+ 1 HYPERTROPHY - Understanding why muscles grow
Hello Everyone,
I have been a personal trainer now for 10 years and constantly looking up ways to get big, lean, dense etc. Today I just want to explain the basic rules to growing and how to lift to get that way. This is a very dumbed down version as if i went into this completely it could take many pages. Just pm me with questions or ill reply on here.
Hypertrophy is the growth of muscle. There are basically 2 types of muscle fast and slow twitch muscles. Fast twitch muscles are the ones that have the greatest ability for growth and is why you see alot of power lifters putting up massive amounts of weight. Slow twitch muscles have a greater mitochondrial density and therefor can last longer through workouts but have a lesser affinity for growth.
When lifting to build muscle it is very important to make sure you FEEL the muscle that you are actually trying to work. Just because lat pulldowns are for the lats mainly doesn't mean that you cant wear out your bi's before your lats get any work. In short make sure the muscle you are lifting to grow is the one that you feel during your workout.
Ok jumping ahead very quickly, for ultimate hypertrophy its important to maximize both fast twitch and slow twitch muscles not 1 or the other. You do this by controlled moderately slow sets and very little rest. Your rep range should be 8 to 10 reps of a 3-1 tempo which means you take 3 FULL seconds to go through the negative and 1 full second through the positive that means if your on a bench press you take 3 seconds to come down and 1 second to go up NEVER pausing/resting the muscle. Make sure you can feel the chest contract the entire time! Beginners start out doing 10 sets for any given body part and move up to 20 sets a workout. ONLY ALLOW 1 MINUTE REST. Its very important to keep your pump that you only allow 1 minute in between sets.
All sets must go to failure or close to it. You are working your slow twitch muscles for about the first 7 and then when your going to failure on 8, 9, and 10 your working fast twitch even though your not going fast. If you are not working your hardest meaning not going to failure then your last 3 reps aren't going to count and your aren't going to grow to your maximum ability.
You should have for any given body part, lets take chest for example, 30 sets a week for beginners up to 60 sets a week for advanced and those should be divided up over 3 seperate days.
An example for me is chest monday wed and friday. Each day bench 5 sets, incline 5 sets, decline 5 sets and flys 5 sets. Thats 20 sets a day 3 days a week making 60 sets. This is an ultimate way to increase size. You can modify any of the exercises above, dumbbells, cables, pushups etc to mix up your routine as long as you apply the principles above.
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BostonLmao AMEN dude!
sgtstedankoNice post brother! Interesting : ) thanks
I don't see the problem with more than once a week for a body part. It's never stopped me from gaining. I guess of you don't recover as quickly but that kind of sounds like a sleep issue if not diet.
Read Arnold's book, thats a starting point for you. If you guys cant recover in 48 hours then your not doing what your supposed to in terms of rest, food and proper training which again is probably why your results are minor. Im 250lbs and have been training like this for years with minor aas use, if your not going to contribute properly to conversations with legitimate sources to back up your ridiculous rhetoric then dont contribute at all.
I have 2 nationally accredited certifications NASM and NSCA on top of a degree from drexel. Maybe a little knowledge on your part, something more then your GED, might help out the community. Have a wonderful day
BostonListen here mr. Personal trainer. First off, who said my results were minor??? Second, all the REAL guys here know that most personal trainers aren't that great. That's a fact. You've proved no different with the post above IMO. Training a bodypart 3 times a week is a bad idea period. And it doesnt take a degree from Drexler or wherever to know that.If i paid for your services and you asked me to do the above, i'd ask for my money back! Most of us have full time jobs. And some of us have physical jobs where we burn calories all day. You cant recover from that shit dude, are you serious??? Arnold had a gift. He recovered very very quickly somehow and did so with only 4 meals a day. This is a fact. Your body doesnt need that much trainig. Your CNS cant handle the beating. Read about Dorian Yates and Mike mentzers theories on H.I.T. That's where growth is at bro. Tearing the muscle down, creating micro tears in the fibers, and rebuilding them. It takes time to rebuild them dude. It's not nearly as complicated as you make it sound. You dont need a degree from drexler to be big and fyi, i'm swole as fuck and i dont even have my GED! Have a wonderful day
wow so now your contributing you crying to having a job that over takes your training. Read my post carefully, if you have the PROPER sleep, exercise and food you will recover fine ( NOT CRYING ABOUT OTHER SHIT YOU HAVE TO DO). Its proven that muscle groups fully recover in 48 hours (read a book) therefor every second day you can train it and also with this type of slow training it can afford you to do so. Every major bodybuilder TRUMPS ARNOLD in size which means his "gift" as you say has long been over taken by AAS DUH? You have none of your stats listed nor do you put up any good information which is why no one will take you seriously. Wheres the proof on the cns crap your spreading too. Your talking in generics and these are just a few theories from a few body builders which i never said mine was right for everyone. Tell you what most the people on here are going to hopefully cross reference this with other information, not just what people say but from proven studies, with that being said take some time and actually look up hypertrophy and training. Then instead of badgering one person on a post you can actually educate yourself instead of just listening to what the other big guy in the gym does.
Does anyone train a muscle group more then twice a week? Please let these guys know whats going on.
sgtstedankoON, twice per, yes. Couldn't imagine more than twice though: UPPER BODY Mondays & Thursdays, and Lower body & Abs Tuesdays & Fridays : Workout is in the training section, yada, yada, yada : )
BostonMaybe calves, and forearms. Biceps maybe 2x per week. NO need for more.
why would you train a small muscle group twice a week over a larger one. that makes no sense. And just because you guys have your training cycles down doesnt mean for someone in a slump this isnt something someone couldnt try. like i said it works for me and im there are plenty of others out there that do the same. Most of my sessions are 3 day splits meaning i do the same group twice a week but it doesnt mean that every once in awhile i cant go to three to bust past a plateau.
BostonYeah bro nice try but most of us know better than to EVER train a muscle group more than once per week. Maybe Arnold could have gotten away with a routine like this but most of us simply arent geneticly gifted enough to train chest 3x per week. Your body needs time to recover and all the gear in the world wont help when u train this much.
maybe you better stay with the little girls then. All the real boys on here know what im talking about.
You should take this information to the armed forces because they do pushups situps and pullups everyday.....OH NO THEY TRAINED THAT GROUP MORE THEN ONCE A WEEK. I guess why you go into the military and come out in worse shape right? Because of over training? Nice response.
sgtstedankoED. Ouch : )That's more calisthenics, not heavy ass weight... IMO, moving your own body around is a lot different than 1-2 rep max with Iron...
No shit but my post wasnt on 2 rep maxes, read the damn article
heavy ass training is definitely a depletion on cns as its geared to increase motor neurons and motor units, which in turn creates faster firing rates in the muscle. Power lifting vs bodybuilding. Strength doesn't mean size and size doesn't mean strength necessarily. There are plenty of guys at the gym that im much bigger then that can out bench, squat etc me because their motor unit recruitment is much stronger but this doesn't go into size of muscle this is purely just strength/power NOT what this article was about. There isn't enough TUT (time under tension) to break down enough muscle fiber. A good book on this would be Mel Siff's "Super Training" Many of the power lifters i know follow him (even though the data is old) and one section he has is size and cellular hypertrophy (SIZE)or sarcoplasm Verses strength or sarcomere hypertrophy. One increases density by adding thicker sarcomeres(myofibril) makeing you dense and strong but doesnt change the size of the cell just the density. The other sarcoplasm hypertrophy increases the volume of the plasma inside the cell making it less dense but bigger growth.
He later goes on to say that sarcoplasm hypertrophy is only good in bodybuilding and sumo wrestling where contractile protein (Sarcomere) hypertrophy isnt needed.
BostonYeah well how many guys do you see coming out of the armed forces huge and thick?? Not many dude. Yeah theyre usually in shape and toned, but big? No, not many at all.
thats because the cant take aas in the military DUH, but the point was that over training doesnt happen with them even though their going through that much. The body adapts. PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD whether that is reps/sets, weight, or tempo
You can work out as hard as you want (Granted this is the no.1 starting point), eat perfectly, sleep well but without proper "Chemistry" to back you up you will always be hindered by the highest level that your genetics can hold. If that weren't the case we would literally grow to the size of houses and wouldnt be using roids anyway and this site wouldnt be here.
Defconmaybe its just you but when i tear up my chest it isnt ready for another workout in 2 days