Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
That's an interesting comparison. Quick initial gains in strength training are from muscle fiber recruitment. Once you have full recruitment, it really slows down and the hard work begins. The younger powerlifters I've been watching at our gym haven't maxed out quickly. I've been watching them for years and they're still getting stronger but it's a slow process. I think that mirrors what we see in cycling. Quick gains at the neuromuscular level, but once you learn to pedal and breathe and get your blood volume up, it slows down. Heart muscle seems to grow the slowest and to lose mass the quickest, a very conservative muscle, that is if stroke volume is dependent on muscle volume. Seems that way to me from watching HR over the years.
Endurance seems to build the slowest. We see a lot of olders in ultra endurance sports, the last refuge of the aging athlete.
As soon as I posted it, I wondered if "max out" might have been an oversimplification. It might be more accurate to say that after a few years, progress is asymptotic, where it takes harder and smarter work to achieve smaller and smaller gains. And that's assuming bad luck doesn't strike in the form of injuries or illness or other life events that get in the way.