Different perspective on Muscle Hypertrophy

[Katerchen]

I am reading the book "Resistance Training Instruction" by Everett Aaberg and he made an interesting point on Muscle Hypertrophy on page 49:

"First realize that hypertrophy of muscle is a reactive and protective adaptation of the body; it is a response to repetitive joint and muscle stress. Therefore you can see that to gain more hypertrophy, you must first apply and then be able to adapt to greater levels and volumes of stress. From this realization you can also see that hypertrophy is limited and proportionally temporary. However, other effects of the increased stress may be of a more permanent nature, such as connective tissue damage or joint deterioration. Hypertrophy is a side effect of neuromusclular stress that does not necessarily improve performance or health of the body. And once stress levels are reduced or sometimes even just adapted to, then muscle size most likely will decrease."

This explains perfectly, why I get muscle definition at the beginning of a new training program and why it disappears after a while (but keeping the gains in strength). I am not so sure if the constant excess of stress on my body is worth the few months of good definition.

[geomom]

But if you are actually building muscle, actually layering on new tissue, that would not be adaptive loss, I wouldn't think. I guess my question would be, "what is the difference between hypertrophy (increase in muscle size) and new tissue building (also an increase in muscle size)"?

Over time, I can really tell I have layered on new muscle in my back. It just seems more obvious there for some reason. I don't think it is prone to shrinkage due to adaptation.

[nkhansen1]

Isn't this why there are different mesocycles though? You're not supposed to be in a hypertrophy phase all the time. I've followed fitness model Jamie Eason's training on bodybuilding.com for quite a while, and she does the mesocycles over and over again, alternating them like in STS, to keep her amazing physique, but not overly stress her muscles and joints which could cause injury.

[Katerchen]

Originally Posted by geomom

But if you are actually building muscle, actually layering on new tissue, that would not be adaptive loss, I wouldn't think. I guess my question would be, "what is the difference between hypertrophy (increase in muscle size) and new tissue building (also an increase in muscle size)"?

Over time, I can really tell I have layered on new muscle in my back. It just seems more obvious there for some reason. I don't think it is prone to shrinkage due to adaptation.

Hypertrophy is just an increase in the muscle fibers diameter due to an increase in myofibrils. The amount of muscle fibers do not change once one stopped growing. There might be something called hyperplasia, which is an increase of the actual numbers of muscle fibers, but the science is not there yet. So,chances are that there is no or very miniscule muscle building (just like brain cells).

You do not layer on muscle very easily. Most of the strength gains are due to simple neurological adaptations, meaning your neurons communicate with your muscle fibers more efficiently. Strength training shows the muscles more because of a combination of fat loss and water retention.