3 guys sign up for a research study on the muscle building effects of weight training.
None of them have ever lifted weights before, and all three are between the ages of 20 and 21.
At the start of the study they weighed between 130 and 143 pounds (light by North American Standards)
Guy A – 130 pounds
Guy B – 138 pounds
Guy C – 143 pounds
For their given age and weight, each guy has about normal to slightly below average levels of lean body mass (I’m assuming the guys were between 5’6″ and 5’8″).
Guy A – LBM = 121 pounds (about 10% BF)
Guy B – LBM = 118 pounds (about 10% BF)
Guy C – LBM = 132 pounds (about 7.5% BF)
These numbers also make each guy exceptionally lean.
For their given age and weight, each guy has lower than expected levels of skeletal muscle mass. (We would expect about 50% of LBM to be skeletal Muscle).
Guy A -45 pounds Skeletal Muscle (about 37% of LBM!!!) Expected would be about 60 pounds.
Guy B – 43 pounds Skeletal Muscle (about 36% of LBM!!!) Expected would be about 59 pounds.
Guy C – 55 pounds Skeletal Muscle (about 41% of LBM!!!) Expected would be about 66 pounds.
Each guys bench press max confirms that this is their first time weight training.
Guy A – 95 pounds
Guy B – 90 pounds
Guy C – 130 pounds
So, these three guys who are light by North American Standards, with incredibly low levels of Body Fat and incredibly low levels of Skeletal muscle mass start a weight training program consisting of 3 workouts a week for 4 months.
Their workout program looked like this:
Squats 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Leg Extensions 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Hamstring Curls 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Bench Press 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Lat Pull downs 3 sets of 8-12 reps
As they progressed through their workouts their weights were increased to make sure they failed on each set within the 8-12 rep range.
At the end of the four month period all three guys increased their body weight and Lean Body Mass by about 5.5 pounds…which is pretty close to the average found in most research trials studying weight training for this length of time.
Now, here is where things get a little quirky.
These numbers seemed plausible, given the fact that these 3 men were underweight, under-muscled and new to weigh training.
But what doesn’t make sense is the following…Two of these guys gained MORE muscle then they did Lean Body Mass!
Guy A gained 9 pounds of muscle while only gaining 4.5 pounds of LBM.
Guy B gained 11 pounds of muscle while only gaining 4.5 pounds of LBM.
Guy C gained 7.7 pounds of muscle while gaining 7.7 pounds of LBM.
So, even with their impressive gains in muscle, their muscle mass is still below where it should be (50% of lean body mass) and somewhere along the way two of them lost around 5 pounds of LBM…liver removed maybe?
Bottom line – you have to be skeptical of muscle building research. Obviously this group of 3 guys are not a good subset of the rest of the population. Specifically, they are probably not a good representation of you or I.
They are were their early twenties, were very light, were very lean, and had very little muscle mass at the start of this research study. Their workout was far form extraordinary but they did manage to gain almost exactly the amount of weight, LBM and strength that we would expect from a 4 month long supervised workout program.
Despite this their was obviously some discrepancy in the measures of skeletal muscle mass…this discrepancy either caused
A) Exceptionally low measurements of skeletal muscle at the beginning of the study.
B) Exceptionally high measurement of skeletal muscle at the end of the study.
The only other possible scenario is that two of the subjects somehow lost between 5-6 pounds of LBM somewhere during the weight training process.
Obviously…something is up.
But this is extremely important, and is a great example of why you need to ANALYZE every study that you read.
Otherwise, you could quickly go over the abstract of this study and say that “Research proves that full body weight training 3 times per week can cause you to gain up to 11 pounds of pure muscle in 4 months!”
BP
PS – Interestingly, this study was performed by the same people who are finding amazing muscle gaining results from ‘blood flow occlusion training”…makes you wonder.
PPS – There is one last thing missing from this study..has to do with the small number of subjects…something that would be next to impossible to calculate with only three subjects….Can you guess?
Abe T. Br J Sports Med, 2003.
Tags: build muscle, muscle building, muscle building research
Great post Brad! I reminder to us all that we need to all be very Weary of certain research and what company is behind it.
Thanks for sharing buddy! = >
What I wouldn’t give to see the emails you sent those Acai Berry idiots who stole your pictures!
(sorry totally off topic)… ; )
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I am guessing the missing thing you’re looking for in the study is margin of error. Right?
BTW, you mention analyzing studies and not simply reading the abstracts. I’m just curious how you do this – do you have online subscriptions to journals? Almost every time I (as an occasional, amateur researcher following up on some topic of interest) search online for an article, I can only get access to the abstract, and am offered the option to pay for full article access. Not being a pro or expert analyst I’m not inclined to pony up the $$, so I usually don’t see full articles… but if I could find a way to peruse them, I would be interested.
this was great man, thanks a lot, userful information.
There’s no control group, it’s not double blind placebo controlled.
It drives me mental (as I know it does you as well), seeing all these “amazing” expert research studies which are mostly “put on” by the supplement companies.
It’s helpful to have a voice of reason such as yourself to debunk these people! Keep it up and sell the idea of a “Myth Buster” show for health and fitness to the networks! You would be a shoe-in
Nice stuff. I’m always skeptical, which is why I appreciate your scientific, commonsense approach (if something seems too good to be true, it probably is…).
May I offer a little friendly editorial suggestion, just in the name of making your writing even more persuasive to those of critical minds?:
Watch out for “then” vs. “than” (“Two of these guys gained MORE muscle then they did Lean Body Mass!”)
Cases like “they are probably not a good representation of you or I.” — Should be “of you or me.” (You would never say, “They are not a good representation of I”, would you? Adding “you or” doesn’t change anything grammatically.)
Sorry for the unsolicited advice. I just think that the more accurate the writing, the more likely it is to convince people, especially those who may be looking for something wrong with it to begin with.
I would be asking to see what they ate during this time
Wow, nice. It’s nice to know that there is a source of reliable information out there. BTW, I’ve lost 30 lbs over about six months doing ESE: I’m at 229 down from 262.
OK! That is quite odd. What really happened here? I am female. I took the Body for Life Challenge when I was 28. I went from 28% bodyfat to 12% bodyfat in 12 weeks.I gained 16 pounds of muscle in that same time period. My 2 rep max on the bench press was 180. As in oone, two, get it off me!!!! I’m a “girl”. They couldn’t have been doing too much! And no way could they have lost 5-6 lbs. of LBM if they were following the program. I’m just reiterating your sentiment, Brad…
@Jen
You need a subscription, or you can buy them one at a time, or you need access to a university library (as a university alum you should be able to go back to your alma mater and use the library)
JB
Yep, as my professors used to say in engineering school. “Show me the actual data or I don’t even want to read the results.” As you’ve shown, without the details the results look completely different than they do after you’ve read the details (data).
I’ve never understood why individual subject data is so rare in studies.
B
That huge random sample is of sufficient size and diversity that the results can be reliably extrapolated to the rest of the population. It sounds like they cobbled together three Ethiopian triplets and nourished them back to health and decided to ramp up a study to publish.
Yep,
And with only 3 subjects you can’t run significance on any numbers in the paper…so no stats, no control groups..what this is a case study.
B
Brad,
Thanks for another great post, and am having great success with ESE. Love this way of IF.
Now, was just curious. Is skeletal muscle always around 50% of LBM? I guess I am curious as to whether those ratios remain the same when one adds muscle. Myself, over many years of training, “bulked” up some 75 pounds and body composition results (which I have recorded since beginning training) show that I have gained roughly in a 2-1 ratio, lean to fat. Makes sense. The 25 or so pounds of fat translate, for me anyway, a 6 inch and a bit gain in waist size over the years. So, of the 50 lean, can I assume 25 of it to be actual skeletal muscle tissue? I know that John has stated that a typical male can gain 20-30 pounds of actual muscle tissue over the years so that seems about right. I may be at the high end of that, but still it is in the ballpark of 50%. What then constitutes the rest of the LBM gain? Glycogen, denser bones?? I have seen your great video where you show what just a single pound of muscle tissue looks like and I can see where 25 or so of those pounds have been “slapped” on my body over time.
Love your blog and you and John’s teachings. Sorry for the long question!
Hey Lorenzo,
Remember lean body mass is anything other than fat, so extra water, blood, organ weight, and the food in your stomach and the stuff in your blader…that all counts.
50% is rough..meaning really athletic people can be higher…55%-57%, and inactive and women can be lower 45%
How were you measuring your body comp?
B
Hi Brad. There was no mention of their diet. Were they on a high protein -low carb diet?
Or is growth hormone involved?
DrJoChiro
Probably becuase diet has no real effect on muscle building.
B
With only 3 subjects, the “study” has absolutely no statistical significance whatsoever.
So basically we are just looking at what happened to these 3 dudes when they were given a workout program.
You could pick 3 other dudes and something totally different could occur.
Thanks Brad. I keep forgetting that part of what is LBM.
I have consistently used skinfold calipers, actually know someone that worked at a Y for years, kinesiology grad and all. Is now a physiotherapist, anyway, good friends with he and his wife, so I go and get tested by him every so often.
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hey Brad, could you go into a little bit more detail about the comment you made that diet has no real effect on muscle building? are you talking about macro ratios or total calorie intake? thanks.
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Great article! It’s just what I was looking for.
Thanks for sharing this!
Brad I have been eating mostly a starch based diet for the last 6 months or so because I can’t afford meat. My staples are mostly oats and beans. I easily meet what you recomend for protein intake. Is there any reason why this shouldn’t work to get stronger? In this time I had regained back strength that I lost awhile back. Now I have it back but don’t want to wait and see if I can get stronger with this diet and was hoping you could give me your opinion.
Hi James,
I don’t see why this would effect your strength gains in anyway.
B
Thanks for this excellent article. I am keen to see more on this topic sometime soon. Cheers again
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