Everywhere you look, there are people talking about how to maximize muscularity. One person says low resistance, high repetitions, another says heavy resistance with no more than 8 reps max. One camp says train explosively, another says very slow and controlled is the way to go. Contradictory messages, many coming from professional fitness models and bodybuilders—so why is it that the training method that works best for our favorite fitness model doesn’t work for us? The answer is both simple and complex.
Strength is the ability to exert a maximal force one time. Endurance is the ability to exert a submaximal force multiple times. Muscle hypetrophy is an increase in size of the muscle resulting from increases in the contractile proteins in muscle fibers, glycogen and water storage and connective tissue.
Strength and local muscular endurance are on opposite ends of a spectrum--very low reps, very high resistance will yield the most significant increases in muscular stength, while high reps, low resistance will yield most significant increases in muscular endurance. What I want to emphasize though, is what "light" resistance means when talking about building muscular endurance. It is a relative term, and is used to contrast muscular endurance loads from those of strength loads. It doesn't mean the load doesn't maximally challenge the muscle--to the contrary, the resistance has to be high enough that the muscle couldn't complete another rep with good form, just as it is in training for maximal strength. The difference is in endurance training, the number of reps that have to be completed are quite a bit higher than they are for optimal strength development (6 reps max for strength as compared to 12-20 or more reps for muscular endurance). Truly lifting light is only appropriate as a warm up, while learning a technique and/or while rehabbing an injury.
Maximum muscle hypertrophy, ie, maximal increase in muscle size or muscle bulk, comes from a high volume of training, ie, more reps per set and/or more sets per exercise or exercises per bodypart. It is best developed with a combo of strength and muscular endurance training and there are a number of training formats that will achieve the combination.
But, no matter how you train, your ability to become very muscular is largely dependent on your genetics. Although there are a variety of factors that play a role in increasing individual muscle fiber size, the KEY factor in the capacity of the muscle as a whole to increase in size is the total number of myofibrils, aka muscle fiber density. According to muscle physiologists, that number is fixed by the second trimester of fetal development--in other words, genetically determined. It is independent of sex, training, predominant fiber type, nutritional status after birth, hormonal levels, etc, since the current thinking indicates that humans do not have the capacity for muscular hyperplasia (increasing the NUMBER of fibers) after birth.
Another factor that plays a major role in the ability to increase muscle size is predominant muscle fiber type. Of the two primary fiber types (fast and slow twitch), fast twitch fibers are larger to start with and have the greatest potential for hypertrophy. While there are variations in predominant fiber type from muscle to muscle even in the same person, the predominant fiber type in all muscles varies greatly from person to person. People who tend to be successful in endurance sports typically have a greater number of slow twitch fibers, while people who tend to be successful in power sports tend to have a greater number of fast twitch fibers.
There is also the hormonal factor to consider. The person with higher levels of anabolic hormones (like growth hormone and testosterone) will have a greater potential for increasing muscle size. Nutritional status plays a role, also. No matter how much a person trains, if the building blocks are not there or if muscles have to give up their protein to provide fuel due to fad dieting, the size won’t come.
So, how is it that two people can look very much alike in terms of muscular development, but train very, very differently? It’s a matter of the variables mentioned above. Even with exactly the same nutrition and hormone levels, variances in fiber density and fiber type will result in similar results from vastly different training routines as well as vastly different results from the same training routines between two people. It isn’t training principles, but the individual that is the variable in the equation.
What works well for one person will not work well for all. A training routine for a person with high fiber density and a predominance of fast twitch fibers will not yield the same results for a person with lower fiber density or a predominance of slow twitch fibers or both. The program that provides the desired results with a person who has fewer fibers could very well lead to greater than desired size in a person who has a high degree of muscle fiber density. By the same token, the program that proves successful for the person with high fiber density will not optimize muscularity in a person who has a different predominant fiber type or who has less fiber density
I have a friend who NEVER trains heavily. She states that if she lifts heavily, she becomes much too large. Laurie always uses high rep training and has an incredible physique. Why? She has lots of myofibrils, so her capacity for size is much greater than the person who has fewer myofibrils. Even if she maximizes the size of her slow twitch fibers only, because of the large number of fibers she has overall, she develops a great degree of muscularity with what would typically be considered to be a muscular endurance type workout. She is nowhere near maximizing her potential for muscular size.
Fiber type and hormonal levels determine potential for increasing the size of an individual fiber. Progressive overload and nutritional status determine the degree to which each fiber reaches its maximal size potential. Volume of training determines the degree to which the muscle reaches its overall potential for growth (maximizing size of all fiber types). But the primary factor for determining how large a muscle has the potential for growing is dependent on the total number of fibers--something completely beyond our control and the destiny of genetics.
Sorry for the book here!
Maribeth
Strength is the ability to exert a maximal force one time. Endurance is the ability to exert a submaximal force multiple times. Muscle hypetrophy is an increase in size of the muscle resulting from increases in the contractile proteins in muscle fibers, glycogen and water storage and connective tissue.
Strength and local muscular endurance are on opposite ends of a spectrum--very low reps, very high resistance will yield the most significant increases in muscular stength, while high reps, low resistance will yield most significant increases in muscular endurance. What I want to emphasize though, is what "light" resistance means when talking about building muscular endurance. It is a relative term, and is used to contrast muscular endurance loads from those of strength loads. It doesn't mean the load doesn't maximally challenge the muscle--to the contrary, the resistance has to be high enough that the muscle couldn't complete another rep with good form, just as it is in training for maximal strength. The difference is in endurance training, the number of reps that have to be completed are quite a bit higher than they are for optimal strength development (6 reps max for strength as compared to 12-20 or more reps for muscular endurance). Truly lifting light is only appropriate as a warm up, while learning a technique and/or while rehabbing an injury.
Maximum muscle hypertrophy, ie, maximal increase in muscle size or muscle bulk, comes from a high volume of training, ie, more reps per set and/or more sets per exercise or exercises per bodypart. It is best developed with a combo of strength and muscular endurance training and there are a number of training formats that will achieve the combination.
But, no matter how you train, your ability to become very muscular is largely dependent on your genetics. Although there are a variety of factors that play a role in increasing individual muscle fiber size, the KEY factor in the capacity of the muscle as a whole to increase in size is the total number of myofibrils, aka muscle fiber density. According to muscle physiologists, that number is fixed by the second trimester of fetal development--in other words, genetically determined. It is independent of sex, training, predominant fiber type, nutritional status after birth, hormonal levels, etc, since the current thinking indicates that humans do not have the capacity for muscular hyperplasia (increasing the NUMBER of fibers) after birth.
Another factor that plays a major role in the ability to increase muscle size is predominant muscle fiber type. Of the two primary fiber types (fast and slow twitch), fast twitch fibers are larger to start with and have the greatest potential for hypertrophy. While there are variations in predominant fiber type from muscle to muscle even in the same person, the predominant fiber type in all muscles varies greatly from person to person. People who tend to be successful in endurance sports typically have a greater number of slow twitch fibers, while people who tend to be successful in power sports tend to have a greater number of fast twitch fibers.
There is also the hormonal factor to consider. The person with higher levels of anabolic hormones (like growth hormone and testosterone) will have a greater potential for increasing muscle size. Nutritional status plays a role, also. No matter how much a person trains, if the building blocks are not there or if muscles have to give up their protein to provide fuel due to fad dieting, the size won’t come.
So, how is it that two people can look very much alike in terms of muscular development, but train very, very differently? It’s a matter of the variables mentioned above. Even with exactly the same nutrition and hormone levels, variances in fiber density and fiber type will result in similar results from vastly different training routines as well as vastly different results from the same training routines between two people. It isn’t training principles, but the individual that is the variable in the equation.
What works well for one person will not work well for all. A training routine for a person with high fiber density and a predominance of fast twitch fibers will not yield the same results for a person with lower fiber density or a predominance of slow twitch fibers or both. The program that provides the desired results with a person who has fewer fibers could very well lead to greater than desired size in a person who has a high degree of muscle fiber density. By the same token, the program that proves successful for the person with high fiber density will not optimize muscularity in a person who has a different predominant fiber type or who has less fiber density
I have a friend who NEVER trains heavily. She states that if she lifts heavily, she becomes much too large. Laurie always uses high rep training and has an incredible physique. Why? She has lots of myofibrils, so her capacity for size is much greater than the person who has fewer myofibrils. Even if she maximizes the size of her slow twitch fibers only, because of the large number of fibers she has overall, she develops a great degree of muscularity with what would typically be considered to be a muscular endurance type workout. She is nowhere near maximizing her potential for muscular size.
Fiber type and hormonal levels determine potential for increasing the size of an individual fiber. Progressive overload and nutritional status determine the degree to which each fiber reaches its maximal size potential. Volume of training determines the degree to which the muscle reaches its overall potential for growth (maximizing size of all fiber types). But the primary factor for determining how large a muscle has the potential for growing is dependent on the total number of fibers--something completely beyond our control and the destiny of genetics.
Sorry for the book here!
Maribeth
. I mean, I am borderline crying here, with 15-20lb. dumbells for LL today. The only time I ever feel glute involvement is on the low end lunges after you are so freakin' tired that it sure would not take much!!!LOL!!