Hypertrophy and Volume

I have been lifting heavy and eating a lot.  I always lift heavy, it’s not like I really “go light”, but when you are on a restricted calorie diet, the environment is not there for growth.

Here is some info about Muscle Hypertrophy from Wikipedia:

Strength training typically produces a combination of the two different types of hypertrophy: contraction against 80 to 90% of the one repetition maximum for 2–6 repetitions (reps) causes myofibrillated hypertrophy to dominate (as in powerlifters, olympic lifters and strength athletes), while several repetitions (generally 8 – 12 for bodybuilding or 12 or more for muscular endurance) against a sub-maximal load facilitates mainly sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (professional bodybuilders and endurance athletes). 

Progressive overload is considered the most important principle behind hypertrophy, so increasing the weight, repetitions (reps), and sets will all have a positive impact on growth. Some experts create complicated plans that manipulate weight, reps, and sets, increasing one while decreasing the others to keep the schedule varied and less repetitive. It is generally believed that if more than 15 repetitions per set is possible, the weight is too light to stimulate maximal growth.

Several biological factors such as age and nutrition can affect muscle hypertrophy. During puberty in males, hypertrophy occurs at an increased rate. Natural hypertrophy normally stops at full growth in the late teens. Muscular hypertrophy can be increased through strength training and other short duration, high intensity anaerobic exercises. Lower intensity, longer duration aerobic exercise generally does not result in very effective tissue hypertrophy; instead, endurance athletes enhance storage of fats and carbohydrates within the muscles, as well as neovascularization. An adequate supply of amino acids is essential to produce muscle hypertrophy.

Roy and I  started German Volume Training just after my competition; it’s a lot of reps and a lot of weight, which is increased every week. Add to that the fact that I have increased my calories, reduced aerobics and I take massive amounts of Amino Acids, my body is growing. It’s starting to frighten me just a bit.

Monday I hit Gold’s at opening and did 30 minutes on the stairmill then trained calves. I have been told to bring up the size of my calves, and I think they have really gotten quite shapely, but I still work on them three times a week. At 5:30, a little less than 12 hours later I am at BodyComp Gym training hamstrings with Roy, we would be doing deadlifts.

He loaded up the bar to start my warm ups and then said I would complete 10 reps per set. I told him that really wasn’t possible, I was lifting 200 pounds and I did this on my own last Monday, I could only do 4 sets of 5 reps. He didn’t really say much more other than tell me to start and he would tell me when to end, but I should try to do as many as possible.

I did 10, it was difficult but exhilarating. I kept going; on the 4^th set I could only lift 8 times, I think I just didn’t rest long enough.  On the 5^th set I did 10 again.

Volume is necessary for growth, so to cause hypertrophy you need to increase sets, reps, weight. You can calculate your volume this way:

Sets x reps x weight.

I lifted a volume of 10,000 pounds Monday night!

5 (sets) x 10 (reps) x 200 (pounds)

My hamstrings are killing me, especially the ham-glute tie-in, but they look good huh?

So to ensure I am keeping up with the “progressive overload” I must increase something. Anything. This is where most people fail. They do the same thing every week, every session. There is no progressive overload. You must increase weight, or sets, or reps, something, but to stay the same, is a wasted day in the gym.

Adequate food is important, so I must ensure a calorie surplus. This doesn’t mean eat whatever I like, on the contrary. I am eating more of my regular foods, although I am much more relaxed about it all. I will eat a bit more peanut butter, or maybe more fruit, but certainly am not hanging out eating candy bars, that won’t help my muscles grow.

I also take Branched Chain Amino Acids all day long. I have powdered BCAA”s in my water when I train (20 grams, 4 times the amount the bottle says is the recommended dose) and I take 1000 grams in gel tab format 5 times a day too.

Lots of BCAA’s

I am 129 pounds now, 10 pounds heavier than I was on May 5. I look muscular, like a little bull. Sure I have some fat, but I still look fairly lean. It’s making me wonder just how big I can get, and do I really want to get any bigger?

Today a guy at work was commenting on it. He said he was watching me walk, and I walk different. He said “Your legs…they are…bigger. You walk differently.”

Damn….

It makes me excited to go on a fat cutting diet; I am excited to see what I will look like then. I am waiting though, I am not done yet.

BCAA's

Back at the start of the year I wrote about BCAA's, and explained how vital they are to growing and maintaining the lean mass I want. I also wrote about the product I was taking called X-Tend and I have since discontinued it due to the dangerous dyes that are used in the product. It is a very popular product, it tastes great and has some good ingredients, but I am afraid the bad outweigh the good, so I stopped using it.

It took me some time but I found a great product I have been using for a couple months now, you can see it above and it is BCAA 5000 by Nutra-Bio. It has only what I want, BCAA's and nothing else!

I do like a little flavor though, it makes me drink more and I need to drink this during my training, not before and not after. Studies have shown this is important to ingest intra-workout.

I searched high and low and finally found an all natural flavoring that I like!

Below you can see my four containers of Reboost with Erythritol (a natural sweetener) from SeelecT. I do like the Cherry flavor quite a bit, the mango not as much and I will be trying some others soon, I think the lemon lime and the orange!

My flavorings do come with an interesting story as does most of my life, everything is better with  a story isn't it? I called the company and asked about the product, as I found the website a bit confusing and couldn't understand how a sugar free product could also have dextrose in it (sugar!).  After discussion I placed an order for two bottles of flavorings, one mango and one cherry, I was to get the ones sweetened with erythritol, not the one with dextrose. I received my order and was disappointed to see they had dextrose in them and quite a bit more calories than I wanted. They were an excellent post training drink, but that is not what I wanted.


I emailed them that evening and the very next day I got a call from Richard, a very patient fellow at SeelecT. I explained my dilemma and he apologized and said to keep the bottles he would send some new ones out right away, the ones I thought I was getting. He would send them for free due to the mix-up.


I soon received four containers of powder, the ones you see above.


Richard even called me back a short while later to ask what I thought, did I like the product? I do, I do! I told him I would call and let him know and I will after I post this, just so he can see it too.


The directions on the BCAA's say one serving is 5 grams, but Roy has advised that I have 20 grams per serving, this is based on my bodyweight per Charles Poliquin. Here is his  article if you would like to read a bit more about them. 


So I use 20 grams and my flavorings during my training. Often I train twice a day so on the days I am conditioning only (as opposed to weight training) I will use 5 grams only, then later during lifting I use the 20 grams.


I have seen great results in the last couple months, and there may be a few factors that have contributed to my results, but I believe this is one of them.  Exactly what results am I talking about anyway? My weight is fairly high, yet my bodyfat low, I look pretty darn lean for where I am. I believe that I have been able to add lean mass as opposed to just "mass", meaning fat mass. 


If you plan on ordering any flavorings, you may wish to call the good folks at SeelecT, as I still find their site a bit confusing and don't want to get the sweetened version again in error!