Can low-intensity hypertrophy be useful for strength gains?

Hello, Docs. During the programming podcast series, it was hammered home that hypertrophy is extremely important for continued strength gains. It was mentioned from at least Austin that you don’t like to program below the high 60’s for intensity.

If somebody went full bodybuilding bro and did sufficient volume at low intensities (like 40% or so) to drive hypertrophy, could they be in a better position than before for future strength gains (even considering probable detraining from going Bro)?

A better position compared to what? That is the crux of the question, Mitchell :slight_smile:

Ugh, you are making me use my brain a little bit. :wink:

Let’s say a 200 lb lifter with a 400lb squat has 2 paths.

  1. He maintains his weight during a few BBM mesocycles and gets his squat to 450
  2. Alternatively, he goes full on bro and put on 10 lbs (assume muscle for simplicity) doing super high volume squats at low intensities. Their squat regresses to 350.

In both scenarios, body weight will be maintained indefinitely (so 200 lb in (1) and 210 in (2)). Would simply having more muscle cross-sectional area in scenario 2 lead to more potential strength gains for the long haul, or does muscle fiber type come in to play?

Well, these questions must be answered in a specific context!

  1. This represents an increase in muscle CSA of some non zero amount if we assume the amount of experience with singles is similar at both testing points and the testing points aren’t spread out too much (like 6 months of training occurs between them).

  2. It’s unlikely that someone can put on 10lbs of muscle without getting stronger. I reject this scenario.

Thank you for your response. It sounds like there is no excuse to not get stronger.