Why get Stronger as a beginner vs focus on hypertrophy?

[redzone98]

Okay, so I've been doing Starting Strength for the past 4 months, and really like it. I have good progress, except last month when I was ego lifting. however I stopped all that BS and focused on form. I was reading some old thread on here and some guy was claiming that focusing on strength is pointless to get bigger because in the end, the strength gains won't "break a barrier that is 0.5-1lbs of muscle/week".

I have heard something about this before so I am curious, what is the benefit of getting stronger first to get bigger?


I don't have mass building as a goal, I want to get as strong as possible for sports and daily life, but I may do a mass routine after SS for a little bit, and am curious about this.

[NorthStrong]

The two are not mutually exclusive whatsoever.

[InspecktaDeck]

Just do more volume, aka a 5x5. More and more sets is just as good as high reps for building mass, muscle fibers dont care how they get torn.

[Segugio]

It doesn't really matter.

Any consistent progressive resistance routine and quality diet is going to get you approximately the same results as a beginner. A certain level of base adaptation needs to occur before specialized training has a significant impact.

[somedude999]

IMO....

When training for strength it's best to ignore anything that looks like it may have been written by a bodybuilder.

[E-Tank]

To answer your question, getting stronger will allow you to push heavier weights for a hypertrophy training program. With that being said, id stick with strength training + food

[Hardlifter9]

If your lifts go up, you'll naturally gain size if your calorie intake is high. Feel free to throw some isolation work in there as well of course.

Being stronger of course, gives you more long term potential for hypertrophy as well. (moving bigger weight for higher reps)

[redzone98]

To answer your question, getting stronger will allow you to push heavier weights for a hypertrophy training program. With that being said, id stick with strength training + food

Okay, thanks for the answer.

But now here is another question.

We accept that getting stronger allows you to push heavier weight for hypertrophy.
What is the difference in a weak person in hypertrophy vs a strong person in hypertrophy in terms of muscle growth? Does the stronger person maximize the muscle gains per week while the weaker person cannot maximize the muscle gains?

The one thing I think might be going on is that the stronger person is less likely to hit plateau quicker than the weaker person? I don't know why, but it's what I feel like might be the difference maker? What do you think?