TOPIC: Is muscle memory real?

BigT wrote: Muscle memory recovery is at least 2x the speed it was originally gained assuming you are nourished, sleeping enough, stress/hormones are in check etc.

Beginners gains are not limited to total beginners. Someone who is quad dominant can easily neglect hamstrings and glutes. Especially of they aren't doing deadlifts, this also means alot of potential mass in the spinal erectors.

Lats are the largest muscle in the upper body but everyone is benching to build a big chest. And Bench doesn't even work chest in a Full ROM. Only cross overs/flys with cables or bands, or fly machine, provide resistance over the full ROM. Those working lats only do pull downs, and pull ups are by far superior. The direction of the force makes all the difference.

With bis, tris, delts it's far too easy to overload the weight, get sloppy, and put most of the stress on the joints and not the muscle.

Another thing is the guys working heavy every workout or doing 12 drop sets. Thry are getting no where.

This describes just about everyone in the gym. Many small things can unlock relatively easy gains.

BigT wrote: In general comparing one person to another in terms of strength or size is not a 1:1 lb to lb correlation.

However increasing your own strength does increase potential mass. However conditioning for max lifts vs max hypertrophy is quite different. Volume as time under tension with moderately heavy weight is what makes hypertrophy. Muscles respond well to stretching and contractng hard under constant tension.

1Rm doesn't matter much.
In other words, if conditioned for hypertrophy your 4 rep max is essentially the same as your 1 rep max. Conversely, if conditioned for strength 1rm might be 10-15% heavier than 4rm.

But If conditioned for hypertrophy
You can do more reps at 70-80% 1rm.

Brute strength reps are explosive and reps for hypertrophy are deliberately pausing at full stretch and peak contraction and slow on the negative.