Does A Pump Automatically Mean Muscle Growth?

One of the most common myths in the bodybuilding world is that because you obtain a pump while weight lifting means that you’ve stimulated muscle growth. This is not the case. The pump sensation you get from lifting weights is just a temporary edema or swelling of the muscle in response to weight training. If getting a pump meant that you stimulate muscle growth then you would be coming into the gym bigger, better and stronger literally every single workout. Just think of all the regular lifters you see at the gym that obtain a pump every single day but haven’t gotten any bigger or stronger for months or even years.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the pump, in fact I love the feeling of fresh oxygenated, nutrient rich blood flowing throughout my muscles when I lift, however, the positives that come along with obtaining a pump aren’t enough alone to stimulate muscle growth. Progressive resistance where intensity is increased via using heavier weights or doing more repetitions with a particular weight that the muscle isn’t used to is what it takes in order for the body to create an adaptive response by stimulating more muscle growth; combined, of course, with adequate rest and recovery time and the proper nutrition.

Just to give you an example; every single time I train my arms, I move up and become stronger every single arm workout. Every one! The thing is here that I train my arms ounce every 3 weeks. This is not B.S! With the weights and intensity level that I reach, that’s how long it takes to recover enough in order to produce muscle growth. I see other guys in the gym that train arms every day of the week but yet haven’t been able to increase the strength or muscle mass in their arms for months to years even though they pump them up hard every single day. I’m seeing much better results pumping my arms ounce every 3 weeks vs. others who pump their arms daily.

I’m not suggesting that training arms once every 3 weeks is optimal for everyone, but I am saying that the bigger you get and the stronger you become, then the more recovery time you will need to add in between your training session in order for your body to overcompensate or add more muscle. Those extra days of pumping may not only prevent you from getting better results, but could actually be counter productive by causing catabolic stress hormones to increase in the body while your natural anabolic hormones take a nose dive! Not to mention the extra wear and tear on your joints and connective tissues that will most likely lead to injury. For people that have experienced them, injuries that have resulted as a result of excessive use are not fun or easy to get rid of and may in some circumstances require surgery and months of rehab to recover from.

Just think how much muscle growth you would miss out on then! The only way to gauge whether or not your stimulating muscle growth is by whether or not you’re stronger any time you repeat any given set of exercises. If you are not stronger every workout, then chances are you’re over training even though you may be obtaining the pump much more often. And yes folks, in order to get bigger you must get stronger. I had a guy tell me that training my way may make you stronger but it wouldn’t make you bigger. My response to him was “Ok, if you don’t get bigger by getting stronger, than how do you get bigger?” “By getting weaker?” He didn’t have much to say after that. If you’re getting stronger you’re moving in the right direction. Using some good common sense will go a long way when it comes to bodybuilding. Best of luck training to all!

Written by our writer: Chad Shaw - Copyrighted