Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy

[Ramstein II]

Progressive Fatigue Training

This addresses a method of inducing sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. First, this must be viewed in light of the bigger picture. This is phase I of a growth period (bulking). This Growth Period is the precursor to the Cutting Period. Obviously, cals should be high. A little more on that later.

The Growth Periodization (The bigger picture):

4 day split hitting each major muscle group twice a week. 3 week sarcoplasmic hypertrophy period characterized by progressive fatigue training. 1 week decompensation and active rest period consisting of 1 full body workout with low volume (1 exercise, 1 set of 8 per body part). 3 week sarcomere hypertrophy with progressive loading followed by 1 week decomp and rest as before.

So, you see where it fits in. The 4th week decomp phase takes into account the duel factor fitness fatigue phenom of 4th week weakness. (Read thread above on 2 factor training).


The Reason:

Why should you concern yourself with sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Simple: 1. It’s a great source of rapid growth 2. It avoids “irrational hypertrophy” and 3. It is actually functional in that it increases anaerobic endurance. As you know, sarcoplasmic hypetrophy is the increase in the non-contracting part of the muscle ie. its fluid (cytoplasm), glycogen, ATP, Creatine Phosphate stores, and increase in mitochondria and vascular network. This is a fatigue induced adaptation, versus sarcomere hypertrophy which is more progressive load produced.

It’s not nec. To go into the nitty gritty of how this works, but basically by doing low intensity (ie. 60-75% 1 rep max weight) for high volume you induce fatigue in the fast twitch muscle fibers (IIA and IIB). This depletes them of their energy source for anaerobic precesses, such as glycogen, ATP, and CP. This causes the adaptation of swelling the muscle with more of these things and the machinery for using them, such as mitochrondria and vascular network. This is a pleasing “swelling” for a bodybuilder. This is a supercompensation process.

It plays an important role in sarcomere hypertrophy (the kind that makes you stronger by increasing the contractile elements of the muscle) because this added machinery must be in place to fuel protein synthesis. If you don’t do it, you’ll get “irrational hypertrophy” where your body “wants” to get stronger, but it lacks the muscle cell machinery to do it. You might call this a “plateau.”

The How To:

So, do it. Here’s how I do it. There are other ways, such as german volume training. Like I said, this is fatigue induced and a supercompensation process using mainly glucose and protein. So, I pick out a 4 day split that hits each body part 2x weekly. During this phase, progressive fatigue and endurance with the right load is the key, not progressive loading. You’ll get stronger too, so some progressive loading will occur. That’s fine. But, I don’t “go heavy” during this phase. AND DON’T TRAIN TO FAILURE AT ALL. You can’t use this volume if you zap your CNS with that bullshit. Your goal is to use 60-75% of your 1 rep max on all lifts. This is a weight you could probably do 12-15 times if your life depended on it. Only do it 10 reps per set. The strategy is to increase volume and decrease rest time between sets until you’re doing this weight for 20 sets for large muscles (chest, back, and quads) with 1 minute rests and 12 sets for biceps, triceps, shoulders, and calves with 30 second rests. You build up to that. That’s why it is “progressive fatigue.” That sounds like a lot. It is. But the sets are not as hard because you’re cutting them short of failure.

DIET

The diet to follow during this is definitely high carb and high protein. Fat should be minimal and should be clean (ie. fish fat and monunsat. Preferably at night only). I keep a steady stream of carbs and clean easy digest protein all day long. This keep insulin high which shuttles this good stuff into your supercompensating muscles. This is anabolic as hell. I do not go low carb when I train like this or I WILL metabolize muscle and WILL NOT GROW. I eat slow absorb carbs during the day (oatmeal is best) and quick carbs after I train. ( I avoid frutcose and sugar.. I use glucose or highly processed starch, such as unsweetened breakfast cereal which is like eating pure glucose) I eat 100 grams of simple carbs immediately after training with whey protein. Carbs (except fructose) will not be stored as fat if your muscle glycogen is depleted. Your body has a preference for storage of macronutrients that depends on certain body conditions. Most of the carbs I eat in this phase will be stored in the swelling muscle and used to fuel the supercompensation. Of course, there is a point where you can over do it.

Thought I’d share this idea.

 

[Primo Max]

Could you give an example of what each day in the gym might look like when doing this. Would it be similar to DFHT with two upper body and two lower body days.

 

[Ramstein II]

Let me modify a bit. The split could be a 3 day split (e.g. push, pull, legs etc..) over 5 days a week or a 2 day over a 4 day week (upper body, lower body or torso, limbs or whatever you like). Exercise selection is important. This is where less-taxing compound and iso moves come into play. These are important because they accomplish the task of fatiguing the target muscle and burning out anaerobic fuels (glycogen, ATP, creatine phosphate) without the CNS drain that massive compound movements cause. These iso and less taxing compounds aren’t great for sarcomere hypertrophy because of their low loading potential, but are useful for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Thus, 1/4 to of the sets can come from these.

I like to keep the meat and potato lifts the same but pick whatever I feel like doing when I go the gym for the rest. For example, for chest Incline bench and flat bench will remain but I might pick 2 more exercises to get the volume up there, such as incline flyes and cable cross overs. I know, these are wuss exercises, but they accomplish the task without killing my CNS. That’s why bodybuilders do them. Legs–squats stay, leg press, leg extension and other lesser exercises get added. You don’t want to do 20 sets of squats or bench press right? Back will keep the chins and rows but pulldowns, t-bar (with support) and other lesser back exercises will be added to get the volume.

Here’s how the progressive fatigue works: Simply add sets every week or every workout. You have 6 workouts in this phase per bodypart. You can simply add 2 sets every time to arrive at the maximum number sets by the end of the 3 weeks starting at the appropriate volume. For example, if 20 sets will be your max volume, do 10, 12, 14, 16 sets etc... until you get to 20 sets. Or you could do 12 your first week, 16 your second week and 20 your third week. However you like.

The time between sets is important. The object is to not let your muscles recover. Remember, after about 2 minutes your muscles are almost completely recovered to work again. Keep it short. 1 minute rest only gets you about 3/4 recovered on large muscles and 30 seconds will do the same for small muscles. It is this fatigue that gives your body a reason to change by adding mitochondria, increasing blood supply, and storing more cytoplasm and other goodies for future use. You may find yourself doing something like 10 reps, 8, 6, 6, 4 with the same weight– a weight that you could o 12-15 times if you were rested. That’s good. You’ll find that you might be able to do something like 10-9-8-8-6 later. That shows an increase in anaerobic endurance. That’s what you’re looking for.

ONe other thing. There is no magic to 20 sets versus 15 etc... these are just volumes that I found work for me. They may be way too much for others. Someone else may need to progress UP to doing 12 sets for bodypart or may need to hit each bodypart 1 time a week. You have to know your body's capacity.

 

[Freddy]

One of the biggest drawbacks to sarcoplasmic is how quickly the "swelling" subsides. In many cases, in just a few hours.

To get a constant effect, you pretty much have to do what the 70s "classic" bodybuilders did, which is train 2-3 times a day, every day of the week.

I think this works, hell, it certainly worked well enough for them, there is no arguing with that. And as Hogg has pointed out, it was a crude form of dual factor training in its own right. As long as load is manipulated smartly, it can definitely work. I'm just not sure its feasible to workout like that unless you get paid to bodybuild...or you're a college student with only a few classes and no desire to social much...hehe.