I am curious about someting.

Let's say you lift 100 lbs. of weight routinely for your workouts, and then you end up lifting 200 lbs. of weight in a years time.

Will there be no significant muscle gain for someone who was just maintaining weight?

Will nothing change about your body even after increasing your liftable weight by 100 lbs. when you are not bulking?

I am curious about this, because I know lifting weights plus bulking etc. builds muscle...but I can't see NOTHING happening when you increase your liftload by 100 lbs. Does the muscle just get firmer? Does it actually get bigger?...or does it just not increase at all?

You'll still increase muscle mass, but it'll be significantly less.
strength isn't directly proportional to size...strength has a LOT to do with the brains ability to maximally contract every single muscle fiber.

the more muscle you have, and the more focus you have, the stronger the force you can exert.

short answer: you'd end up looking athletic, rather than like a bodybuilder. both are preferred over a stick figure, or jabba-the-hut type builds.

That makes sense, giving me the mental image of an athletic look vs. a bodybuilder look helped alot.

Thanks.

I beg to differ.....seriously.

If you increased your lifting capability by 100lbs then you would gain a LOT of mass in the process. You just can't get around it. Muscles (including abs) are made in the kitchen, so if you don't eat properly you won't gain mass. But there is another part to this. You won't make progress with weight. A LOT of guys in the gym are putting up the same weight for the same volume of lifting that they have for years, and they aren't getting bigger OR stronger. So if you are capable of increasing over the period of a year the weight you are lifting by 100lbs, chances are you're eating what your body needs to make those gains and you're body will show it!

This is not just my opinion, read the New Rules of Lifting and Scrawny to Brawny. Strength is not exactly related to size, but they are closely related. Certainly enough to be related when increasing strength by 100lbs lifting capability.

It also states in New Rules of Lifting that bodybuilders are not always as strong as they look (not all, but some). This has to do with the fact that they lift and eat to gain MASS, not always strength. The reverse can be said for power lifters... some of those guys are not massive at all, but they're VERY strong for their size.

Yes, a 100lb increase will require some muscle mass to be added, but as stated by malkore, you do not need to put on huge amounts of mass.

That's a very compelling argument. Particularly for me, as my LBM is 5 lbs higher than her total bodyweight, and she can dead more than twice what I can..nearly three times, if I had strict olympic form.

What's the difference between us? I'm a bum who started weight training for the first time in his life 6 weeks ago, and she's been training hard (for performance) for years.

Also, her manliness frightens me.

man if only the boobes weren't one of the first things to go

anyway also remember that she wouldn't have your test levels either so making it even harder still

Yeah, I was thinking that as I wrote in, jsb..I just didn't want to bring gender differences into it, even though they are a perfectly legitimate consideration.

DW, I didn't mean that in a "she's unattractive" way..though if I were being honest, I'm not sure I'd ever be attracted to a woman who could pick me up and throw me like a dart.

I'm just saying I'm intimidated by her prowess. I'm so using that as motivation on Wednesday, lol.

Strength is largely nervous system based. Meaning that people can train for strength and still compete in a specific weight class. Happens all of the time.

At the same time the biggest weight in the world is not lifted by small people. Nobody who weighs 150lbs is squatting 1000lbs. So large mass is required to lift truly great amounts of weight.

Some pro bodybuilders can only squat 500lbs or less. The best (Ronnie Coleman) can squat around 900lbs. Higher strength in bodybuilding will give a better and harder look.

Increasing a lift only from 100 - 200 lbs will not make much of a difference in size. Since this is more than likely a beginning lifter. Increasing strength from 100lbs to 500lbs in a lift will make a significant difference in size.

Aneta is a cute girl. Remember pics taken after competition are not the most flattering.

Call me insecure, sexist and a douchebag, but it's supposed to be the other way around.

This question depends on the volume and rep ranges that are adhered to.