Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy

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      We are halfway into 2021 and the gyms are packed to the brim. From the Bodybuilders, the Gym Shark Girls, your typical gym-goers, and plenty more. Though they are different from one another, all utilize similar exercises known as Resistance Training. Your average gym goer may avoid this method of training because they think that once they touch the weight they will transform into a hulking beast. Not everybody wants bulging muscles or glutes bigger than the sun. We all don't have 3 hours of time to spend at the gym like a bodybuilder to chisel and sculpt our bodies into some kind of masterpiece. But, we all to some degree want to push ourselves to achieve some kind of physique. How can we program an efficient workout scheme into our crazy schedules? Well, Michal Krzysztofik and his colleagues have done their own research and have devised techniques that can improve and optimize our times when at the gym.

    Most people believe muscle growth comes from the concentric portion of a movement. The process of shortening the muscle then releasing it back to its resting state. Usually after the initial contraction we immediately “release,” slingshot our muscles back into normal position without wasting energy. In that time frame of shortening-release-rest, we miss out on an opportunity to put our muscles under more stress. The process of lengthening our muscles back to normal is known as eccentric contraction and this is where premium muscle growth can occur. The overall goal of resistance training is for muscle hypertrophy, where muscle protein synthesis exceeds muscle protein breakdown (Krzystofik 2019). 

Two of the most interesting techniques include the tempo eccentric technique and exhaustion technique. In tempo eccentric training, we reduce a large number of sets, by slowing down each rep during an eccentric phase. For example, in the squat when we go down we should control the movement for 2 seconds during the contraction phase and then take 6 seconds to come back up during the eccentric phase and repeats for 10 reps. The tempo is 2,0,6,0 (2 seconds, pause, 6 seconds, pause), and during that time hypertrophy is maximized as tension is increased.

If you aren’t a fan of super slow training, then the pre-exhaustion technique may be up your alley. This technique is loved by bodybuilders as it promotes a focused tension on specific body parts. Before performing a multi-joint movement like a squat or bench press. You spend a majority of your time perform single-joint movements that pre-exhaust muscle groups. The rationale for this is by pre-exhausting the specific large muscle group during the single joint movement will thereby place greater stress on the muscle groups during the multi-joint movement potentiating hypertrophy.

Technique 1 is slower but reduces your number of sets and technique 2 requires more sets of isolation work, but you reduce the number of sets for your multi-joint movement. But the overall outcome is that you could be spending less than 1 hour to effectively workout and create a physique of your choosing. 

Krzysztofik, M., Wilk, M., Wojdała, G., & Gołaś, A. (2019). Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review of Advanced Resistance Training Techniques and Methods. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(24), 4897. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16244897