Would you like to build more muscles and get bigger or stronger? So, you need to know and understand what this muscle hypertrophy is and how to apply it to your routine.
Many people say I want to make my muscles bigger! I need a hypertrophy routine! How do I gain muscle? How is Hypertrophy training done?
And yes, surely you have felt identified, it is not something strange, we have all asked ourselves these questions when we began to train with weights despite not knowing the word hypertrophy.
But regardless of what your initial goal is (or is), the reality is that muscle training in the gym ends up being defined as the search for muscle hypertrophy.
So, let’s take a deep dive into what this is all about and how we can make our muscles grow from a more theoretical and real point of view; no nonsense or lies.
What is muscular hypertrophy?
Muscle hypertrophy is the increase in the mass or the circumference of a muscle, differentiating itself into sarcoplasmic hypertrophy or myofibrillar hypertrophy; which can be induced by a series of stimuli related to sports training or weight training.
But What happens to a muscle subjected to an exercise program aimed at promoting muscle hypertrophy? Basically, it will respond to 3 basic effects, which will generate:
A neural response
The first measurable effect will be an increase in neural drive that stimulates muscle contraction. In just a few days, an untrained person can achieve strength gains as a result of “learning or adapting” to use muscle.
A genetic response
As muscle continues to receive higher demands, the muscle synthesis machinery is upregulated. Although all the steps that lead to this are not entirely clear yet, this upregulation appears to start with the cellular second messenger system (including phospholipases, protein kinase C, tyrosine kinase, and others).
These, in turn, activate the family of immediate early genes, which appear to dictate the gene response of the generation of contractile protein.
Protein synthesis
Finally, and as the weeks go by, the body tries to adapt more and more to the stimulus and begins to work on increasing the gene expression pattern of muscle protein. In this sense, we can affirm that the body can take up to two months for the real hypertrophy to begin.
Sarcoplasmatic hypertrophy
Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy involves an increase in the sarcoplasmic volume of the muscle cell, but with little increase in strength. Basically, it is the type of muscular hypertrophy that Bodybuilders look for.
And while increased strength is something that would be expected with an increase in volume, the reality is that this has a functional purpose beyond the terms of volume development on an aesthetic level.
What does this mean? That sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is a first response to relatively high intensity muscle stimulation, but that it does not express an immediate increase in strength.
How did we get to develop Sarcoplasmatic hypertrophy?
To reach sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, the muscles must increase in size as a result of an increase in sarcoplasmic volume, and for this, they have to be trained within a medium repetition interval but with high load.
Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is achieved through what is known as the point of failure or muscle fatigue. In this one, one trains at an intensity of approximately 70% of his 1RM with repetitions in the range of 8 to 15 and with breaks for short periods, between 45-90 seconds.
It is known as a point of failure, as it quickly and directly uses a large amount of the energy stored in muscle cells, leading to muscle fatigue.
You can see more about training to muscle failure below is it always good to train to muscle failure?
This causes enough micro-trauma for the muscle fiber to respond, within the period of rest and regeneration, restoring itself and increasing its size.
Obviously, this form of muscle hypertrophy is not desirable for anyone whose sole objective is to increase strength or athletic performance while trying to maintain an adequate strength-to-weight ratio.
That is, what we will do is try to gain muscle volume, without worrying about developing high levels of strength. And in this sense, and as I said before, only bodybuilders are concerned with developing sarcoplasmic muscle hypertrophy.
What is myofibrillary hypertrophy?
Myofibrillar hypertrophy is what most sports athletes look for. This is an increase in the size of the actual contractile fibers, resulting in more muscle being available for contraction when working against resistance.
This form of muscle gain is commonly seen in athletes who perform dynamic strength sports, they can be runners, soccer players, throwers, and more.
As I said before, weightlifters also experience myofibrillar hypertrophy as a result of their training, but this does not match the volume gained. So sometimes we see huge guys lose in tests of strength against guys who are smaller but harder.
How can myofibrillary hypertrophy develop?
Our muscles are not going to increase in strength just from repetitive lifting of weights to exhaustion. Myofibrillar muscle hypertrophy is achieved through high intensity training with high volume load.
Strength training is performed with more than 75-80% of the 1RM (1RM refers to the maximum weight that can be lifted in a single repetition of a given exercise) with repetitions in the range of 3-7 with a rest time of 2-4 minutes is used to produce the greatest changes in myofibrillar density.
Therefore, if you want to achieve myofibrillar hypertrophy, you must lift heavy loads. The heavier the weight you lift, the more muscle fibers will go into the process.
I have already mentioned several times the topic of maximum repetitions or 1RM that not only serves to establish an optimal load system but is also a way to calculate our maximum strength, if you do not remember that it is visit the following link: what is it and how calculate the maximum force?
The size of the muscle will increase at a slower rate because this type of hypertrophy involves the growth of the functional units of muscle tissue, as opposed to the development of its volume.
It is not ideal for a bodybuilder who seeks to gain mass as quickly as possible, but it is necessary for him, since in this way he will gain real strength, which is necessary and functional to continue advancing in his discipline.
Tips for making a hypertrophy routine
Let’s see some general training tips that will be useful to apply in your routines in order to develop your muscles to the maximum level.
Include time under effort when establishing your muscular hypertrophy routine
When choosing the amount of series for your hypertrophy workouts you must take into account the time of effort. There is a minimal amount of exertion time required for muscle hypertrophy to occur.
The most immediate sources of energy for short-term anaerobic exercise are ATP and creatine. However, these are available in the very short term and as such will be sold out in 7-10 seconds.
After this, the body begins to break down glycogen for energy, which will produce lactic acid and the well-known burning sensation.
Therefore, you must maintain a time of effort greater than 10 seconds to reach the point of fatigue or muscle failure.
Including training methods such as slow reps or supersets in your sets are a great way to do this.
What repeat range should I train in?
There is a spectrum through which sarcoplasmic hypertrophy occurs and another for myofibrillar hypertrophy. You can use the following list to establish a volume or strength routine, choose a single particular scheme that meets your goals.
- 1-5 Repetitions and high loads: It generates a maximum increase in the relative strength and the recruitment of the myofibrils.
- 6-8 Repetitions and high loads: Produces a medium effort between the myofibrils and the sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.
- 9-12 Reps medium high loads: Increase sarcoplasmic hypertrophy at the maximum rate.
- Greater than 15 repetitions and low load: In this range we focus on muscular endurance where muscular development is slower but resistance to fatigue is gained.
Who should train under a muscular hypertrophy routine?
There are a lot of reasons why a person might want or need bigger or stronger muscles.
For some, it’s all about looks and aesthetics, while others need increased muscle strength to increase athletic performance or for other functional purposes.
So, let’s look at the main benefits of muscle hypertrophy for different athletes with different goals.
For strength and power athletes
Certain athletes need relatively large and very strong muscles, in order to perform at their best in their disciplines, a lot happens in Weightlifting and Rugby. More precisely, they need as much absolute force as is humanly possible.
Myofibrillar hypertrophy helps increase a person’s potential to produce greater force.
This cannot be addressed without an efficient training plan since if not performed properly, the athlete will increase muscle size faster than strength increases, and in other words, would be reaching sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.
Which can result in decreased efficiency and excess mass that is of little use. Why would you want to be heavier, but not stronger?
Team sports athletes
Team sports, especially contact sports, require strong athletes with a high command of a wide range of skills.
But not only do they have to be strong, they also have to go all the way. In sports like soccer they need, not only some increase in muscle size, but also in the increase in potential strength that this brings. But they also need a high resistance component.
High effort athletes
By high effort athletes, I mean those athletes who have short demands but require maximum or near maximum performance.
This includes sprinters up to 400 or even 800 meters. Essentially a high intensity athlete is someone who regularly participates in activities that involve 75% or more intensity.
The reason they may need an increase in muscle mass is to facilitate a higher work capacity. The bigger the engine that drives us, the more work we can be able to do.
Sprinters can train very effectively, power is increased, strength helps supplement momentum, and a host of other benefits allow for significant performance gains thanks to myofibrillar hypertrophy.
For fisicoculturists
When we refer to bodybuilding, what is really sought is to increase muscle mass, for any reason that is not associated with performance in a sport.
In short, bodybuilding makes use of sarcoplasmic muscle hypertrophy (mainly) to achieve a purely aesthetic purpose.
For rehabilitation
Rehabilitation might not seem like the most viable reason to increase muscle mass, however there are very significant needs in this field to achieve that goal.
Injuries are often caused by muscle imbalances, which in turn affect connective tissue and other structures. This results in pain and limited mobility.
Increasing the size of a muscle or group of muscles will have the effect of balancing weak and strong muscles and improving posture.
In addition to rehabilitation, muscle hypertrophy can help globally to make everyday life more efficient in terms of physical mobility.
Conclusion on muscular hypertrophy
To conclude, muscle hypertrophy is beneficial for a variety of reasons, and it can be approached in a number of different ways.
Performing the proper exercise and in the correct way can trigger our performance very quickly, but if it is done incorrectly, we decrease that performance and we even run the risk of suffering an injury.
It must also be borne in mind that regardless of the purpose we have in mind to increase muscle mass, we must bear in mind that it is necessary that there is an adequate diet that facilitates this gain.
Otherwise, the muscles will not have the fuel blocks necessary for muscle building.
And not to mention giving the body the necessary time to recover from the micro-injuries generated on the muscles during training, for this it is vitally important to respect the rest and recovery times between sessions.
I hope this article has been of interest to you, if you have any other questions about what muscle hypertrophy is or how it is achieved, do not hesitate to leave a comment.
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