Training for Hypertrophy: If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It!
In the past decade or so, the fitness industry has experienced a renaissance period, prompted mainly by social media, and in particular, the abundance of visual media we are exposed to everyday. As part of this renaissance, divergent ideas have emerged regarding the most effective ways to stimulate hypertrophy (muscle growth). This has unfortunately resulted in a reinvention of the wheel, in a war for attention among fitness content creators.
Training for Hypertrophy
Training specifically for hypertrophy has always been viewed as a discipline in and of itself, with the majority of information coming from the sport of bodybuilding. This makes complete sense, given that bodybuilding is a sport which is judged by muscular development and symmetry throughout the entire body. The entire sport, is centred around building muscle mass, and cutting body fat to reveal said muscle mass.
One of the key discoveries made by bodybuilding is that training volume is the most important variable when training for hypertrophy, and that the most efficient way to achieve said volume is to train each muscle for 10-25 sets per week, within a 6-15 repetition range. When I completed my Personal Trainer education, this was also the recommended way of training for hypertrophy. So what’s changed?
Questioning the Status Quo
Social media prompted a new wave of thought leaders in the fitness industry, which questioned much of the old ways of doing things. Energy balance, and flexible dieting emphatically disproved the chicken, broccoli and rice diets of the bodybuilding magazine era. Clean eating was found to be the emperor who had no clothes, and we all felt lied to, with the discovery that the post workout anabolic window actually did not require an expensive fast-digesting form of protein and maltodextrin.
Rightly, some old ways that needed killing off were killed off, to make way for truth.
However, one area in which I think the new generation of content creators are failing their audience, is in trying to completely overhaul what we emphatically know is true about training for hypertrophy.
The industry seems to have developed an obsession with trying to prove that training for strength is just as effective a way, and according to some creators, a superior way of training to develop muscle mass. This is simply not true.
Disspelling Myths
Is Strength Training good for your nervous system, posture, bone density, and overall movement? Yes. Is it optimal for training for hypertrophy? No.
If I were to take a movement like a squat, where I perform 100KG for reps of 3 over 3 sets,this gives me a total working volume of 900KG. (100 x 3 x3).
If I were to instead drop this weight to 70KG and perform three sets of 12, I have now completed a total working volume of 2,520KG (70x3x12).
That is a massive difference of 1,620KG on just one exercise, in addition to the fact that most trainees will need far less rest, and have much more energy to complete more volume across other exercises, when compared with training for intensity in the 100KG example.
When extrapolated across a workout, a training week, a training block, and then over the course of an entire macrocycle (training year), I find it very difficult to even entertain the idea that strength training comes anywhere close to being as efficient as the good old way of doing things, when it comes to eliciting hypertrophy.
Backward Rationalisations
A backward rationalisation is explaining an irrational behaviour by covering it up with seemingly rational reasons. This is something I find insanely frustrating about the content creators who use powerlifting style training, in order to build muscle. Often called powerbuilding.
They go to great lengths to appear rational, logical and scientific, but they are guilty of the same crimes as scientists who develop studies around the health benefits of consuming alcohol and caffeine. They are developing all sorts of mental gymnastics to make their necessities a virtue. Wine and coffee are addictive, and when you feed an addiction (even a minor one), you experience a great sense of relief and wellness.
If you look hard enough to prove the rationale for any kind of behaviour, you will find it, and you will be able to prove it. Even, if in our heart of hearts, we know it to be untrue.
I love the feeling of lifting in a 3x3 rep range. It’s a feeling of conquest over one’s limitations, which I don’t think is comparable with traditional bodybuilding training. However my love for strength training, coupled with the fact that strength training can build muscle mass, does not negate, the fact that strength training is not an optimal way of building muscle mass.
I just simply cannot get in anywhere near as much effective training volume, as I could if I trained specifically for hypertrophy.
Training Specificity
Remember that all fitness goals require a style of training that is specific to their achievement. In personal training, and sports science, this is called the principal of specificity.
Though most boxers appear muscular on fight day, does not mean I will become a good boxer by developing razor sharp abs. I will need to train like a boxer, to become proficient at the sport.
Similarly, if the goal is to build as much muscle as possible, it is best to stick to the tried and tested ways of doing so. There are plenty of ways to get creative within that ruleset by looking at things like exercise selection, and advanced training techniques such as: rest-pause, supersets, pre-exhaust, negatives and forced repetitions.
Bodybuilding is responsible for countless examples of physiques that are out of this world. If your goal is to gain muscle mass; don’t beat around the bush, don’t reinvent the wheel. Train for hypertrophy, and trust the process until you have achieved your goal.
Self-sabotage often presents itself as ‘experimentation’. See it for what it is, and resist the urge to get distracted. You got this!
If you would like to work with me, on building muscle mass, I specialise in coaching men who struggle in this regard, despite their best efforts. You can book my coaching services here.