Possibly a stupid question about hypertrophy and focusing on certain muscles
So my legs are pretty beefy naturally, especially after being overweight for so long, but I want to work more on the glam muscles: chest, shoulders, lats, arms. I've been doing a full body routine 3 times a week for over a year now, and I think it's working pretty well, but I'm wondering if the body has a set amount of hypertrophy it's capable of in a given period of time? Am I diverting some of that muscle-building potential from my upper body when I do lower body, or is it strictly the stimulus to the muscle?
In other words, if I just stopped doing legs and kept the rest of my routine the same, would I see any additional growth in my upper body? My hunch is no, it's purely the amount of stimulus the muscles receive, but my reasoning is that the body gets a certain amount of protein and calories to build muscle every day. When it receives stimulus, it has to decide what to do with those resources, and if there's not enough, then maybe certain things don't get as much as they would? The legs are a very large muscle group so they could be taking the lion's share. Assuming someone's not eating 400g of protein a day and in a 1000 cal surplus, there might not be enough to go around?
My other thought is that even if it's purely down to the stimulus the muscles receive, cutting out Squats and Deadlifts, which are two big, very time-consuming lifts I do, would give me more time to focus on more sets for the other muscle groups I want to work on. I could just cut down to maintenance lifts for them for a few months.
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If you’re natty, don’t cut out legs completely. Keep training them at least once a week, because protein synthesis is limited and there’s a real risk of losing that muscle. Training legs only once every other week will also lead to poor adaptation, after each session you’ll feel wrecked, with crazy DOMS and CNS fatigue.
A good option could be an Upper/Lower/Upper split. That way you’ll hit your upper body twice per week and still maintain your legs, giving yourself more room to grow where you want.
I've read also that squatting heavy boosts testosterone. I definitely don't want to lose progress and wouldn't mind gaining some still, but I think my chest and lats need the most work. I could possibly even do Upper, Lower, Upper, Rest, Upper, Rest, Rest.
There is a small boost, but it’s very minimal and fades quickly. Also, your natural testosterone level (without gear) isn’t that important when it comes to hypertrophy. Training upper body three times a week could definitely work, just make sure you’re not adding junk volume, split it up properly and focus on increasing intensity.
There’s a good chance you will see more growth elsewhere actually. Recovery is both the muscle tissue itself and your CNS. And leg training causes more CNS fatigue than any other muscle group. The body only has so much capacity for CNS recovery. And rebuilding the muscle tissue will take more energy and nutrients away from other muscles. Especially since you’re doing it all on the same day and all muscles are recovering at the same time.
When you’re trying to bring up certain muscle groups it’s always best to back off the volume or frequency on those that are not the priority. Depending on how far out of proportion they are would determine if it’s best to stop training them completely for a while, or drop frequency to just 1x a week for about 6 sets. That’s maintenance volume which will ensure you don’t lose any size or strength. Could even go to every other week. Jay cutler had a similar problem and didn’t train legs at all for either a year or 2, I can’t remember exactly, when he first started training seriously because his legs were already so big.
If you’ve followed this program for a year now I’d drop deadlifts all together, or atleast reduce frequency to maybe once every other week. You’ve probably developed a pretty good base of strength by now. Assuming your goal is more aesthetically oriented, deadlifts are a shitty exercise. It’s not worth the CNS fatigue and it doesn’t really hit the right places in your back. You’ll get much better back development with BB or DB rows, pull ups and pull downs.
Hmm, well right now I do Squats Monday & Friday, and do 3 warm up sets and then 3 heavy sets in the 3-5 rep range. Wednesday I do deadlift at the same intensity and then do 2 sets of RDLs in the 8-12 rep range. So I'm currently only doing about 6 sets a week for squats and 3-5 sets for DL and I've seen pretty steady growth and progress. I know that 3-5 rep range is not optimal for hypertrophy but my compound lifts I'm focused more on getting my 1 RM up, but I've still seen some good growth despite that.