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http://staff.washington.edu/griffin/hypertrophy.txt
Subject: HYPERTROPHY & STRENGTH
From: [email protected]
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 07:59:50 -0800
Here is another contribution which emerged from discussion on another user group on the topic of hypertrophy and performance in the strength sports. It began with these questions:
<<Could you expand on the concept of hypertrophy for powerlifting? I had thought that for relative strength hypertrophy was not that important. We are not bodybuilders. Is hypertrophy also a consideration for Olympic lifting?
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OPTIMUM, NOT MAXIMUM, HYPERTROPHY
In both Olympic lifting and powerlifting, optimal and not maximal hypertrophy is a central feature of the game, unlike bodybuilding where it does not matter whether one is relatively weak or strong with reference to one's bodymass. All that matters is well-defined, symmetrical muscle bulk in bodybuilding, but in the lifting sports, your size and impressiveness of appearance earn you scant respect - all that counts is what you lift.
Optimal hypertrophy means continuing to develop building muscle only as long as that extra bulk continues to provide you with significant increases in strength and power. If you add 10kg to your bodymass and your total increases by only 5kg in a higher bodymass division, then your relative strength has decreased and that added hypertrophy is wasted on you.
This is a serious problem in contact sports such as football where the common belief is that virtually any form of added mass is good for the game (especially defensive players), whereas in reality it would be a lot better if the added bulk was mainly solid, functional muscle which added strength, power, speed and agility.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF HYPERTROPHY
Research from Russia even suggests that there are two different types of muscle hypertrophy: sarcomere hypertrophy (of the actual contractile components) and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (of non-contractile proteins and semifluid plasma between the muscle fibres), with the latter type of hypertrophy being more in evidence in bodybuilding (Siff & Verkhoshansky "Supertraining" 1998 Ch 1.12).
MUSCLE GROWTH & PERFORMANCE
To provide some more relevant information on this important and controversial topic, I have included this fairly lengthy extract from "Supertraining" (pp 58-60) for those who may be interested:
Other research has found that hypertrophied muscle fibres need a significantly larger tissue volume to perform a given amount of work. With the development of non-functional muscle bulk(sarcoplasmic hypertrophy), the increase in muscle mass outsrtips the development of the circulatory system, resulting in decreased nutrition and oxygenation of the muscle, slowing down the metabolic processes in the muscle and less efficient disposal of metabolic waste products from the musculoskeletal system (Zalessky & Burkhanov Legkaya Atletika 1981: 1-7).
Furthermore, adaptation occurs more slowly in connective tissue (such as tendons and ligaments) than in muscle and any increased tension made possible in the musculotendinous complexes by the increased muscle mass can cause damage to these structures (Zalessky & Burkhanov, 1981). Thus, excessive hypertrophy usually leads to slower muscle recovery after exercise, deterioration in speed, speed-strength and speed, as well as an increased incidence of injury.
THE ENERGY COSTS OF TOO MUCH HYPERTROPHY
This might suggest that all muscle fibre hypertrophy lowers work capacity. Hypertrophy is an adaptive response to physical stress and does offer the benefit of increased mitochondrial surface area, which provides for more efficient energy processes than would an increased number of mitochondria.
With a rapid increase in loading, the size of the mitochondria continues to increase markedly, but their number decreases and the concentration of ATP drops, thereby diminishing the partial volume of the contractile myofibrils.
The resulting energy deficit soon inhibits the formation of new structures and the decreased amount of ATP stimulates various destructive processes associated with decrease in the number of myofibrils. This process is referred to as irrational adaptation.
Growth of any living structure is related to the balance between its volume and its surface area. When muscle hypertrophy occurs, the surface of the fibres grows more slowly than their volume and, this imbalance causes the
fibres to disintegrate and restructure in a way which preserves their original metabolic state (Nikituk & Samoilov, 1990).
It would appear that light and medium increases in loading require less energy, facilitate cell repair, minimise the occurrence of destructive processes and stimulate the synthesis of new, non-hypertrophied cellular structures. Medium loads applied with a medium rate of increase in loading produce intense muscular development, the process in this case being referred to as rational adaptation..
The fact that conventional isometric training improves performance in static, rather than dynamic, exercise may be due to the different structural effects of isometric training on the muscle fibres, muscle cells, connective tissues and blood capillaries.
MORE ON OPTIMAL HYPERTROPHY
This work seems to corroborate the hypothesis referred to earlier that there may be an optimum size for muscle fibres undergoing hypertrophy (MacDougall et al, 1982; Tesch & Larsson, 1982). The importance of prescribing resistance training regimes which produce the optimal balance between hypertrophy and specific strength then becomes obvious. Thus, it is not only prolonged cardiovascular training which can be detrimental to the acquisition of strength, but multiple fairly high repetition sets of heavy bodybuilding or circuit training routines to the point of failure may also inhibit the formation of contractile muscle fibres.
Therefore, it is vital to monitor regularly changes in muscular structure and function alongside changes in size and mass. In most cases the taking of biopsies is not possible or financially practical, so that indirect assessment of the adaptive processes is necessary. Increase in hypertrophy of a given muscle zone may be assessed from muscle girth and skinfold thicknesses at that site, while factors such as relative strength, maximal strength and the strength deficit (see Ch 1) serve as useful indicators of functional efficiency.
INDISCRIMINATE WEIGHT TRAINING
Bosco (1982a) cautions against the indiscriminate use of resistance training that typifies much of the 'cross training' prescribed with weights and circuits by Western personal trainers and coaches. He emphasizes that, although heavy resistance training serves as a powerful stimulus for the development and hypertrophy of both ST and FT fibres, the invaluable role
played by FT development can be impaired by the accompanying growth of ST fibres, because the latter appear to provoke a damping effect on FT contraction during fast movement.
This is due to the fact that, during high speed shortening of muscle, the sliding velocity of ST fibres can be too slow and therefore, may exert a significant damping effect on the overall muscle contraction. He concludes that the central role played by the storage and release of elastic energy by the connective tissues of the muscle complex should never be ignored in
sport specific training programmes.
Dr. Mel Siff
