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I understood that people who train for mass (a.k.a bodybuilders) have a different muscle composition then people who train for strength (a.k.a powerlifters). Bodybuilders have more non-contractive tissue in their muscles.
I was wondering, if a both will stop exercising, will a bodybuilder loose muscle mass faster than powerlifter?
I’ll reference you to a similar post I answered recently: Will I lose Gains in this situation.
I’m not sure what you mean by “non-contractive” tissue. I think you are referring to the difference between contractile and non-contractile muscle tissue. Regardless, your argument assumes that the method used to add muscle mass somehow speeds up the deconditioning phase. It’s not the methodology or type of muscle tissue that dictates the rate of loss. Rather its other factors including current physical condition, length of training experience, health history, and length of the deconditioning. If your assumption were valid, I think we’d see more people powerlifting than bodybuilding. Each discipline seems to have abundant adherents.
I think the rate of muscle loss would be most affected by diet. The body would have to stay catabolic to decrease the amount of muscle loss. This is such a great question. I think to really find the answer to this, you would have to look at the cellular level of the muscle fibers and see if there are any differences between muscle composition in professional powerlifters and bodybuilders.
