Why your gains aren't like your friend's
Myofibrillar protein synthesis and muscle hypertrophy individualised responses to systematically changing resistance training variables in trained young men.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
A protocol that increased training volume and acute protein synthesis still produced zero additional muscle growth compared to a standard program.
Common fitness wisdom says more variation = more stimulation = more growth. This shows that even when you hit the biological triggers harder, the outcome stays the same.
Practical Takeaways
If you're a trained lifter, stick to a simple, consistent progressive overload program — you don’t need to constantly change reps, sets, or rest times to grow.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
A protocol that increased training volume and acute protein synthesis still produced zero additional muscle growth compared to a standard program.
Common fitness wisdom says more variation = more stimulation = more growth. This shows that even when you hit the biological triggers harder, the outcome stays the same.
Practical Takeaways
If you're a trained lifter, stick to a simple, consistent progressive overload program — you don’t need to constantly change reps, sets, or rest times to grow.
Publication
Journal
Journal of applied physiology
Year
2019
Authors
Felipe Damas, Vitor Angleri, Stuart M Phillips, Oliver C. Witard, C. Ugrinowitsch, Natália Santanielo, S. D. Soligon, Luiz A R Costa, M. Lixandrão, M. Conceição, C. Libardi
Related Content
Claims (4)
Even if you tweak your weightlifting routine—like lifting heavier, doing more reps, or resting longer—it won’t make your muscles grow bigger than a simple, steady progress plan, even if your body is making more muscle proteins.
Lifting weights makes your muscles start building more protein right after the workout, and mixing up your routine a little bit gives your muscles a tiny extra boost right after lifting—but in the long run, both routines build about the same amount of muscle.
People respond to weight training in wildly different ways—some grow muscles a lot, others hardly at all—and those differences between people are about 40 times bigger than the tiny differences you’d see if you trained one leg harder than the other in the same person.
Changing up your workout routine all the time—like switching exercises every week—won’t make your muscles grow bigger than sticking to the same routine, even if you do more total work in the varied version.