SS 154 – Training for Gains (aka-Hypertrophy)
Episode 154 Show Notes
Grant and Heavey discuss which is the best training program for muscle growth. Is there a rule of thumb to achieve this? Are there multiple variables to consider? They also touch on some ways to drink scotch to help you pick out the flavor and appreciate it even more.
[02:40] We Want Scotch!
Heavey reads a review from a listener which was posted back in August, and they’re asking for more Strength & Scotch reviews. The listener actually started drinking scotch because of the show, and now his liquor cabinet is empty. As a result, he rated the show with four stars.
Admittedly, Grant and Heavey were buying a lot of new scotch when they started the show. They talked about it every week. For the past couple of years since Heavey moved, it has been harder for them to buy the same scotch, sit down, drink, and review.
Thanks to the listener’s review, they realize they need to be more proactive now with scotch. They actually thought talking about scotch was nonsense until people validated how they would like to listen to more about the topic.
Grant supports Heavey’s predicament of him moving away making it harder for them to really discuss this. Good news! Heavey is going to be living with Grant for a couple of months soon. And better yet, Grant kept a bunch of special bottles which will be up for review!
[04:47] Hit Us Up, We’ll Answer Questions
Meanwhile, if you have any questions related to scotch or booze, Grant would be happy to answer those for you. Shoot them an email at [email protected] or [email protected] or hit them up on Facebook @strengthandscotch.
Listeners can definitely give them suggestions. However, they’re at a point now where the only ones they haven’t reviewed are either really expensive or really hard to find.
Anyway, point taken. Stay tuned for some scotch reviews soon!
[05:51] How to Drink Whiskey: Drink and Chew
Heavey reads an article from Lifehacker called, “Everything You Need to Know to Get Started Drinking Scotch Whiskey,” which discussed things like putting water in your whiskey to open up the flavor and the color of whiskey. The thing that stuck out the most for him is the section on how to drink the whiskey. It says that to drink it, the guy recommends putting a little bit in your mouth and then chew.
Grant adds this is actually also recommended not only for whiskey tasting but also for wine tasting. Heavey has never heard of this, but after having read this, he tried it and indeed, he noticed the difference. He tasted the depth of it so much more. There was so much more complexity to the whiskey when he chewed it.
The article explains that the reason for this is that the tongue has different receptors for sweet, citrus, and sour at the front, back and the side of your tongue. If you give it a chew for 5-10 seconds, this allows your tongue to truly appreciate the different flavors. This is exactly what Heavey has experienced. He further describes it as these different notes coming over time, rather than just a nice whiskey flavor he normally appreciates.
[08:23] Rub and Smell
Another thing Grant had heard before is that chewing is better for wine than for whiskey because the higher alcohol content of whiskey hits your tongue and can actually burn it. It affects those taste receptors. If you let it sit in your mouth then maybe you’re not tasting quite as much as your nose would normally smell it.
Another peculiar tip he read is that if you’re not picking up the taste, put some whiskey on your hand. Rub it really good and then smell it.
[12:00] Training for Muscle Growth: The Conventional Wisdom
Heavey mentions that the conventional wisdom is that if you want to focus on strength, do sets in the 3-5 rep range. If you’re looking to build muscle, work in 6-12 rep range. And if you’re building endurance, do the 15+ rep range. Funny enough, the latest is the range that most magazines talk about what you need to do when you want to get toned. Heavey thinks this is silly advice for getting toned.
That said, hypertrophy rep range is 6-12. Whether or not this is accurate, there’s a lot of research behind that. Heavey adds that “sets” isn’t the only training variable that affects muscle growth. And so today, they tackle all the other important variables.
[14:15] Sets versus Volume
If you base it on the research, Heavey says that pretty much, any set range can be used to build muscle. In the 6-12 rep range, there’s not really that much special to it. You could develop and build muscle with 20 reps or do it in three.
From a research standpoint, it’s more important to be tracking volume. Volume is the number of set times reps that you’re performing on any given day.
For example, if you do 6-12 reps and you do one set of that, then you’ve only done 6-12 reps of that movement for the day. However, if you do three sets of it, then you’ve done 18-36. With that said, the effect of that difference should be large. You’re doing three times as much work so you’d expect a difference in the results with an increase of volume.
Heavey points out that multi-set programs with increase in volume tend to be best. A pretty good set of research apparently backs up the 40-70 rep range per movement per workout session. That may be in the form of 4 sets of 10 or 10 sets of 7. In one particular study he was reading, it showed that it produced 50% greater muscle growth, specifically in the biceps area.
The interesting thing about it is that the 40-70 rep range was 50% greater than the group doing more than 70 reps. That said, there’s no linear-dose response where you’re seeing more reps equals more gain.
[17:00] Muscle Endurance and Timing for Muscle Growth
Muscle endurance is the body’s capacity to make muscular contractions aerobic. If you’re in crossfit and doing wall balls, you might do 30 at a fast pace, which leads to muscle breakdown. Whereas spacing them out a little bit more allows you to do more reps. It’s because you’re making that movement more aerobic, training those higher rep ranges enables you to do just that.
A number of research have been done on rest intervals. Say you’re doing 5×5 squats, you’re doing 5 reps. Wait, then do your second set of 5 reps. How long should you wait between those two sets? Heavey cites most of the research point to at least two minutes. The principle behind that is that it enables you to recover so you can push harder and do more volume. At the end of the day, we want that 40-70 reps volume to stimulate muscle growth optimally.
However, there are different types of muscle growth. One type that is stimulated metabolically benefits from taking shorter rest intervals, particularly in the 60-90-second range.
[19:22] Mix It Up!
Heavey’s point is there is no golden rule. A good baseline approach would be working in the 40-70 rep range and taking about two plus minutes between sets. Occasionally, you have to mix it up. It’s the changes and novelty to your training that can further stimulate growth. Maybe after 4-5 weeks, you do higher reps with shorter rest period.
Again, if we’re doing 40-70 reps, maybe for a while you’re doing 4 reps of 10 sets and then over time, you flip that in your next block and do 10 reps in 4 sets. The point is that having variety is important. There are guidelines we can work through structurally but being dynamic and changing things up is going to help stimulate muscle growth.
[21:21] Tempo Training
Moreover, take a look at tempos and try to understand how those affect hypertrophy and muscle growth. Listen to Episode 5 to know more about tempo training.
Heavey says most of the research tends to indicate that anything over ten seconds for time under tension is not helpful. Time under tension is the amount of time per rep – this includes the lowering and the pause that you do, the raising, and then the rest between the next rep. All of this should be under ten seconds.
If you’re talking about optimal, you’d probably want somewhere between 1-3 seconds per eccentric and concentric muscle action. With the squat, you can take 1-3 seconds to lower and then 1-3 seconds to raise. That’s going to be best. Slowing it down and working to that upper end of the range can be helpful in both in eccentric and concentric muscle actions for improving hypertrophy.
Again, Heavey points out to not just pick one thing and do that forever or else you’ll adapt and won’t progress anymore. It’s an important variable to know that you make some modifications to see growth when you stick to that 1-3 second range.
[23:07] When to Switch It Up
As to how often you should switch up, this depends on your experience and how long you’ve been lifting.
For beginners, pretty much everything works. It’s best for beginners to stick to the same type of movements to focus on technique and improve consistency in those movements.
As you progress, modifying these training variables in your session becomes more important. This would be about starting a year after you’ve been training consistently.
However, there is no rule of thumb for this. Theoretically, you could change what you’re doing every session and that could work or do it on a block by block basis – like do a four-week block where you’re doing one second lower and one second raising. Then in the next four-week block, do a three-second lowering and three-second raising. Then mix it up like that. That being said, it really comes down to how you want to diversify your training.
[25:07] The Training Split versus Full Body Training
That standard bodybuilder program is the training split where you do chest on one day and then legs on another day and then back on another day. That would be considered more of a traditional bodybuilding split.
These splits can be beneficial because they allow you to do more volume per muscle group. For instance, if you’re doing a chest day, all of your exercises are devoted to chest on that particular day. Then you’re getting more reps on your chest as opposed to doing a full body day where you’re spreading those out throughout the day.
But if you’re doing a full body day, it’s nice because you’re getting higher training frequency per muscle group. If you’re doing it every session, you’re training your muscles every session.
Whereas when you do a back day one day a week then your back is only getting exercised one day per week. What Heavey likes to use for people is to use this as a variable to mix up in your training block. So in one block, do a split focused one muscle group for each session for four weeks. And then in the next block, transition over to a full body program on a daily basis. Again, the key is to modify those things as both can be beneficial as research suggests. That said, mixing it up is going to be the best approach for long term gains.
[27:12] What Heavey Recommends for Beginners
In summary, you’re best off starting a program four or five days per week. Perform 40-70 reps per movement in those sessions. If you’re a beginner, do full body sessions. If you’re intermediate to advanced, mix it up and do a couple days full body and a couple days split muscle groups. Take about two minutes per rest between sets and keep your muscle actions of eccentric and concentric to between 1-3 seconds.
If you do that and focus on full range of motion movements, you’re going to be in great shape for building muscle.
You can even get fancy and add things like cluster training, which has also been shown to improve muscle growth. Look at intensity at that point, what percentage of your one rep you should be doing.
[29:20] Muscle Growth versus Strength
Another topic that is in the plan for a future episode is how not to confuse muscle growth and hypertrophy with strength. They’re not the same thing.
A good example would be people in weight class sports like combat sports. Making weight and being as optimally strong for their weight as possible is their ideal scenario. They have their training focused on building strength and maximizing the potential of the muscle they’ve got; not on building more muscle.
If you compare the strongest powerlifters in the world to the sexiest bodybuilders in the world, there’s a difference. The biggest bodybuilders are not the most strongest powerlifters. That’s because strength and muscle definition are not the same thing.
[30:26] How to Be Lean and Mean
Heavey says building muscle mass can be very beneficial for getting lean. It’s a more metabolically active tissue so it increases the body’s basal metabolic rate. If you’re trying to get lean, increase your muscle mass but not to an extreme. Just train using say the ideal bodybuilder hypertrophy program but also take account the things discussed above to improve your muscle mass. This will then automatically help you reduce your fat mass. That said, the ability to adapt is what’s amazing about the human body.
[31:57] Check Out Heavey’s Tempo Program
Heavey recently put together a tempo program and if this is something you’re interested in, check it out on www.strengthandscotch.com/muscle.
Links:
Everything You Need to Know to Get Started Drinking Scotch Whiskey
Brain Zapping Helps U.S. Navy Seals Learn Faster
Strength and Scotch Episode 5: Get Strong with Tempo Training
www.strengthandscotch.com/muscle
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