Hi Ellington, You may be aware - there’s a You Tube re-emergence of Mike Mentzer being led by John Little. One thing Mentzer regularly stated was his belief that an average (drug free) bodybuilder could only gain about 5 -7 lbs of muscle a year. Do you recall if this came from anyone in particular other than Mentzer?
I’m sad (embarrassed) to say it’s one I swallowed hook, line and sinker in the late 70’s and early 80’s and is probably responsible for me being satisfied with very unsatisfactory results. Good job I discovered your books!
This is a good expression of how the next pound of muscle is harder to gain than the previous pound of muscle was. If muscle gain has a rate, it isn’t linear. The more you have gained, the harder the next pound is to gain.
Edit: I commented too soon on the equation. In a bit of a hurry to get out of the house. With exponents I usually do a quick check (for reasonableness) where the exponent is zero, because the value is always one (1). In the above equation, where x=0, Y becomes 1 - 1/1 which equals 0.
I don’t believe there is a simple equation, other than a tapering decline in additional muscle potential over the years. As you get older there are other forces in play that actually cause a decline in muscle already achieved.
This is an entertaining post by a (mostly) HIT guy on his own experience with trying to gain muscle. But if you make it through to the end, he offers many examples that illustrate just how hard muscle gain becomes after the newbie gains have been taken.
I do believe there is much merit if it is rephrased: “An average bodybuilder (drug free) could only gain about 5 - 7lbs of muscle in a year.” But that rate is unsustainable year after year.
Very nice, but I would have turned on the sarcopenia between 50 and 60 years old (or about 30 to 40 years of training, considering starting at age 20.)
If you had it would have shown a 50% step drop (5 weeks) of muscle, (probably more, because I was getting fatter during that 40lb drop in body weight.)
Interesting and thought provoking article. Written in 2011, it would be interesting to hear Skyler Tanner’s comments on development now, 12 years after.
I have later learned and realized there is an upper limit to what you can achieve as a natural. Online calculators estimate I’ve reached more than 90% of my “potential”
gains. Resting comfortably in this fact, when people raise comments on how “big” I plan to be? The answer is I will never get too big on a natural foundation based on my genetics, diet and training opportunities. The body regulates itself. The challenge lies in how far you can stretch it through wise corrections, in order to resist adaptation and promote further growth. I’d rather have these restrictions applied than risking my health for an enhanced look. It just isn’t worth it. Life has more to offer than spending the majority of time, health and resources on placing your eggs in only one basket.
The consensus seems that one’s genetic potential is reached shortly after commencement of resistance training. Afterwards, further muscular gains are harder.
A question comes to mind then. What role does resistance training play after this initial step.
Remembering that resistance training is a very poor cardiovascular conditioning endeavor, and that resistance training plays a very small role in bone and joint mobility, just what would RT be good for after the initial period of training. RT is not very good weight loss endeavors, as not many calories are burned from weight lifting.
So what is RT good for after this initial training program decreases effectiveness?
It has been my experience that resistance training that adds muscle greatly improves fat loss capability. My comment to someone with much less muscle than me would be, “I burn more fat sleeping that you do running.” It might not be particularly accurate, but you get the point.
After that initial RT period, very little additional muscle tissue will be forthcoming. Furthermore, Mike Mentzer was correct in that RT is a poor fat loss tool. The additional muscle tissue gained surely burns additional calories. However, cardiovascular conditioning activity done for appropriate time periods burns many more calories than RT. With that said, diet is the salient factor for weight management, not cardio or RT. How much RT is necessary for weight management, probably not much, and ditto for cardiovascular conditioning activity.
Bodily training is good for a little! Better to build your mind! Another subject however!
Though I am probably an outlier, my muscle gain was fairly linear for the first 11 years (1968-1979). I was learning as I went. I was more of a pioneer as information was not available apart from muscle magazines, for what they were worth.
I never did any cardio for those 11 years, as no one did that I knew who competed. I still credit my extra muscle most for my ability to get in contest shape. Sure diet was important and I was pretty good at that.
Not necessary for my results those 11 years. I just cannot “unlive” those years, regardless what others say today.
I too was a lifter only in my early days, But I played lots of sports which all required running. After college, I applied my science knowledge to cardiovascular conditioning. After that, I was terribly disappointed with the whole concept of high intensity training being all that was needed.
Unless an author has done extensive research into cardiovascular conditioning, then they should not be making any sort of recommendations as to it’s usefulness. Since Arthur Jones first writings, HiT has minimized any sort of cardiovascular conditioning other than resistance training. However, no research was ever done on cardiovascular conditioning by Nautilus during Arthur Jones’ ownership. He, along with Dr. Darden, Ken Hutchins, Wayne Westcott, Doug McGuff, John Little, or Pete Sisco were ever experts on cardiovascular conditioning. Their arguments against cardiovascular conditioning were specious at best and perhaps even deceitful in some instances. But if I could relive many of those years, I would emphasize cardiovascular fitness along with resistance training. I am truly thankful I never engaged in bodybuilding, which I feel is useless as one ages.