For men who are already trained, doing resistance training once or twice a week with the same total workload does not lead to measurable increases in elbow strength, suggesting that further strength...
Mechanism
Synthesis from 1 study
If you're already strong, doing the same amount of lifting once or twice a week isn't enough to make you stronger because your muscles and nerves have already gotten used to it. To keep getting stronger, you need to lift harder or more than before — not just the same amount.
Most probable mechanism
When someone is already strong, their muscles and nerves don't respond much to the same amount of lifting they've done before. Their body has already adjusted to that level of effort, so doing the same work once or twice a week doesn't push them hard enough to get stronger.
Muscle fibers and motor units in trained individuals have adapted to prior training loads, resulting in diminished sensitivity to mechanical tension.
The training volume used in the study is insufficient to exceed the threshold required to trigger further adaptations in already-trained muscle tissue.
Neural drive to the elbow flexors and extensors does not increase significantly because the central nervous system does not recruit additional motor units or increase firing rates beyond existing levels.
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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