convincing your body that it needs to do so.

ForecasterJason

wilsoncl6 wrote: »

No real growth happens after puberty is over without exercise. That is unless you have some kind of genetic disorder that causes continuous growth. You can't just sit back and expect your body to just add on spontaneous muscle or continue to grow in height without convincing your body that it needs to do so.

What do you think of this article? Granted, it was written in the context of a guy actively working out, but in the cited source Alan states "Guys in their late teens need to first realize they won’t reach true skeletal maturity for another decade or so."

wilsoncl6

ForecasterJason wrote: »

wilsoncl6 wrote: »

No real growth happens after puberty is over without exercise. That is unless you have some kind of genetic disorder that causes continuous growth. You can't just sit back and expect your body to just add on spontaneous muscle or continue to grow in height without convincing your body that it needs to do so.

What do you think of this article? Granted, it was written in the context of a guy actively working out, but in the cited source Alan states "Guys in their late teens need to first realize they won’t reach true skeletal maturity for another decade or so."

That's because guys in their late teens are still undergoing puberty and have elevated levels of testosterone. They're bodies are rigged for growth at that age and the levels taper off after puberty ends. What it seems like he is saying is that you have an extended period of time to take advantage of the naturally occurring hormon increase before it completely levels out. That does not mean that you'll continue to grow new bone matter but that you can increase bone density and lean muscle mass with the proper diet and exercise. Like I said before, it's not going to happen on it's own and after puberty the growth stops unless the body is encouraged to do otherwise through exercise.

ForecasterJason

wilsoncl6 wrote: »

ForecasterJason wrote: »

wilsoncl6 wrote: »

No real growth happens after puberty is over without exercise. That is unless you have some kind of genetic disorder that causes continuous growth. You can't just sit back and expect your body to just add on spontaneous muscle or continue to grow in height without convincing your body that it needs to do so.

What do you think of this article? Granted, it was written in the context of a guy actively working out, but in the cited source Alan states "Guys in their late teens need to first realize they won’t reach true skeletal maturity for another decade or so."

That's because guys in their late teens are still undergoing puberty and have elevated levels of testosterone. They're bodies are rigged for growth at that age and the levels taper off after puberty ends. What it seems like he is saying is that you have an extended period of time to take advantage of the naturally occurring hormon increase before it completely levels out. That does not mean that you'll continue to grow new bone matter but that you can increase bone density and lean muscle mass with the proper diet and exercise. Like I said before, it's not going to happen on it's own and after puberty the growth stops unless the body is encouraged to do otherwise through exercise.

I get that, but how come most sites say bone density increases further until about age 30? Obviously if one is malnourished or bedridden during that time then that would most likely thwart additional increases in bone density, but I thought that with a normal diet and some exercise (not necessarily serious weight training) there are still some changes that happen on their own. Or are you saying that age is just a general age cutoff to account for late bloomers?

ForecasterJason

Bump

I also want to discuss strength. I thought I've heard that muscular strength peaks when one reaches their 30s.