Why do Asians always win Olympic weightlifting gold medals when they have no advantage in muscle strength?

Weightlifters are stronger than bodybuilders, and bodybuilders themselves are not necessarily accurate. Of course, weightlifters have advantages over snatch and clean and jerk, but not necessarily compared with other trainings. At present, there is no clear research showing that weightlifters and bodybuilders with similar training level and weight are more powerful than the latter. A previous study in Finland also found that there was no significant difference in the absolute strength of 18 weightlifters when the level of weightlifting, bodybuilding and weightlifting was similar. Please note that weightlifters are not necessarily stronger than bodybuilders. Pay attention to "not necessarily" and "comprehensive". There is no point in discussing specific actions.

People think that weightlifters are better than bodybuilders because they compare bodybuilders to the competition system of weightlifters, and bodybuilders can't compete with other athletes. Some people say that the strength of weightlifters is related to training methods, which is correct. But on this issue, many people have some misunderstandings.

For example, some people like to talk about the so-called "muscle hypertrophy" or "sarcoplasmic hypertrophy", and some even say that the training mode of fitness training system is 8- 12rm, which is mainly manifested as "muscle hypertrophy". Greater weight, such as the training method of weightlifting system, is muscle hypertrophy (that is, muscle fiber thickening). The so-called muscle hypertrophy is water, muscle hypertrophy is dry goods.

In fact, the so-called "muscle hypertrophy" is influenced by the strength training systems of the former Soviet Union, the former East Germany and Bulgaria. For example, the book Science and Practice of Strength Training has such an obvious tendency in strength training. We published this book very late, but the content of this book is actually very old. In fact, more books do not pay special attention to the so-called "muscle hypertrophy". Muscle hypertrophy refers to the increase of muscle fibers (with possible hyperplasia). It is not that muscle mass will not increase, but this increase is not the mainstream after all, and it is generally not discussed casually.

What is muscle (pulp)? When I was joking with my friends, I called this thing "a pile of water". Of course, this is all a joke, but when we talk about the so-called sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, generally speaking, it is actually the increase of intracellular fluid's body. For example, training will lead to an increase in muscle glycogen reserves, or our creatine phosphate reserves (it is not clear whether intensity training will lead to this result), so intracellular fluid body experience will increase, muscles will increase, and muscle circulation will also increase. The difference will increase to a certain extent.

Compared with weightlifting training mode, bodybuilding training mode is indeed more conducive to promoting the improvement of muscle glycogen level. Therefore, in a word, bodybuilding training can really improve the muscle quality of muscle cells more than weightlifting training. But this contribution to the increase of muscle circumference is limited after all.

So now some people say that, for example, arm 8- 12( 15) fitness training increases muscles, which is water. Weight-bearing training above 6-8rm increases muscles, not dry goods, so weightlifters have great strength. This sentence is definitely wrong. It goes to extremes and simplifies complex problems.

Needless to say, too many studies have proved that even the load below 15rm can lead to muscle fiber hypertrophy of non-coaches. Even for high-level coaches, although it is suggested to increase the training load, it cannot be said that 8- 12( 15)rm will not cause muscle fiber hypertrophy.

In addition, the increase of muscle mass and muscle fiber complement each other. The increase of muscle mass is beneficial to the increase of muscle fibers. For example, the increase of water in muscle (myofibrillar edema) may promote the hypertrophy of muscle fibers. Because some studies have found that increasing the water content of muscle cells can reduce protein decomposition and promote protein synthesis.

Moreover, when I was talking about hormones, I also said that compared with heavy-load weightlifting training, bodybuilding system training, moderate-load training, growth hormone and testosterone secretion increasing training, the effect is better, and it is also conducive to muscle fiber hypertrophy.