In trained young men, performing resistance training once or twice a week for 10 weeks with a fixed volume leads to little increase in muscle size and no improvement in strength, indicating that...
Mechanism
Synthesis from 1 study
When someone who’s already strong lifts weights only once or twice a week—even if they lift the same total amount—they don’t get bigger or stronger because their muscles aren’t being challenged often enough to keep growing. The routine becomes too familiar, and the body stops responding.
Most probable mechanism
When trained people lift weights only once or twice a week, their muscles don't get pulled hard enough often enough to keep triggering the signals that tell the muscle to grow or get stronger. The muscle cells stop responding because the same routine doesn't challenge them in new ways.
Mechanical tension from resistance training fails to reach the threshold required to sustain mTORC1 pathway activation due to low training frequency.
Reduced mTORC1 signaling leads to decreased phosphorylation of downstream targets such as S6K1 and 4E-BP1, suppressing ribosomal biogenesis and protein synthesis.
Chronic suppression of protein synthesis prevents net muscle protein accretion, resulting in minimal hypertrophy.
Lack of progressive overload or novel stimulus prevents recalibration of neuromuscular efficiency, limiting motor unit recruitment and force production.
Evidence from Studies
Supporting (1)
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Effects of equal-volume resistance training with different training frequencies in muscle size and strength in trained men
Contradicting (0)
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Gold Standard Evidence Needed
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