Ebook: Periodized Hypertropohy (muscle growth program part 1)

Part 1 of Ebook 'Periodized Hypertophy Training': Strength, Tension, and Intensity (STI)

A Comprehensive Program for Year Round Muscle Growth

Introduction to Time Under Tension:

What actually induces hypertrophy (muscle growth) has been argued over for years in the bodybuilding community. And some of its most recognizable faces have achieved great success while promoting their particular style of training. There are different rest pause techniques, high volume training regimens and low volume, high intensity training regimens. The issue with the battle over what works best is that genetics play such a large role in hypertrophy, it can be impossible to determine which training style to follow without combining research and experience. The prevalent use of drugs in bodybuilding also makes it an arduous task to discover the links between training and hypertrophy. The bodybuilders who eventually achieved success with their style of training may never know how much sooner they could have achieved results if they had opened themselves up to different training styles. For those who attempt to incorporate the numerous training philosophies into one workout, they make it difficult for their body to develop specific adaptations and may inhibit progress. For example, many high school football coaches like to make their players run long distance to increase their endurance. However, as many know this requires the use of type I slow twitch fibers and the body will adapt by decreasing power out put to support endurance. For coaches that are familiar with the our bodies adaptations to exercise, they will attempt to increase their players work capacity through sprints or other forms of high intensity exercise so they’re players can adapt to operating near there lactic threshold. After all, a football game is played the way a sprint training session is set up: less than 20 seconds of all out work, with 30-45 seconds of work.

Definitions

Training volume- the total training load you are undergoing, sets X reps X weight.
Eccentric- the lowering portion of a lift
Hypertrophy- increase in muscle cross sectional area/size.
Periodization- organized approach to training that incorporates progressive cycles of various aspects of training for specific goals.
Concentric- lifting portion of a lift (going against gravity)

This also translates to how the average person puts together their exercise routine at the gym. Common practice for many novice gym goers is to perform steady state cardio before their exercise routine. For starters as to why that’s a bad idea (for those who are going to the gym for the purposes of appearance or weight management), our body goes through different stages of energy sources during exercise. Creatine phosphate generates energy the quickest, then glycolysis (using carbohydrates), then aerobic metabolism (energy generated from carbs, fats and amino acids). Based on this pecking order of energy production it stands to reason that if you start your workout with cardio, the fat you’re hoping to use for fuel won’t be as readily available for expenditure as you’d like. Performing cardio at the end of your workout after you’ve tapped into your energy stores would be ideal. This is how many experienced lifters structure their workouts. Now if strength or hypertrophy is your goal, you must keep in mind that specificity is key and combining aerobic exercise and weightlifting into the same workout is great for fat loss but it does not optimize the type II muscle fibers (muscle fiber type that has a greater affinity to growing is size) necessary for improving muscle size. The form of cardio you would use in this case would be something high intensity, a short duration of work with roughly 30 seconds of rest.

Now let’s delve into the recent history of the accepted theories behind hypertrophy. Current research relating to training and muscle hypertrophy is leaning toward ‘Time Under Tension’ and away from the acute hormonal response to exercise. There is no correlation between serum increases in testosterone and growth hormone and protein synthesis. For the longest time it was taught in strength and conditioning that hypertrophy was induced by using short rest periods (30-60 seconds) with a rep range of 8-12 reps. Although this rep range is still accepted today, the rest periods have come under fire. While they are optimal for increasing hormones that remain elevated post-exercise and can metabolize fat; they have no correlation with post-exercise protein synthesis. When research is being done to determine the relationship between the hormonal response to exercise and protein synthesis; there is usually an LH group (low hormone group) and an HH group (high hormone group) and levels of protein synthesis have been identical. Think about it, if you were to use Anabolic Steroids, you couldn’t sit at home and do nothing and still expect to grow, you would still need to hit the gym and hit those weights.

Now there is research that points to a training method that seems to contradict this. Hypoxia training (decrease in oxygen available to your tissues) is said to increase lactic acid and thereby increase testosterone as a stress response. It has been shown to improve strength and muscle size in a research study by the Japanese. However, even though the study and the conclusions are convincing, the thought process is flawed. A greater buildup in lactic acid using this training method means that the glycolytic pathway was put to greater use. Which makes sense considering that energy must be generated in the absence of oxygen. Now the type II muscle fibers are put to use in the absence of oxygen and rely heavily upon the creatine phosphate and glycolytic systems of energy production whereas the type I muscle fibers are generally aerobic. So the sound theory for this studies success falls closer in line to the ‘time under tension’ theory of muscle growth. So vascular occlusion (limiting blood flow and therefore oxygen to working muscles) and hypoxia training simply force type II fibers to be put to work (resulting in a quicker time to exhaustion) which leads to hypertrophy. However what makes this style of training non-ideal is it will reduce your ability to maximize the amount of weight lifted and work performed in the gym. Your central nervous systems adaptations to handling more weight in the gym are also important for maximizing strength.

Citations:

West DW, Burd NA, Staples AW, Phillips SM. Human exercise-mediated skeletal muscle hypertrophy is an intrinsic process. Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2010 Sep;42(9):1371-5. Epub 2010 Jun 9
Marcas M. Bamman, James R. Shipp, Jie Jiang, Barbara A. Gower, Gary R. Hunter, Ashley Goodman, Charles L. McLafferty Jr., and Randall J. Urban. Mechanical load increases muscle IGF-I and androgen receptor mRNA concentrations in humans. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 280: E383-E390, 2001; 0193-1849/01.
K. M. Heinemeier, J. L. Olesen, P. Schjerling, F. Haddad, H. Langberg, K. M. Baldwin, and M. Kjaer. Short-term strength training and the expression of myostatin and IGF-I isoforms in rat muscle and tendon: differential effects of specific contraction types. J Appl Physiol 102: 573-581, 2007. First published October 12, 2006; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00866.2006 8750-7587/07
Nishimura A1, Sugita M, Kato K, Fukuda A, Sudo A, Uchida A. Hypoxia increases muscle hypertrophy induced by resistance training. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2010 Dec;5(4):497-508.