Ah okay, this is my 19 year old brother I'm talking about. He was over weight as a kid despite playing every sport (my dad had us both playing every sport, racing BMX, skateboarding, you name it as kids)

Now he's obsessed with losing weight. Him and I both held weight in our chest like my dad, so I think people saying he had bitch tits really got to him so he just quit eating as much. Now he's super skinny. His biceps are smaller than my forearms lol! Hopefully he comes around like your bro!

Oh and once your brother starts taking it seriously his focus night shift to strength to try and catch up with you, you are younger right?

In my opinion, no they wont hypertrophy gains since being in a deficit means theres not enough food to repair the muscles thus making "gains". On the other hand they are able to get strength gains because of getting better at the forms of the lifts and also neuromuscular adaptation. So the answer to your question is yes and no

Lol

Your body learning to recruit more motor units...

Voluntary activation measures suggest that most people are already able to activate 95 to 98 percent of muscle mass voluntarily, in most muscle groups.

Explain how people gain 'strength' due to perceived adaptation of the neuromuscular variety..
It may not be physiologically sound, but the theory still accounts for something. Something causes people to develop rapid increase in strength at the beginning of a program. And it's not an increase in contractile proteins.

youre right, and so far we dont really know what it is for sure. its probably not recruitment related. some studies show an increase in MU firing rate at the onset of strength training but some of those scientists say its permanent and some say its transient, some say it doesnt change. MU synchronization is another purported mechanism but we have no good way of measuring synchronization right now. its really quite unclear.

As far as I know untrained/amateur individuals only can activate like 80% of their motor units? At least that's what I was taught in my exercise physiology class

so on the subject of newb gains...

if you've been lifting on and off for a while..but basically made no good gains because of stupidity or lack of consistency and then started lifting properly on a regular basis...would you make "beginner gains"?

This post was edited by PartyInMyPants on Apr 17 2016 10:08pm

yeah i think so