oddjob62 said:
It's a simple ego thing. They'd rather do a higher weight, nothing else matters.
Same as the people who do a 6inch ROM on the squat.
woah there. whats wrong with low rep strength training? CNS training (strength) only comes at between 1-4 reps or a max of 6 reps depending on the program/belief. After that you simply develop bulk or upwards of 12 reps is mostly cardio. It's perfectly legitimate to do one heavy rep followed by a coupla forced reps. These guys may never be as big as a decent bodybuilder but they will push far more.
And SK07, its not criticism by any means m8 since im hardly a top pro who can dish out such, however it might be useful for you to spend some time readiung up on hormone levels and their effect on muscle gains. It is VERY important and is part of the reason a lot of people fail at BB'ing.
Put simply, the minute your body is exerted, whether this be a treadmill warmup or a bench press. Your testosterone levels rise in response, this stimulates the body to produce large amounts of energy and divert blood to the muscles (along with a myriad of other complex processes) your test levels continue to rise for roughly 60 minutes of ongoing excecise (yes including rests) at which point Cortisol, the stress hormone, starts to be produces. The mechanisms behind all this are a little beyond my current knowledge however Cortisol is known to be a catabolic substance, encouraging the breakdown of tissue including fat AND muscle. Testosterone is Anabolic (yes like steroids which are largely hormones like testosterone anyway) and encourages the build up of muscle. The catabolic cortisol inhibits the anabolic effect of testosterone. By about 1hr45 your cortisol levels have peaked and your testosterone levels are greatly reduced.
Put even more simply, textbook biology says that if person A works out for 1 hour with the same intensity as person B who works out for 2 hours person A will gain approximately twice the mass assuming the same diet, genetics and other contributing factors. This is because while person A did not stress the muscles as much, his hormone levels were highly anabolic at his PWO protein intake point encouraging muscle growth. Person B spent an extra hour inflicting more damage to his muscles however was highly catabolic for up to half of this time thus gains little muscle growth.
Another important point is the effect of insulin spikes on muscle growth, introducing insulin (along with insulin-like growth factor 1 or IGF1) during an anabolic state PWO increases muscle growth exponentially, which is why you should have simple sugars in your PWO shake.
At the end of the day its all down to what you want at the end. Theres no doubt that longer workouts improve muscle conditioning, but they are no good for size. What most people forget is that up to a point, a point where most people would look pretty big, manipulation of a lot of these things is unnecessary because the male body can hold a fair bit of muscle naturally. However when looking to get a LOT bigger, like say for that Wardie guy to get bigger, these factors are important. Remember the body does not WANT excess muscle, it uses up valuable energy and provides little sustinance. Your body has not evolved to know we have supermarkets and wont starve to death tomorrow. To maintain decent size you must 'trick' your body's systems into doing what you want them to do.
Oh and all IFBB pro's take steroids, fact. Otherwise why would there be a 'natural' BB title as well. Im amazed how surprised some are to hear that.
Rant over.
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