Muscle growth: training philosophy and techniques
Muscle growth doesn’t happen by chance. Behind it are three specific stimuli: muscle tension, total training volume and fatigue. The most important of these is progressively increasing tension — it delivers lasting results. Fatigue produces a quick effect, but it fades just as quickly. In this article we look at what actually makes muscles grow and how to structure your training so that gains keep coming.
What kicks off muscle growth?
The main stimulus is progressively increasing muscle tension. Fatigue-related factors account for about 10% of overall development. The rest comes from how much resistance the muscle is forced to endure and how much volume you do with it.
To create maximal tension in a muscle, you need to recruit as many motor units as possible. A motor unit is one large nerve and all the muscle fibers that nerve innervates in the muscle. There are two ways to do this:
- Lift a weight that is 80% or more of your maximum. Such a weight exceeds the excitation threshold of practically all muscle fibers and puts them to work. For example, lifting 80% of your max 5 times.
- Lift a light weight, but with muscles that are already fatigued. The weight feels heavy to the muscle even though the bar is lighter. For example, 50% of your max with very short rest intervals — soon it feels to the muscle the same as a heavy weight.
In reality, every time you give a maximal effort, most of the muscle’s fibers are engaged. That is what tension is. Muscles don’t know how much weight is on the bar — they simply work. Depending on the phase of the set (beginning, middle or end), the tension in them increases.
Hypertrophy is not necessarily induced by the absolute size of the weight, but by the “feel” the muscles perceive during the lift. 60% of your max in a fatigued state can create the same tension as 85% when fresh — and the result is hypertrophy as well.
Tension and fatigue — two sources of muscle growth
There is a difference between lifting a light weight in a fatigued state and lifting a genuinely heavy weight. The main difference: a heavy weight recruits high-threshold fast-twitch fibers sooner and induces considerably more eccentric microtrauma in the lowering phase. It is precisely this microtrauma that is the main stimulus for the growth and synthesis of myofibrillar muscle proteins.
Lifting a light weight in a fatigued state (high rep count) produces growth mainly through an increase in sarcoplasmic volume — the amount of glycogen in the sarcoplasm rises. That is growth too, but different in nature. Moreover, this approach generates general fatigue — it taxes the central nervous system more than many people think.
Strength gains and getting stronger are tied specifically to regularly increasing muscle tension. The “pump” effect and long sets influence muscle growth through fatigue and overall training volume. The heavier the weight you lift with a given muscle, the more tension that muscle endures. The muscle’s microstructures get damaged, recover and rebuild bigger — so that next time they can handle that tension better.
The “pump” effect
The greater the training volume and the resulting fatigue in the muscle (mainly caused by oxygen deficit and depleted glycogen stores), the stronger the “pump” effect. Long sets, drop sets, holds, supersets — all of these are high-volume and trigger extensive fatigue. Many of Weider’s training principles contain precisely these methods.
Total training volume and rep count
Total training volume refers to the entire time the muscle is under tension during a workout and the weight it was under. A simple formula:
Total training volume = sets × repetitions × weight
Put simply: it is the total rep count per body part in a workout and the weight lifted with those reps. How important is it? Obviously important — otherwise two one-second contractions per week would be enough for muscle growth. That is certainly not the case.
Training volume can be increased in two ways:
- increase the weight lifted in a set with a fixed rep count (intensity)
- do more and more reps per set with the same weight
Keeping the rep count constant in training and gradually increasing the weight at each following workout has produced very positive hypertrophy results. Stretching out the set with the same weight — today you press 60 kg for 2 × 8, at the next workout already 2 × 9 — affects the muscle cell’s metabolism and endurance, but doesn’t build mass as well.
If the goal is lasting muscle mass, train with a constant rep count (for example, 3 × 8) and increase the weight of those sets bit by bit. That is the key to muscle growth.
How much training volume is enough?
Both research and practice seem to indicate that 25–50 repetitions per body part twice a week is enough. That adds up to 50–100 repetitions per muscle or body part per week. This training volume also fits well with the principles of dual training theory.
Go beyond 50–100 repetitions a week and many people may run into problems with recovery. What matters is that you secure this optimal volume and don’t start wildly exceeding that limit “in search of something new”. The volume most bodybuilders already train with (at least 4 × 8 per body part twice a week) covers the minimum requirements. Too little volume is a rare problem in practice.
What is the ideal rep range?
Whether your goal is strength or more mass, both one-rep sets and 20-rep sets work. Both deliver results. Keep in mind that the total rep count per workout matters too.
Once the rep count per workout is settled, heavy weights stimulate more growth — but the number of sets has to be correspondingly higher. For example, if your total volume is 24–25 repetitions per body part, you can choose 8 × 3, 3 × 8 or 5 × 5 (and different variations of these). The weights are set, and you add a small increase at every workout. In many cases the quadriceps responds positively to a very wide rep range (5–20 repetitions per set).
Tension vs fatigue — which gives you lasting muscle growth?
If you make your muscles grow through progressively heavier weights and the tension that results, the outcome may take a little longer. But what you gain, you keep. For a long time.
Muscle growth that comes mainly from fatigue (growth based on the “pump” theory) does show up faster, but it also tends to disappear quickly. Put simply: it takes somewhat longer to trigger myofibrillar hypertrophy than sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, but the former lasts significantly longer once the training load is gone.
Adaptation to tension vs fatigue
A muscle adapts to steadily increasing tension by storing more and more protein in its working structures — the myofibrils. The myofibrils thicken, new ones are added, and they get better at withstanding ever-increasing tension. Let’s not confuse muscle fibers with myofibrils — they are not the same thing.
Long sets are fatiguing for a muscle. The longer the set, the more the muscle adapts to that very fatigue. The muscle’s response after every workout is to store a slightly larger amount of energy (mainly glycogen) so that it is ready for this kind of “fatiguing” work next time. This kind of glycogen supercompensation is actually very easy to stimulate — a single drop set triple is enough, and supercompensation is already under way.
Why does fatigue make muscles look so “big”?
Fatigue-induced muscle growth makes up perhaps only 5–10% of overall growth. Because glycogen supercompensation is easy to trigger and typical bodybuilding methods promote the “pump”, it gives the impression that adaptations driven by fatigue (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy) play a bigger role than they really do.
The classic “pump” effect comes from blood filling the muscle tissue. A muscle’s circumference can temporarily increase by as much as 20%. That is also why arms are always measured “pumped”, that is, after a workout — not cold, and not during a carbohydrate depletion period.
A practical example: if you have managed to add 23 kg of muscle mass, roughly 20 kg of it has come from increasing tension (adding weight over the course of training) and roughly 3 kg from fatigue-inducing work (long sets, “pump”-producing methods that have increased your muscle glycogen stores). The ratio is clear: lift heavier and you build more lasting mass.
Practical recommendations for muscle growth
- For each body part, choose a main exercise whose weight you can gradually increase. This is the backbone of your muscle growth.
- Keep the rep count constant (for example 3 × 8) and add weight bit by bit.
- Aim for 25–50 repetitions per body part per workout, twice a week — 50–100 repetitions a week in total.
- Don’t confuse “it feels heavy when I’m fatigued” with “a truly heavy bar”. Both work, but it’s the latter that gives you lasting mass.
- “Pump” methods (drop sets, supersets, short rest intervals) are suited as an extra stimulus, not as the main work.
- If recovery can’t keep up, cut volume before you cut weights.
FAQ
Can you build muscle mass with light weights too?
You can, if you take the set all the way to real fatigue — then the muscle feels tension similar to that of a heavy weight. Still, most of your “lasting” muscle mass comes from gradually increasing weight, not from fatigue alone.
How many times a week is it worth training each body part?
For most people, twice a week works well, for a total of 50–100 repetitions per body part. Beyond that, recovery starts to hold back progress for many.
Why does muscle “disappear” when training drops off?
The first part to go is the one that came from fatigue and glycogen supercompensation — sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. The myofibrillar part, which came from progressively heavier work, lasts significantly longer.
To be continued…
Translated by: Janar Rückenberg
Source:Turg.Fitness.ee
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