Hypertrophy Protocol

[Stikki]

@Race_Radio

Next Mr. Olympia?. :rolleyes:

You guys trying to slow me down.

Take a walk.

The muscle he’s put on since this picture from 2007 sure didn’t seem to slow him down.

[Captain_Jack_Sparrow]

@Nikoluski

You need both intra-muscular tension (depending on intensity and type of contraction) and TUT (depending on reps and lifting tempo). The physiological stress caused by these two variables will result in muscle damage and eventually in protein synthesis, causing hypertrophy. Within certain limits both variables increase LA, which leads to the release of HGH. Core exercises seem to cause a greater T production.

Is the gh release we can obtain worth the lactic acid build up? If we stay far from failure and LA, we can use bigger loads and/or volumes and obtain more muscle damage.
For example, a 3 x 8 near failure can be done with roughly 65% of 1RM, while with an 8 x 3 we can lift 80% of 1 RM. Same volume, more load.

@Race Radio: I specified not cosmetic hypertrophy.

[TopCat]

Hypertrophy is probably more likely related to basal testosterone levels and autocrine/pericrine (local hormone production in the cell and adjacent cells) rather than exercise induced systemic spikes in testosterone (by using a large amount of muscle mass - e.g. squatting) - look up research on occlusion for more info. Also it is unclear if shorter rest or really high rep schemes are absolutely necessary for hypertrophy - the jury is out on this one.

The key factors are probably working muscles groups in various ways with multiple exercises, making sure you damage the muscles sufficiently and also nutrition in and around training specifically amino acid and carbohydrate supply.

If you want to get big then:

1.Do different exercises for the same muscle group
2. Use aminos/protein in and around training
3. Make sure your body recovers thoroughly
4. Train consistently year on year while doing everything possible to avoid overuse and injury. As the old saying goes “Muscle takes time”.

[AJP]

Further to Topcat’s post, some may be interested in the article and discussion below in relation of the effects of HGH on hypertrophy.

http://bretcontreras.wordpress.com/2010/08/17/mythbusters-a-guest-blog-by-mark-young/

In addition, at the UKSCA conference, Mike Stone presented studies which demonstrated that superior cross sectional area gains were superior when rest periods were at least 2 minutes compared to the common 60sec, though I have not scrutinised these.

[star61]

@Captain_Jack_Sparrow

Is the gh release we can obtain worth the lactic acid build up? If we stay far from failure and LA, we can use bigger loads and/or volumes and obtain more muscle damage.
For example, a 3 x 8 near failure can be done with roughly 65% of 1RM, while with an 8 x 3 we can lift 80% of 1 RM. Same volume, more load.

@Race Radio: I specified not cosmetic hypertrophy.

All volume/TUT is not equal. Heavier loads are better for both strength and hypertrophy, but low rep sets are as effective for hypertrophy as set with rep ranges of 8-10. However, I do think adding some strength work (higher load, few reps per set) is highly beneficial as it will eventually allow you to use higher loads in your hypertrophy (8-10 reps per set) training.