Question About Muscle Growth

[KevinConn]

So I have a bit of an odd theoretical question about the mechanisms of muscle growth that I've been wondering about for a while so I figured I'd ask here and see what other people think.

So say you have a lifter and they are doing a push (chest, shoulders, tri's), pull (back, bi), legs split. The routine is push, pull, legs, push, pull, legs, off repeat. So they are hitting every muscle twice a week.

Now, say they kept every variable the exact same (diet, rest, etc.) but only did the two push workouts in a week and nothing else. So they still hit their chest, shoulders and tri's twice a week but no other muscles.

My question is, would the chest, shoulder and triceps grow more, less or the same as they would when working out the whole body?

Obviously no one would ever work out this way but I'm just curious about the mechanisms behind muscle growth and if working out other body parts takes away from the growth and recovery potential from other muscles or if it actually enhances it due to a whole body hormonal type effect.

Let me know what you think!

 

[Driven2lift]

So many factors to consider and stipulations, to say anything concisely here.

Assuming a large enough caloric surplus to allow the growth, each group should grow at the same rate regardless.

Things could get in the way of that, and in theory if you were cutting and repair was limited by your deficit, less overall muscle damage would be best, for less muscle LOSS.

Things like... Available free T could change if there were more/less damage and either more/less was bound. This changes in both directions with intense exercise and muscle damage, for hormones overtraining is possible. If you were brinking on overtraining with this theoretically it could help to lower overall volume, as this would.

Regarding the routine, that is almost exactly mine right now. You feeling recovered?

 

[KevinConn]

Oh yeah, recovery has been no problem for me - this was more just a hypothetical question just to get an idea behind the mechanisms of muscle growth. I was trying to figure out if there is a finite number of resources that the body has to grow muscle. Obviously there is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to volume per body part but I was curious if taking volume from one body part would allow other parts to grow more.

Say I wanted to bring up lagging delts so I added in 3-4 sets of 10-15 lateral raises at the end of every workout. Assuming I can recover from this, will this take away some growth potential of other muscle groups that I'm working during my split?

I know I'm overthinking it but I just like the physiology behind lifting and growing/getting stronger.

 

[NewAgeMayan]

Better progression I would think, but just how much would depend on length of time/measurement period, trainees potential rate of growth, etc.

If, as per your stipulations, all else remains equal (ie diet), then, to exaggerate for effect, in one scenario the trainee is eating at maintanence but in the other he is at surplus.

Crudely put, of course.