When it comes to building muscle, there are very few training methodologies as effective as hypertrophy training. In reality, you can develop muscle in a top-secret D1 sports facility or by simply lugging your groceries up a five-story walkup. The issue is that most of us can’t dedicate hours a day to lifting weights in the gym, nor will basic tasks lead to significant gains.
We must approach muscle building strategically to balance family, career, and busy schedules. This is where hypertrophy training comes in. If your goal is to build muscle mass in a systematic, measurable, and efficient way. Let’s take a closer look at how this training can make that happen.
What is Hypertrophy Training?
The primary goal of hypertrophy training is to build muscle by increasing the diameter of muscle fibers. Growth through hypertrophy increases muscle mass, volume, size, and cross-sectional area.
While it’s a favorite of bodybuilders and aesthetic lifters, don’t assume this exercise is geared only towards these groups. Hypertrophy training isn’t just for individuals that need to look good. It serves a host of functional purposes in both life and athletic performance.
Is Hypertrophy Better than Strength Training?
Like anything, one type of exercise may not be right for everybody. The best form of training comes down to your goals and how you want to prioritize them. Hypertrophy emphasizes muscle growth more than strength gains (your ability to exert force).
Keep in mind that there is an overlap between these two training approaches. You will get stronger with hypertrophy training and increase muscle mass with strength training. It all comes down to your primary desired outcome. With that said, if you want to build muscle, hypertrophy training is the superior option.
Types of Hypertrophy
Two kinds of hypertrophy take place within the muscle fibers of your body. Each one achieves growth by affecting different portions of your muscles.
Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy
Sarcoplasm is the fluid around muscle cells. That fluid changes in size based on lactic acid tolerance. It’s sometimes referred to as “bodybuilding hypertrophy” because growing sarcoplasm is largely activated by the higher rep schemes found in bodybuilding.
Myofibrillar Hypertrophy
Often seen as the more strength-oriented, sport-focused of the two, myofibrillar hypertrophy occurs when the actual muscle fibers become thicker and stronger. Traditionally more difficult to sustain than its sarcoplasmic partner, it is the form of hypertrophy that many powerlifters and explosive athletes tend to prioritize.
How Sarcoplasmic and Myofibrillar Hypertrophy Build Muscle
To help give you a clearer idea of what this looks like, picture a large plastic bag filled with blown-up balloons. The bag represents a cross-section of your muscle. The balloons are the myofibrils (muscle fibers), and the space between them is the sarcoplasm.
To increase the size of your plastic bag (muscle), you can either expand the space between the balloons (sarcoplasm) or increase the size of the balloons (muscle fibers).
To increase the space in your plastic bag between the balloons (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy), you will need to blow more air into the bag. For this example, you are going to be using your lungs. Filling up the plastic bag will take more breaths (reps). While each breath isn’t hard to get into the bag, you will start to feel the burn due to the high number required.
Your other option is to increase the size of the balloons in your bag (myofibrillar hypertrophy). While requiring fewer breaths per balloon, your level of exertion/force to get the air into the balloon will be greater.
Both methods increase the size of your bag (muscle), but each requires a different force and volume level. The same is true regarding what form of hypertrophy you want to prioritize. How many reps to build muscle will largely depend on your desired outcomes.
How Many Reps to Build Muscle
As a general rule of thumb, sarcoplasmic-centric hypertrophy will fall within 6-12 reps at 70 percent of your one-rep max (1RM). Regarding myofibrillar hypertrophy, 6-8 reps at 75-85 percent of your one-rep max will put you in a good range.
Another important factor besides how many reps you perform is your time under tension or how long it takes you to complete the entire set. For 6-8 reps, shoot for 20-40 seconds to complete your set. Rep ranges of 6-12 should wrap up around the 60-70 second mark.
This is where getting specific about your goals becomes increasingly important. While you’ll experience both forms of hypertrophy in any muscle-building workout, what movements and rep ranges you select will determine which one gets prioritized. This choice comes down to what you will use the increased muscle mass for.
Let’s say, for example, that your goal was primarily aesthetic. In this situation, your priority is more about maximal muscle size and less on your ability to deadlift a heavy object. In this case, you may opt for the higher rep, lower weight sarcoplasmic hypertrophy instead of the more taxing, stress-inducing myofibrillar hypertrophy.
We’ll go into specific examples of each kind of hypertrophy workout but before we do, let’s look at one other important factor in implementing hypertrophy training correctly.
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In other news – Muscle Recovery Techniques for Athletes
If you’ve ever been sore after a tough workout, odds are you sought out ways to speed up the recovery process in order to alleviate your soreness. In order to understand how you can do that, you first have to understand what recovery is.
Once we get that out of the way, we can cover a handful of scientifically validated muscle recovery techniques. Let’s get started. Learn more
