How do Muscles Get Stronger...

TheAmazingOti · Post by **TheAmazingOti** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 12:19 am

There are two ways you can get stronger; your muscles can get bigger or your nervous system can rewire itself to tap into more muscle fibers.

I get that.

What I want to know. however, is related to Bruce Lee. The workout routines he always performed were geared toward the goal of hypertrophy (which is no surprise since that's who he learned weight training techniques from.)

Now, while he weight trained like a bodybuilder would, he continued aerobic exercises, such as running and cycling, along with tons of stretching and his typical martial arts training. In addition to this, his diet simply did NOT have sufficient calories to support the hypertrophy he was working toward. With all these factors, there was just no way he was going to get big and bulky.

What I can't figure out is this: How did he get stronger? The way he worked out focused on intensity and volume, which, as far as I know, doesn't tax the nervous system enough to trigger a "rewiring", for lack of a better term.

Is it possible that that intense of training coupled with insufficient calories kind of FORCED his body to adapt the only way it could; neurally?

And if that is the case, which do you think would be more efficient for gaining strength (and power)? Performing his workouts with insufficient calories to support the hypertrophy or simply following a very intense, very low volume routine, consisting of 1RM lifts and plenty of rest?

Just something that's been on mind for a while now.

Thanks.

d-nice · Post by **d-nice** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:11 pm

Check this post out, it may shed some light on your questions.
Second post on the page.
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_for ... 9&pageNo=7

HoustonTexan · Post by **HoustonTexan** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:42 pm

He was a small guy, you can gain strength without gaining muscle. It is much easier to gain strength through eating more calories. A lot of his strength was actually more relative to his form during his fighting, as far as bench press and stuff goes yes he was strong but he wasn't a freak like he was in his martial arts.

swanso5 · Post by **swanso5** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 8:45 pm

to get stronger neurally you don;t neccesarily need a calorie surplus...a maintenance level will work just as fine just keep an eye on your vol and if tou feel a little run down, decrease training volume a little and/or increase cal's for a short time until you're feeling better then drop them back again

d-nice · Post by **d-nice** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:21 pm

Bruce Lee when he died had about 1% body fat. That's not really healthy. I don't think that he was eating enough of the right foods. He was unusually strong in his upper body. In that article it said that he could hold a 75lbs dumbbell in front of him at shoulders height for several minutes. For a 135lbs man that is a lot of weight.

TheAmazingOti · Post by **TheAmazingOti** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 11:48 pm

A low body fat isn't bad as long as you constantly eat and drink to keep yourself going, which he did.

As for eating the right foods, he did that also. He only lost so much body fat when he intensified his training. His diet never changed.