Okay, just wanted to see if I could get some thoughts on this. Everyone is always talking about building functional mass. However, at the same time, I’ve read a lot of folks (on here) suffering from ailments such as torn pecs and so on.
Would it not make sense to spend some time doing higher rep work to build mass once in a while, even though it is going to be non-functional, if only to help protect against injuries? Is sarcoplasmic hypertrophy the bastard child of weightlifting these days? Is it only for beginners?
sarcoplasmic hypertrophy can be good for tendon strength and should be used to bring lagging body and to develop and minimize the risk of injury to certain body part such as hamstrings and shoulders which are oftenly exposed to injuries.
I also think hypertrophy can be “functional” in a way. Example: a powerlifter can build mass in his chest to decrease the range of motion for his bench press.
Hypertrohpy definitely has it’s place in strength and athletic training. Anything that prevents injuries is important.
What is sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and how would you train for it, since Im coming off of bad bicep tendonitis, maybe it can be good for me to strengthen my tendons.
Jreed, I don’t know if it would help or not, but basically it is lower weights at higher reps. Do a search on this site or on Google and you’ll find it mentioned quit a bit.
[quote]jreed212 wrote:
What is sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and how would you train for it, since Im coming off of bad bicep tendonitis, maybe it can be good for me to strengthen my tendons.[/quote]
Focus on eccentric part for your problem. I think CT went over it somewhere, probably in his books. Moderate weights at high reps (12) or something like that.
As DeFranco has stated, “a bigger muscle has the potential to become a stronger muscle.”
Thus the reason you should train for maximal strength, but also for muscle mass gain. He does this through his “repetition” days with his Westside template.
Remember, the difference between just getting strong and getting strong and big, is volume.
Look at what CW has written in “The Single’s Club” and ABBH. Both programs use heavy weights, low reps, but high volume to cause an increase in size and strength.
[quote]vroom wrote:
Everyone is always talking about building functional mass. However, at the same time, I’ve read a lot of folks (on here) suffering from ailments such as torn pecs and so on.[/quote]
Do you have a direct reference on sarcoplasmic hypertrophy’s relevance to this? I’ve never seen anything that says this sort of muscle tissue helps protect against injury; it makes a certain degree of sense, so I don’t dismiss the idea out of hand, but I’d like to see more information on it.
If this is really the case, maybe it would be productive to superset opposing muscle groups in three-two groups – 6-8 pull, 12-15 push, 6-8 pull, 12-15 push, 6-8 pull; 60-90s rest; then 6-8 push, 12-15 pull, etc.
CDarklock, I did some looking, but did not find anything scientific in this regard. Some of the interesting things I ran across included:
Rational vs Irrational Hypertrophy
It appears that you can get to a point where you don’t have enough sarcoplasmic materials to support growth of new muscle.
Connective Tissues (4 parts)
Connective tissues don’t have the same level of blood supply so can adapt more slowly than some other tissues. They could possibly be outpaced and become at risk.
[quote]xomegaxprimex wrote:
sarcoplasmic hypertrophy can be good for tendon strength and should be used to bring lagging body and to develop and minimize the risk of injury to certain body part such as hamstrings and shoulders which are oftenly exposed to injuries.[/quote]
This confuses me. I thought that tendons generally had the capacity to bear far more weight than muscles, and that the best way to strengthen was to load them maximally (heavy partials for lifters, swings on rings and bars for gymnasts). Am I off base?