Strength before size?
Could building strength first help you build more muscle later?
A new study by Carvalho et al. explored this.
26 trained men were assigned to a hypertrophy or strength plus hypertrophy group.
Both groups trained 2X per week for 8 weeks, training the back squat and leg press each session.
The hypertrophy group trained each exercise with 4 sets of 8-12 reps to failure with 1 min of rest between sets.
The strength plus hypertrophy group, for the first 3 weeks, trained each exercise with 4 sets of 1-3 reps to failure with 3 mins of rest between sets. This was their strength phase.
For the last 5 weeks, they trained identically to the hypertrophy group. This was their hypertrophy phase.
Increases in 1RM on the back squat and leg press, at the 3rd week, and after the 8 weeks, was significantly greater for the strength plus hypertrophy group.
Vastus lateralis thickness increases at week 3 favored the hypertrophy group. However, by the end of the 8th week, increases were greater for the strength plus hypertrophy group.
What might explain these intriguing results?
The authors speculated using heavier weights in the hypertrophy phase meant the strength plus hypertrophy group experienced greater mechanical tension and thus muscle growth.
But, I'd argue this is unlikely.
Mechanical tension is currently the best-understood mechanism of hypertrophy. A large component of this is active tension. This is equal to the force generated by the contractile units of a muscle. Simply put, high levels of muscle fiber recruitment and force produced by those recruited muscle fibers would mean high levels of active tension.
When your effort is low, there are low numbers of muscle fiber recruitment and low force produced by the recruited muscle fibers. As your effort increases, increased muscle fiber recruitment and force produced by fibers occurs.
In the last 5 week, all subjects would have been exerting the same relative effort, they all used a load that enabled them to perform 8 to 12 reps to failure. So they all would have been experiencing high levels of active tension.
However, there is some research suggesting training with heavier loads results in neural adaptations that enable a person to experience greater muscle fiber recruitment and/or force produced by those recruited muscle fibers.
So, it's possible the strength plus hypertrophy group, in the last 5 weeks, despite training with the same relative effort, would have been able to recruit more muscle fibers and/or produce greater force with the recruited muscle fibers thanks to the neural adaptations from their previous strength phase.
But some evidence suggests that neural adaptations primarily occur in the early months of a person's training career, with little thereafter. Though, I have come across evidence indicating trained individuals can still experience neural adaptations, so it's not completely clear.
Let's explore the idea of resensitization.
Unfortunately, the authors of the study did not report how the subjects trained previously. But given the popularity of using 8-12 reps, it's possible they consistently trained with this rep range before this study.
Taking some time off from using 8-12 reps and training with 1-3 reps for a couple of weeks could resensitize an individual. Meaning that when the strength plus hypertrophy group returned to using 8-12 reps in their hypertrophy phase, they were more sensitive to this rep range and gained grew resultingly. But, I'm not aware of any strong evidence to support these claim.
Moving on, this is only one study.
There is research somewhat related that conflicts with this study.
Prestes et al. found that in trained women, linear periodization (progressing from 12-14 reps to 4-6 reps over 12 weeks) produced greater increases in fat free mass versus reverse linear peridizaiton (progressing from 4-6 reps to 12-14 reps)
The reverse linear group is slightly comparable to the strength plus hypertrophy group. In that they began with low reps and heavy weight and ended with more traditional hypertrophy training.
Now, skinfold calipers aren't the best measurement tool for muscle growth. Ultrasound, as was used in the Carvalho et al. study, is considered much more reliable,
Nonetheless, this study does slightly conflict with the Carvalho et al. study.
Looking at other research, if low rep training in a hypertrophy-oriented program improves muscle growth, we would expect alternating your rep ranges to produce greater hypertrophy than using only one rep range.
However, as we detailed in our last video, the research finds no difference between alternating rep ranges or using a constant rep range for hypertrophy.
Ultimately, more research that is identical or near identical to the Carvalho et al. study is required to fully understand is getting strong first helps build more muscle later.
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27 авг 2024