What is the secret to training to maximize muscle growth
You know what Ronnie Coleman once said, right? Everyone would like to have big muscles and be a bodybuilder, but no one wants to lift heavy weights. Yes, we all want proper muscles, and we need to lift heavy weights to have proper muscles. Consequently, the processes of progressively increasing the load over time create tension and force the muscles to adapt, thus forcing them to grow even more. More weights, more tension, more muscles. A simple equation, right? But beware! Heavy weights alone are not enough to build muscle properly. The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy (muscle growth) speak of the three basic "secrets" behind large muscles. Mechanical stress, metabolic stress and muscle damage. Let us very simply say what is what and how to apply it to training.
Mechanical stress
Do you know the feeling when you lift really heavy weights and your muscle literally breaks off your bone? This is mechanical stress. If the muscle is subjected to a tension such that the muscle is stretched passively without being contracted, this tension is called a passive elastic strain. If there is a strain on the muscle by completely stretching the muscle and exposing it to the isometric contraction, that tension is called active. When you lift dumbbells over the entire range of movement, you expose muscles to both active and passive tension at the same time. Research shows that stretching and isometry are essential for hypertrophy (muscle growth), so that tension alone does not provide maximum muscle growth. It is also worth mentioning TUT (time under tension). One maximal contraction once every two weeks does not lead to maximization of muscle growth, it is not simply a sufficient stimulus for optimal anabolic processes. But we wrote more in the article how often we should train for optimal muscle growth.
Metabolic stress
Do you know the feeling when your muscle is really burning and you have a proper pump? These are at least 2 mechanisms that fit into a box called metabolic stress. It is caused by several factors, such as decreased venous flow through persistent muscle contraction, preventing blood from escaping, hypoxia (lack of oxygen in the muscles), building metabolic by-products such as lactate and increasing hormonal overvoltage, and "swelling" of cells or pump thanks to the accumulated blood.
These factors are synergistic with tension and progressive load increases and can help build muscle. These are also some of the reasons why BFR works, ie training with limited blood flow despite a lower level of muscle tension compared to conventional strength training.
Muscle damage
For example, do you know the leg pain that reaches the peak about two days after training? This is indicative of muscle damage. Damage is created either by something that the body is not accustomed to, or for example by focusing on the eccentric phase during exercises, or by stretching the muscle while it is activated, thereby causing a large amount of tension. For this reason, a component called training diversity, which ensures different involvement of motor units in the muscles, is important for muscle damage.
But there is one big link between all this
For example, a large curve within the active tension in longer muscles creates the greatest muscle damage. In other words, tension is very effective at damaging muscle fibers as long as the muscle is expanded and activated at the same time. On the other hand, high tension throughout the full range of motion is very effective in producing metabolic stress. The famous pump is also important because of the so-called. “Swelling” of the cell. These mechanisms may increase activation of satellite cells (muscle stem cells) as well as activation of important mTOR pathways. All mechanisms are simply intertwined.
There are several neuronal (not hypertrophic) mechanisms by which the muscle can be strengthened without increasing. This is a key element in powerlifting. But if you want you to maximize your muscle potential, you don't have to rely solely on heavy weights. It is necessary to rotate certain exercises, to incorporate various variations into the training and to try to be stronger in small, medium and higher repetitions.
Choosing and mixing the right tools in training. How to do it?
Some exercises are better to induce a proper pump, some to create tension, others to damage the fibers. In general, by performing squats, deadlifts, benchpress, shoulder presses, pulls, and the like, you will maximize the mechanical stress. However, this is not enough. You will not benefit from maximizing stress across the entire spectrum of fibers within a muscle in one exercise.
Therefore, exercises such as bench press on inclined bench, parallel bars, biceps strokes, shoulder crouching, shoulder straps, leg press or glute ham raises will serve as an excellent and necessary supplement to maximize muscle growth as they strike unique fibers over conventional basic exercises. And when we talk about those variations, the same goes for individual exercises. The squats can also include the front squats, bench press can be a spell and, for example, in the case of dead moves can incorporate a number of corpses.
The movements that create a constant tension or induce the greatest strain on a muscle of shorter lengths (in a contracted position) are great to create a pump. Furnace, pullover, kneeling, tripping, hyperextension, butt bridge, strapping, triceps rope pulling. Medium to high reps, shorter pauses and you'll know what pump we're talking about.
The movements that create a constant tension or induce the greatest strain on the muscles longer (in a contracted position) are great to create muscle damage. Stretching on breasts, but also pullover, lunges, good mornings, triceps extension from above. Or, for example, the use of dumbbells in compression / pulling exercises to create greater stretching. Or also concentrating on the eccentric phase. In any case, muscle damage is difficult to define in some way whether it is large enough or already too large. Sometimes he can make more charades than benefits. Here, stimulate - nothing. Having 5 days of muscular tissue and feeling your muscle “tear” while washing your dishes is not unfortunate.
Väčšina energie by mala smerovať na vykonávanie základných komplexných cvikov, ale časť energie venuj aj ďalším veciam, ktoré sme si v článku opísali. Aj keď z dlhodobého hľadiska ti postačí pre hypertrofiu silnieť pri týchto základných cvikoch pri rôznych počtoch opakovaní, je to možno zdroj cca 80 % prírastkov svalov, pričom ostatných 20 % nevyužívaš. A práve tých 20 % a zameranie sa na spomínané veci môže byť obrovskou čerešničkou na torte. Vykonávať výhradne len ťažké série alebo len obrovské počty opakovaní – to nevybuduje optimálnu postavu, preto je potrebné uchmatnúť si z každého rožku trošku.
Svaly nereagujú len na napätie, reagujú na napätie, metabolický stres a poškodenie pre maximalizovanie hypertrofie, no ideálna kombinácia sa bude líšiť od človeku ku človeku. Doterajšie výskumy nehovoria o jasnom, presnom a jednom vzorci, takže čo ti zostáva je, zamerať sa v tréningu na základné cviky na začiatku tréningu a skombinovať ich s ľahšími cvikmi na vyvolanie metabolického stresu, alebo si poskladať tréning v rámci týždňa tak, aby malo cvičenie hlavu a pätu a kombinovalo všetky faktory. Ako si poskladať optimálny tréning sa už dozvieš čoskoro v našej novej sérii článkov.
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