By Michael J Stuart
Big bulging muscles are always associated with strength and power; the bigger they are the stronger you are. Increasing muscle strength does also increase muscle mass but usually strength and size are not increased at an equal rate and it all depends on what style of training you do as to what increases faster - size or strength.
A good example of this is the difference between power lifters and bodybuilders, while both groups are large and extremely strong, power lifters will easily lift far more weights than a body builder of similar size.
This is because muscle hypertrophy (the growth and enlargement of muscles) happens in two different ways and how you train your muscles decides on which way will be more dominate. The body builders increase muscle mass primarily by Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy which is basically the levels of sarcoplasmic fluid increasing in the muscle cells, which increases muscle mass and gives the muscles a bulging, well rounded appearance but does not do very much in the way of increasing muscle strength. This Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy is achieved by training with sub-maximal loads usually in sets of 8 to 12 reps but it can be more, with short rests between sets.
Power lifters on the other hand train differently and increase their muscle mass via Myofibrillar Hypertrophy which is when the myofibrils (the strands of fibers in your muscles) increase in size which increases strength by a far bigger rate than Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy but not so much in size. It is also believed that given enough stress during heavy training, after reaching a certain size the myofibrils will split, and with the more fibers in a muscle being a large contributing factor into possible power output, the more fibers that split the better. Myofibrillar Hypertrophy is achieved by training with maximal loads (right up near your one rep maximum) for sets of 1 to 4 reps (can be as many as 6) with large rests between each set.
Just as a side note it should be noted that for anyone starting out in weight training for the first time, the first 6 months will likely see a big increase in strength with little to no increase in muscle size regardless of which training style is used because during this time the training is increasing and improving the muscular-neuro link via your nervous system (the link from your brain to the muscle) which improves the ability to use a muscle. The extra strength gained during the initial training is not due to Myofibrillar Hypertrophy; it's just that through training you are able to use more of the possible power already stored in the muscle.
The bigger your muscles get, the stronger you get, this is true but big muscles on one person will not necessarily be stronger than smaller ones on another person, it all depends on what type of training has been done, whether the muscles are large because they are full of big thick fibers or just pumped up full of fluid and also how good the persons muscular-neuro link is.
The one draw back of training power lifter style is that while the power output achieved is great, there is very poor endurance to go with it, so mixing your program up a little if you took on this style of training with a little strength-endurance work would be beneficial.
Michael Stuart is a fitness professional and believes that everyone should make fitness a part of their life in some way so as to get the most they can out of the life they have. Good fitness is a choice, so make the right one, get Wickedly Fit. Visit http://www.wickedlyfit.com for free workouts, exercise descriptions and more health and fitness articles.
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