— How do some animals put on huge gains of muscle mass without working out?

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Where I’m from, deer hunting has always been a popular pastime. Old heads always talk about bucks (male deer) “blowing up” during the seasonal rut. I understand their natural testosterone goes through the roof during that time, and that affects their behavior, but it also makes them *jacked* for a short time. They put on obvious and almost extreme muscle mass in their necks and forelegs, to assist in fights with other males, and then go back to their normal size after the rut has ended. How does testosterone do this by itself? The deer aren’t doing exercises to target those muscles, the increase in testosterone just bulks them up by itself. If a human was to massively boost their testosterone, say with steroids, it wouldn’t make them muscular by itself. Intense workouts are still required to build any of that mass. If we didn’t, the extra T would just make us fat, bald, and greasy.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

>Intense workouts are still required to build any of that mass. If we didn’t, the extra T would just make us fat, bald, and greasy.

This part of your premise is false. For example, boys who go through puberty will gain muscle mass compared to pre-puberty, even if they never touch a weight. Men who take T will get bigger, but not as big as they would if they lifted.

>The deer aren’t doing exercises to target those muscles, the increase in testosterone just bulks them up by itself.

Signals to increase muscle mass vary from animal to animal. No animals do anything that we would consider resistance training, but animals vary greatly in musculature based on genetics, hormones, etc. My pitbull never does more than walk around the neighborhood and he’s jacked by dog standards because that’s in pitbull genetics. Deer genetics are too be mostly lean and light for mobility and then add muscle when they get the T signal.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The animals are designed to put on large amounts of muscle in the situation you described. Human beings are not designed to put on large amounts of muscle.