Personally, I am all for funtional strength, and if you train for functional strength, you'll have a lot of lean muscle mass to show for it.
Somewhere along the way (I blame Joe Weider and the popular muscle magazines so readily available) people have become brainwashed (and wrongly so) that bodybuilding routines build size and powerlifting and strength training do not build size as well. This simply is not true. Also, people tend to confuse the "pumped up" feeling of flushing blood into a muscle with making progress.
For example, a 5 rep max set of squats performed ass to the floor(it is safe if performed correctly) hurts, makes you feel like puking, and is not fun to do. On the other hand doing cable crossovers to total failure is a hell of a good time, and the blood flushed into your muscles makes you think you're getting big, when in truth the 5 rep squats are the way to growth and the crossovers are only giving you a temporary muscle pump. Hell, curling a couple of soup cans for 5 minutes straight will give you the pump, and thats about all it will give you.
I have to say that I feel that CNS training is the way to growth. People are generally so caught up in the horseshit they read in the magazines available that they confuse bodypart isolation and a pump with growth. A good periodical like MILO is never seen in stores, but crap like FLEX, Musclemag, and the like are everywhere, these are nothing but modern-day Charles Atlas ads, and have ruined training in this country.
For example, powercleans, while not inducing a pump or targeting one muscle in particular tax the CNS, which causes a hormonal response illiciting growth. Smith machine incline presses do nothing but flush blood into a muscle, but hey, Matt Duvall does them in the Cell Tech ad, so they must get you huge. the fact is nobody wants to clean because they are hard (which is why they work).
Also, a misconception people have is that strength training is all about 1-rep maxes, and nothing can be further than the truth. Most routines are a 5x5, 3x5, 4x4-6, or cycled weekly from 12 reps down to 3-4 reps.
Tom Treutlein, I am not flaming you or your post, I think you raise a valid concern, I am just trying to shed some light, I hope you take what I say into account, however, if you tell me to fuck off, no offense taken man.
I hear guys, grown men, whine all the time and agonize whether they want size or, strength, or definition, or to bulk first then cut or cut first then bulk.......If I overhear, I tell them to stop whining because they sound like women and they really need to get a fucking problem and stop acting like body conscious 14 year olds. You CAN have the total package.
If you do a program like a lot of the college football teams use, or a Bill Starr program, or Westside Barbell, or 5x5, and include some form of GPP, and eat a lot of wholesome food and keep your carb sources to whole grains, you'll be muscular, solid, and strong.
Look at the old-timers like Reg Park, Bill Pearl, John Grimek, Casey Viator, even Arnold and Franco and Lou ferrigno, they trained heavy and hard all year and ate well for the most part and for a show they simply had to lose some water (if anything). All of this bulking and cutting and up and down nonsense is nothing but a load of shit, why build yourself up only to tear it down. If you eat a lot of protein and complex carbs and steer clear of processed and refined carbs, you will not get fat unless you have an endocrine problem. If you train in the 4-7 range on major movements year round you will consistently get strong and stay injury free.
I cringe when I hear bodybuilding magazines discuss muscle maturity happening when one gets into their 30's. It is so fucking stupid of a concept. All muscle maturity is is thickness, I know 16 year olds with thick, dense muscles because they do heavy, full, free weight squats, they clean and snatch, they overhead press, they incline, they flat bench, and they AVOID machines, cables, and anything that doesn't tax the CNS.
My advice to you, Tom, is to follow a strength training routine with main movements in the 4-7 rep range and include cleans and free weight squats(any variation, just do full reps) and assistance work in the 6-12 rep range, do some GPP like sled dragging or farmer's walks, eat as much protein as possibly coming from meats, poultry, fish, and dairy, eat a lot of complex carbohydrates, avoid processed and refined carbs, have the occasional treat when the urge hits, and do this day in and day out and stop worrying about whether to bulk, cut, get strong, etc. and then look in the mirror after about 8 weeks and you won't recognize yourself. Avoid steroids, as most people use them, do a bunch of pumping/flushing exercises, make gains because they hold their pump, then lose 100lbs post cycle. If you choose to use AAS, train and eat just like i said, the gains will be solid and permanent......Post AAS, and even post training cycle when drug free, there is NO need to lose large amounts of size with a layoff.
Being big and strong and lean is not easy in terms of effort, but it IS simple and uncomplicated and there is no magic secret being kept.
I hope I shed some light on how I feel about training, and if you have the determination and discipline, how simple it is to have the total package.
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