To be honest, I’m not that familiar with neurotyping anymore. I took the course years ago. All the advice that I’m giving here on neurotyping are the things that I remembered from back then.
I am planning on revisiting the course once the new version is out. @Christian_Thibaudeau has mentioned a while back that he wants to redo all the courses in the future based on his current views and research updates.
@rillerill when it comes to hypertrophy, everything works but not everything works equally well for everybody.
mTor accentuated (so slower eccentric tempo with a pause in the hardest position → something like a 4210 tempo) tempo’s on the main lift and lactate/growth factor training (40-70 seconds TUT to increase hydrogen ions as much as possible) on assistance work and isolation movements works very well for people who are older, are more slow twitch dominant, have a weaker immune system, are prone to injuries or are dealing with lots of mental stress in their life. These hypertrophy pathways are the easiest to recover from.
Muscle damage and muscle fatigue (either in a set by doing HIT style training or in a workout by doing moderate-high volume somewhere between 18-25 sets) are the best pathways for younger individuals who recover well, are more fast twitch (fatigue in a set approach) dominant, have less mental stress and a strong immune system to repair muscle damage fast enough so there’s time left for growth before the next session.
Slow twitch dominant individuals also do well on the muscle fatigue in a workout approach by accumulating more reps per exercise, creating enough fatigue in the target muscles to stimulate hypertrophy.
Imo, each and every one of these pathways is being adressed in every session but you can target one or two of them more by manipulating your training variables.
As previously mentioned, when it comes to hypertrophy each and every one of these pathways works. The most important thing is to create enough mechanical tension and fatigue in the target muscle.
Neurotyping is important for adjusting training variables to match the recovery profile of a trainee but imo it’s more about motivation. Because usually everything starts and ends with motivation. The more motivated someone is about his training, usually the better the results will be because the trainee will have an easier time to be consistent with his progress in training.
With strictly hypertrophy in mind, a neurotype 1B should be mindful of decreasing the use of the stretch reflex. It’s OK to use the stretch reflex on the main lifts but assistance work should be done with slower, controlled tempo’s. Not superslow, just controlled, smooth rep speeds without a stretch reflex.
Why? Well, because the stretch reflex creates momentum and a loss of mechanical tension in the hardest part of the movement, leaving gains on the table.
An upper/lower split or a modified push/pull are splits that work really well for hypertrophy and type 1B’s in general. You could also opt for a full body workout 3 times a week where you train every other day to enhance recovery. With the full body approach you could even add a 4th workout that could be an athletic day: olympic lifts practice, jumping/throwing/bounding, conditioning work. The goal of the athletic day would be mostly oriented towards developing the energy systems.
When recovery is good, you could even add a 5th athletic day to your upper/lower or modified push/pull split but this is really pushing it in terms of frequency so you might need to lower the training volume per session a bit to allow for enough recovery in between sessions.
For strength work (usually between 4-8 reps on the main lift when hypertrophy is the goal), leave 2 reps in the tank on every set. Do a slower eccentric (something like a 30X0 or even 40X0 tempo) and explode up (the X means explode). Moving the weight as fast as you can on the concentric will increase high treshold motor unit recruitment (aka fast twitch muscle fibers)
For pure hypertrophy work (assistance work and isolation movements) leave 1-2 reps in the tank on every set and use controlled, smooth reps (2010 or even 2020 tempo). The goal is not to go fast but simply create as much mechanical tension as possible. You can use BB’s and DB’s but imo, machines and cables are superior in the assistance and isolation work department, again strictly with hypertrophy in mind. Why? Because you decrease the need for stabilization and can increase neural output to the working muscle(s). Assistance work should be anywhere between 6-10 reps and isolation work between 8-12 reps but you could go as high as 20 reps on some leg or shoulder isolation exercises.
As a firefighter, you already have an active/physically demanding job. The best training frequency for you would probably be 3-4 times a week. Especially when you do extra cardio on top of your training. If recovery is good and stress is really low, you could try working out 5 days a week but unless the training volume per session is really limited to 12 working sets I think the recovery curve will dip to low with this frequency.
Use 4-6 exercises per training session. 3-4 compound movements and 2-3 targeted isolation exercises for the muscles you want to develop the most. Use plenty of rest between sets of the main lifts (3 minutes or more) and 2-3 minutes of rest for the assistance work. 1-2 minutes is more than enough for isolation work.
If you love to run, do your runs 4-6 hours earlier/later than your training session when you decide to run on training days or do them on off days but no more than 2-3 x/week. Also, realize that you are giving your body a lot of different adaptation signals (increasing mitochondrial density, increasing the number of blood capillaries, increasing ST fibers (running), increasing FT fibers (training) so naturally the rate of hypertrophy adaptations might be slower.
If you have trouble gaining weight, simply eat more food. The real reason why people can’t gain muscle is because they don’t train hard enough (only a small percentage of people are actually training too hard but this is rare), train to often or don’t eat enough calories to support muscle growth. You need to be in a caloric surplus to gain weight and build muscle optimally.
Does the surplus needs to be huge? No, but it also depends on the person. Usually you’d want to gain somewhere between 0.5-1% of BW (measured in kilos, not pounds) per MONTH, not per week. Muscle building is a slow process, eating like a pig won’t speed up the process. Dirty bulking only works to add on slabs of fat, not muscle. So if you’re consistently training hard enough, sleeping well, have low stress and eating well but you’re not adding muscle/gaining weight, simply increase calories form carbs or fats a bit or reflect on whether the training parameters in your current program are actually working for you or against you. Try figuring out where the issue is by playing with the variables that have the biggest impact on your gains: volume, load and effort (how hard you push each set).
