Training: “Sun’s out Guns out”

By Ed Parker

“Sun’s out Guns out”- The basic principles of Hypertrophy training.

 

Okay, so the sun has started to peak its head out from behind the clouds, women and men alike are beginning to bring out the summer wardrobe and that beach holiday is getting ever closer. You’re booked in to have your teeth whitened and a new coat of tan applied to your porcelain skin. So all that’s left to do is lean up and build up. So how are we going to do this? By putting a muscle building or hypertrophy phase into our workout routine, or “Project douchebag” as one of my clients and I have named it. So here are the 5 basic principles of hypertrophytraining:

 

1.

Volume. This is the repetitions and sets that you will doing. There is an inverse relationship between these. So with any program the higher the rep range the lower the number of sets you will be doing and vice versa. With hypertrophy training you want to be working in that 8-15 rep range. Any less than 8 and you are moving more into a strength phase, any more that 12-15 and the intensity will not be enough to stimulate muscle growth (therefore be more akin to muscular endurance training). The number of sets should be low to moderate in order to balance with your rep range, generally between 3-4 sets.

 

2.

Intensity. Intensity can be defined in a number of ways, but for the sake of this article we are defining intensity as the amount of weight you are going to be lifting. Intensity also has an inverse relationship with volume. If your intensity is high then the volume will go down and if the intensity is low then the volume will increase. For hypertrophy training we want enough volume and intensity to promote muscle growth. In general terms this should be about 70% of your one rep max. If you, like most people, don’t know your 1RM then the best way to gauge it is by trying the weight. If it is too hard to move the weight with good technique over 8 reps then it is too heavy, if you can move the weight comfortably over one set for more than 12-15 reps then it is probably too light.

 

 

3.

Rest. Okay time for another inverse relationship. This time between intensity and rest. The higher your intensity the greater the amount of rest you should have between sets and vice versa. When working in a hypertrophy program your intensity is moderate and so your rest period should be low-moderate in order to initiate the best muscular response (growth). So about 60 seconds (sometimes a little more sometimes a little less depending on your goals).

 

4.

Tempo. So this is the speed you move the weight. An essential part of muscle building is, ”time under tension”, how much time are you putting your muscular system under load through the eccentric (muscle lengthening) and concentric (muscle shortening/contraction) phase of the movement. For optimum muscle building response you should be looking for a 303 tempo (3second eccentric/3 second concentric).

 

5.

Frequency. How often should you train each body part? This depends on how your program is split. For beginners you should probably work a split program where one program is predominantly upper body and the other is lower body. Now ideally each program should be done twice per week working two days in a row(upper then lower body) followed by a rest day, then repeat.

 

Finally.

This sort of training is not for the faint hearted and requires a balance of good technique, high motivation (both physically and mentally) and a clean high protein diet.

 

These are merely the basic principles, there are numerous other factors that will assist or inhibit muscle growth, e.g. stress, poor nutrition, lack of rest, etc. For more information consult your trainer or watch this space.

 

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Elliott Hulse, for his constant stream of information that assisted in the making of this article.