Weight gain vs muscle
Jobygains
Posts: 14 Member
Does weight gain have a direct correlation to strength? I'm currently bulking and I'm wondering if I should be seeing rapid results with the weight I've gained or if it should take awhile to turn the fat into muscle. I'd like to hear others results with weight gain and bulking in correlation to their strength.
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Bulking is not the way to gain strength. All it does is make you fat. Its another bit of Instagram misinformation. It's like thinking if my car is full of petrol it will go faster. The way to go is to eat a small calorie increase from your TDEE and then it's all about progressively overloading your muscles each time you go to the gym to achieve hypertrophy. This will make you stronger over time as your weights get heavier. When I started I could not do one pullup and I could deadlift 40 kilos. Now 6 months later I can do 10 pullups with a 10 kilo weight dangling down and I am up to 100 kilos on the d/l. But at the same time I LOST 10 pounds of weight and am now at 20% bodyfat.0
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If you are considerably “underweight” and “weak” it could be beneficial to gain weight at an accelerated rate for a short time while performing an appropriate training protocol.
If you don’t mind, what is your current age, height, weight, strength level and training program?
And fat doesn’t “turn into muscle” in the strictest sense...1 -
So bulking isn't gaining strength, but bulking is? A small surplus is still a bulk.keithyboy53 wrote: »Bulking is not the way to gain strength. All it does is make you fat. Its another bit of Instagram misinformation. It's like thinking if my car is full of petrol it will go faster. The way to go is to eat a small calorie increase from your TDEE and then it's all about progressively overloading your muscles each time you go to the gym to achieve hypertrophy. This will make you stronger over time as your weights get heavier. When I started I could not do one pullup and I could deadlift 40 kilos. Now 6 months later I can do 10 pullups with a 10 kilo weight dangling down and I am up to 100 kilos on the d/l. But at the same time I LOST 10 pounds of weight and am now at 20% bodyfat.
It is correct though, that a large surplus bulk is not beneficial. A calorie surplus is facilitative, not causative of hypertrophy.
OP, no, weight gain does not have a direct correlation with strength. In trained lifters, increases in cross-sectional muscle fiber size is dead-on correlated with strength, so growing muscle (hypertrophy) is related. Growing muscle will be a result of a proper resistance training program, with a slight calorie surplus making a difference in how quickly strength and hypertrophy happen - though not entirely necessary.
There are a lot of variables that will go into how quickly you should expect to progress in strength. Dumping a large number of calories at it isn't the way to get around that.5 -
The thing that convinced me to start bulking was a quote from Jim Wendler: paraphrasing..."The best thing to increase your bench and squat is to get fat."
The weight gain doesn't make you stronger. There, however, are advantages to being bigger with ROM and "cushion"/support around your joints.
I didn't see huge strength gains quickly. I bulked slowly and patiently and had slow, consistent gains. I also got minimally "fat."2 -
keithyboy53 wrote: »Bulking is not the way to gain strength. All it does is make you fat. Its another bit of Instagram misinformation. It's like thinking if my car is full of petrol it will go faster. The way to go is to eat a small calorie increase from your TDEE and then it's all about progressively overloading your muscles each time you go to the gym to achieve hypertrophy. This will make you stronger over time as your weights get heavier. When I started I could not do one pullup and I could deadlift 40 kilos. Now 6 months later I can do 10 pullups with a 10 kilo weight dangling down and I am up to 100 kilos on the d/l. But at the same time I LOST 10 pounds of weight and am now at 20% bodyfat.
First off - welcome to MFP
Secondish... when responding to posts look at the top and check out which subforum you are posting in. This is Goal:Gaining Weight and Body Building so it's not unusual to see posts from people who want to not only get stronger but who also (or just) want to add significant mass to their physiques. The OP started at 5'7 and 128 pounds and has expressed the desire to get much much bigger. While, I don't necessarily agree that aggressive bulks are wise for most people they can work. They have worked for me. The problem with extreme bulks is the cutting phase. If you aren't careful and have to cut too much you can either lose a chunk (or even all) of those gains or have problems shedding the extra fluff. Both bulking and cutting can be psychologically draining.
Anyhow, what do you say to the guy who is 6'1 and a 130 lbs soaking wet that wants to get jacked? Do you think he'd want to lose that 10 pounds you lost? Do you think he'd be happy with being a ripped and vascular 120? So... what do guys (or gals) do when they need to add that significant amount of mass/muscle? How do you achieve those advanced physique goals? You bulk. Optimally you increase your caloric intake just enough to add muscle while minimizing fat gain. The trick here is that you also don't want to skirt that line so closely that you also minimize muscle gain and end up in a recomp situation or an unintentional deficit - unless maintenance or weight loss is your goal.
... and what the heck does Instagram have to do with anything? Bulking and cutting have been an established part of bodybuilding since the beginning.7 -
No weight gain doesn't have a direct coleration by itself unless you are at your maximum potential after training for many years.
Weight gain could give you better leverages, could help with a hypertrophy response, could help with recovery.
It's a tricky situation as just because we move more weight, doesn't mean we are stronger per sae. There are a lot of factors involved that seriously won't matter the more novel you are.
Depending on the individual and programming...strength gains can happen within a caloric deficit and is even more common with a person who is maintaining. Its more about individual responses to volume and adaptations.
In general you are novel to lifting and not underweight I would just train and reep the benefits.
Unless you're considered underweight.2 -
Does weight gain have a direct correlation to strength? I'm currently bulking and I'm wondering if I should be seeing rapid results with the weight I've gained or if it should take awhile to turn the fat into muscle. I'd like to hear others results with weight gain and bulking in correlation to their strength.
Well an important thing here clarify is that fat doesn't "turn" into muscle. Some people burn fat and build muscle, but they are two different processes. Fat doesn't magically transfer itself into muscle.
When you eat in a surplus, you gain some combination of muscle and fat. What the percentages are depends on how much you are working your muscles during that time with progressive overload and the size of your surplus, among other things. At a certain point, your body can only build so much muscle in a period of time, so if you eat at large surpluses, more of it will be fat. That's why most bulks tend to be somewhere in the 250-500 daily calorie surplus. However fat gain is not always a bad thing, depending on what your goals are. If you are underweight, it may be appropriate to gain both fat and muscle to achieve your goals.
If you find yourself gaining too much fat for your liking, you can always do a cut later. But eating at large surpluses are probably not the most effective way to bulk.3 -
Did we actually accumulate enough useful stress to develop a adaptation to strength? Or just have more advantageous leverages(body weight) to counter the amount of force needed to complete a lift?
Another example is when you engage in a deload, washout, pivot week, etc.
We lower the stress we have accumulated over a certain amount of time.
When we return to our normal routine, we usually can move more weight for a short period. This is because we are more fresh. This doesn't mean we actually developed a adaptation and became stronger. Just a more optimal way to move weight.
Another example when we correct our technique. We adjust to keep the barbell over midfoot on a deadlift instead of out 2-3 inches from our shins. We can now move more weight in minutes. This is not an increase in strength, but better technique that allows us to perform the lift easier.
To gain strength we have to develop an adaptation. For somebody new, that adaptation can be done in one session.
For somebody like me, I need more advanced programming up to 12-16 weeks to actually gain minor strength hopefully in the most optimal conditions. If I just add body weight, did I actually get stronger or change the variables in what is needed to apply force?
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