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Hypertrophy
Chandler K. Craig
WTAMU
Hypertrophy
Throughout the 1800s traveling circuses would often feature a strongman exhibit where a man would lift oversized dumbbells, barrels filled with water, and many other odd objects to impress the crowd with his strength. In 1894 one of these circus strongmen named Eugene Sandow known as the “father of modern bodybuilding” began posing for these crowds to show off his muscle mass and aesthetic physique. He was much different from other strongmen because his training consisted of using lighter weights and much more volume than the traditional high intensity strongman training because his focus was on building an aesthetic physique that resembled statues of Greek Gods found in museums instead …show more content…
In 1901 he organized the first ever bodybuilding competition in London England called the “Great Competition” where men could show off their muscle mass and symmetrical physiques. This popularized higher volume training and began the debate among professional bodybuilders and the everyday gym rat of “which set and rep ranges will maximize muscular hypertrophy?” I decided to research this age old question so that I could come up with a definitive answer and implement it into my own strength training routine. There are many different variables that go into maximizing hypertrophy besides set and rep ranges such as the size of the load, rest periods, and frequency of training particular muscle groups, often defined as how many time a muscle is trained per week. There are other non-training factors that affect muscular hypertrophy such as diet, supplementation, and rest but I will be focusing on the training aspect of it. This paper will explore all of the training variables as well as give an answer to the age old question of “which …show more content…
Some people train each muscle group three times per week, some train it twice per week, and some peoples training depends on how they are feeling each day. The frequency of training is often referred to as a split. The reason that bodybuilders and gym rats train different muscle groups on different days is so that while they are training one muscle group the others can recover. The goal is to train a muscle group and as soon as it has fully recovered you can train it again so that you gain muscle mass as quickly as possible. If a person trains a muscle group before it has fully recovered it means that they are overtraining and can cause the slowing down of their metabolism, sleep apnea, and muscular atrophy. In a 2015 study done by Alex Ribeiro, Brad Schoenfeld, Danilo Silva, Fábio Pina, Débora Guariglia, Marcelo Porto, Nailza Maestá, Roberto Burini, and Edilson Cyrino they set up an experiment to determine whether a two-way or three-way split was most effective in maximizing muscular hypertrophy. They took ten male professional bodybuilders who had abstained from the use of anabolic steroids, growth hormones, and peptides for at least six months prior to the study. Half of the men used a two-way training split which means that they trained each muscle group twice per week and the other half used a three-way training split which means they trained each muscle
Hypertrophy
Chandler K. Craig
WTAMU
Hypertrophy
Throughout the 1800s traveling circuses would often feature a strongman exhibit where a man would lift oversized dumbbells, barrels filled with water, and many other odd objects to impress the crowd with his strength. In 1894 one of these circus strongmen named Eugene Sandow known as the “father of modern bodybuilding” began posing for these crowds to show off his muscle mass and aesthetic physique. He was much different from other strongmen because his training consisted of using lighter weights and much more volume than the traditional high intensity strongman training because his focus was on building an aesthetic physique that resembled statues of Greek Gods found in museums instead …show more content…
In 1901 he organized the first ever bodybuilding competition in London England called the “Great Competition” where men could show off their muscle mass and symmetrical physiques. This popularized higher volume training and began the debate among professional bodybuilders and the everyday gym rat of “which set and rep ranges will maximize muscular hypertrophy?” I decided to research this age old question so that I could come up with a definitive answer and implement it into my own strength training routine. There are many different variables that go into maximizing hypertrophy besides set and rep ranges such as the size of the load, rest periods, and frequency of training particular muscle groups, often defined as how many time a muscle is trained per week. There are other non-training factors that affect muscular hypertrophy such as diet, supplementation, and rest but I will be focusing on the training aspect of it. This paper will explore all of the training variables as well as give an answer to the age old question of “which …show more content…
Some people train each muscle group three times per week, some train it twice per week, and some peoples training depends on how they are feeling each day. The frequency of training is often referred to as a split. The reason that bodybuilders and gym rats train different muscle groups on different days is so that while they are training one muscle group the others can recover. The goal is to train a muscle group and as soon as it has fully recovered you can train it again so that you gain muscle mass as quickly as possible. If a person trains a muscle group before it has fully recovered it means that they are overtraining and can cause the slowing down of their metabolism, sleep apnea, and muscular atrophy. In a 2015 study done by Alex Ribeiro, Brad Schoenfeld, Danilo Silva, Fábio Pina, Débora Guariglia, Marcelo Porto, Nailza Maestá, Roberto Burini, and Edilson Cyrino they set up an experiment to determine whether a two-way or three-way split was most effective in maximizing muscular hypertrophy. They took ten male professional bodybuilders who had abstained from the use of anabolic steroids, growth hormones, and peptides for at least six months prior to the study. Half of the men used a two-way training split which means that they trained each muscle group twice per week and the other half used a three-way training split which means they trained each muscle