I was in the gym when I spoke about my training diary with a buddy. I explained that I wanted to improve my volume of work (repetitions * series * weight), my goal isn’t lift the heaviest in one repetition but combined strength, mass and endurance. Here he talks to me about hypertrophy. It’s a word I had heard but this word is too weird, it looks like a medical thing, like a disease. I imagine my mother say to me : “Oooh, you have a hypertrophy”. Pfffffffff hahahaha !!!!
Well, I told to myself that this was the time to understand this word. Apparently it’s going to help me boost my volume of work.
That’s what I understood. It start with trophicity. Trophicity is the development, the growth of an organ or a cell.
This means that I seek to have good muscular trophicity, it’s cool. But physically, I don’t want look like to everyone, I want a physical with more trophicity, that’s why I have a training diary. That means I want a physique with muscle hypertrophy.
I want to be HYPER, man, did you see ?
MASS that’s how we call a hypertrophied muscle.
I guess you didn’t want to hear medical school stuff like actin, myosin, embryology, all that stuff about muscle composition. Ah, you want ? Well listen, I don’t have much time there because when I saw all this, I said to myself: SHIT !!! What is that thing, I knew it was a weird word !
Here’s how we’ll do, short and effective. A muscle is composed of muscle fibers (myofibrils), blood vessels and energy reserves (in the sarcoplasm).
Your muscle are daily activated to move but its repetitive contractions doesn’t make them become bigger and stronger because they are in the “comfort zone“. You saw, must still get out of this fucking “comfort zone”, they are everywhere these “comfort zones”, they are shit.
You’ve understood, you need to shock your muscles, you must smash them to grow and are ready for your future attacks in the gym.
The resistance training (weight) is the best to increase strength, endurance and muscle volume.
Look how I will do. Do you look ?!?
There are several ways to trigger hypertrophic reaction to get out of the comfort zone (finally!). We can take care of muscle fibers or energy reserves or even both.
For muscle fibers (myofibrils), they grow in size and number in reactions with micro injuries created during your training, it’s called the mass.
More muscle will be bigger and stronger, better will be react to your attacks (your training).
To work the muscle fibers, you lift heavy at 75/80% of your maximum repetition [the heaviest weight you can lift in 1 rep]. The sets are between 6-8 reps and rest 2-3 minutes. Strength guarantee .
To work the reserves (in the sarcoplasm), you empty them at the maximum with your series to have in response an increase in muscle perished storage (glycogen, ATP, H2O, etc.). You lift light at 65/70% of your maximum repetition. The sets is between 12-15 repetitions. You will have a larger and denser muscle but not strength gain. Ah, you’re warned, it’s not my fault.
Whatever the method used, you must do movements with the widest possible range to stretch muscles. This will help to bulk up on whole muscle length and strengthening its envelope (connective tissue) that helps to look bulky.
The ideal train would finish your « heavyweight » session with a few sets of “lightweight » to empty sarcoplasmic reserves.
Where is your post-workout, you have it ?
To have a excellent hypertrophy , it should repair damages caused by the workout in the hour after the last exercise.
To blow up your physique, you have to eat, that’s the post-workout . Protein for your myofibrils and carbohydrates (fast and slow) for your energy reserves (ATP, glycogen, etc.). That’s if you want to optimize the hypertrophy process.
A post-workout with protein, banana and honey is a good idea.
I think I’ll do another post on this subject because I’ve just discover it and it’s hyper interesting, hypertrophy. The thing is to understand muscle components, it takes a long time, but in fact, it’s funny.
If you got something to say, you’re welcome.
-Steph