Here’s something to consider when you read all of those infrequent training success stories where people gained large amounts of muscle while only training once every 10-15 days.
People on steroids who are NOT training have the ability to gain more muscle weight and muscle size then those who are not on steroids but who ARE training.
In other words, by being on steroids you can gain more by sitting on the couch playing playstation than your buddy can by busting his ass in the gym.
If you take that into account while reading HIT reviews, it illustrates that steroids MAY (note: I’m not saying are) be a confounder.
In this bar graph the people on the left were not working out. First bar is placebo. Second bar is people taking testosterone.
The people on the right were working out. First bar is placebo, second bar was taking testosterone.
Notice the Testosterone no exercise bar is higher than the exercise with no testosterone bar (bar 2 versus bar 3)
Here’s the same study looking at the size of the subjects triceps:
Check out bar 2 versus bar 3.
Something to consider next time someone tells you the key to building muscle is to train for 15 minutes once every other week.
“The simplest explanation is likely the correct one”
BP
(graphs from N Engl J Med 1996;335:1-7.)
