Why does building muscle not equal strength? Eg. High volume for hypertrophy/building muscle vs. Low reps for strength. Whats the difference exactly?
In: Biology
First things first. There isn’t a line drawn in the sand for hypertrophy vs strength building. They go hand in hand. What you can change is which one you focus more on.
Hypertrophy (muscle fibre enlargement) not building new muscle fibre (hyperplasia) is said to be best targeted at around 8 to 12 reps.
Strength is basically building a better mind to muscle connection. More motor neurons fired during muscle contraction = greater muscle contraction = higher strength.
Think of it like this. The best strength gains will always come from training as close to your 1repmax limits. The closer you can physically lift them, the greater the strength gains. You don’t need to hit 1rm figures to build the physical muscle size.
To summarise. If you lift to get big, you will get stronger too. If you lift to get stronger, you will get bigger too. To what extent depends on your training routine.
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