Basics of Hypertrophy Training 1
Learn the basic principles of training for size to make the MOST of your training TODAY
This has been on my mind for quite a while now and I am very excited to dig a little deeper into hypertrophy training as it has been my focus since my return from basic training— I would LOVE to get beefy before hopping back into powerlifting— I mean who doesn’t want to look big and strong amirite…
I’d like to preface that eating is a critical component to building size. Eat for your goals and if you don’t know where to start reach out and we can help you :)
In this article I am going to shed some light on some great training principles and some cool ~science-y~ terms so you can feel confident in your ability to train.
Let’s get rollin’.
Maintenance Volume (MV): The volume that allows you to keep you current level of muscle.
Minimum Effective Volume (MEV): The minimum amount of training that actually stimulates a muscle to GROW. Train above the MEV to grow— train below it and maintain muscle at best. For new lifters, you’re in luck— your MEV is typically much lower than that of an intermediate or advanced lifter.
Maximum Recoverable Volume (MRV): The max amount of volume your body can recover from. Anymore than this and you won’t be fully recovered by your next training session which hinders, performance, growth and increases injury risk!
Maximum Adaptive Volume (MAV): The range of volumes to cause an adaptation to a muscle group. Think overload principle. This volume changes throughout training cycles because the muscle needs more volume (weight x reps x sets) each week to have the stimulus to cause growth!
Understand that these very person to person and vary between muscle groups!
Don’t be overwhelmed, these are just concepts to carry into training— keeping an eye on how well you’re recovering, your performance, and your pumps will give you a great gauge on the volume that you can and can’t get away with and let you know that you are doing enough.
In my experience most people do TOO much volume and end up over training. I’ve been there too, but recording how I feel has allowed me to stay within my limits and recover to the best of my ability.
More recovery means you can actually train harder without accruing unnecessary fatigue!
If you WOULD like a deep dive on these terms and learn to find them on your own— subscribe and let me know!
Now for the real reason you’re here— training principles you can walk away with and apply TODAY.
ECCENTRIC LOADING: You have probably heard this before… control the negative, actively resist the eccentric (easy portion) of the lift. Eccentric portion (lengthening portion) of the lift has been shown in research to be stronger than the concentric. Controlling the down portion of a bench press, squat, Romanian deadlift will DESTROY the target muscle, stimulating TONS of growth.
The problem with eccentric control is it also destroys the ego— But we’re not here to stroke our egos, we’re here to get f*cking huge! Use less weight, feel the BURN as you slowly control the weight on each lift before exploding through the concentric contraction.
BUT before you explode that bench press off the chest…
PAUSE: Pausing in a fully stretched position does a few things.
It is particularly growth stimulating to the muscle.
It keeps tension and reinforces control of the eccentric portion of the lift.
It reduces the risk of injury by reducing the peak force at the transition from eccentric to concentric action
Again checks the ego making light loads harder to lift, BUT aiding recovery efforts because of reduced loading!
Think taking a 1-3 second pause in the stretched position of a lift— I’m talking hamstrings and calves KISSING during leg press type stretch.
STRETCHED POSITIONS: I mention pausing in the stretched position. The stretched position where the muscle feels like it is at end range (within reason and this varies person to person) not only allows for great sensation of the movement and amazing pumps, but it VERY growth stimulating!
Getting DEEP on that leg press if going to kill the quads like never before I promise you AND you will walk away with an amazing pump!
TRAIN IN THE LENGTHENED POSITION: This goes hand and hand with stretched positions. Let’s take the triceps for example. Imagine you decide to do a triceps kickback (please don’t do these— you’ll get why in a minute).
Notice how on the left, the position of the Triceps (highlighted in blue) is completely perpendicular to the force of gravity and the dumbbell, both forcing down. The triceps do not have to do any work in this position— you can sit here all day.
As the lifter goes through the movement, the triceps really only need to work and produce force in the ULTRA shortened top position shown on the right, where they are working now to resist the force of gravity and the dumbbell.
This does not allow us to get into that stretched position that is so growth promoting.
This would be like training a bench press but only going down 3 inches instead of bringing the bar to your chest!
Except in this triceps kickback movement we are limited by the movement itself.
A better move for example would be this pushdown shown below!
Here on the left the lifter has his triceps (highlighted in red) at full stretch, he can even take a pause there that will burn like hell as the muscle is actively resisting the force of the cable stack.
Notice here that his triceps are more or less parallel to the forces of the cable (straight up and down).
Then as he contracts the muscle, it remains parallel to the forces of the cable! from a fully lengthened position to a fully contracted one— a thing of BEAUTY.
EVEN BETTER would be an overhead triceps extension where now you have some more long head involved which crosses the shoulder AND the elbow (I’m just being a geek now— don’t listen to a word I say).
Training the shortened position won’t break the bank, BUT you can probably get more bang for your buck favoring lengthened positions that offer some stretch on the target tissue.
In summary train in a controlled manner— Don’t worry about the weight you lift (I promise no one worth caring for is judging you).
Lower weights with intention, pause them at a FULL stretch, drive up, and for bonus points DON’T rest at the top to maintain tension in the specific muscle.
This is an example of IFBB Pro Jared Feather training with phenomenal technique practicing each principle above.
Leave a like if you found these tips helpful and comment your thoughts!
