Here is another contribution which emerged from discussion on another user
group on the topic of hypertrophy and performance in sport. It began with
questions such as these:
<<Could you expand on the concept of hypertrophy for powerlifting? I had
thought that for relative strength hypertrophy was not that important. Not
all athletes are not bodybuilders. Is hypertrophy also important for Olympic
lifting, footballers and field athletes? Is significant hypertrophy important
for rehabilitation?
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OPTIMUM, NOT MAXIMUM, HYPERTROPHY
In both Olympic lifting and powerlifting, optimal and not maximal hypertrophy
is a central feature of the game, unlike bodybuilding where it does not matter
whether one is relatively weak or strong with reference to one's bodymass. All
that matters is well-defined, symmetrical muscle bulk in bodybuilding, but in
the lifting sports, your size and impressiveness of appearance earn you scant
respect - all that counts is what you lift.
Optimal hypertrophy means continuing to develop building muscle only as long
as that extra bulk continues to provide you with significant increases in
strength and power. If you add 10kg to your bodymass and your total increases
by only 5kg in a higher bodymass division, then your relative strength has
decreased and that added hypertrophy is wasted on you.
This is a serious problem in contact sports such as football where the common
belief is that virtually any form of added mass is good for the game
(especially defensive players), whereas in reality it would be a lot better if
the added bulk was mainly solid, functional muscle which added strength,
power, speed and agility.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF HYPERTROPHY
Research from Russia even suggests that there are two different types of
muscle hypertrophy: sarcomere hypertrophy (of the actual contractile
components) and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (of non-contractile proteins and
semifluid plasma between the muscle fibres), with the latter type of
hypertrophy being more in evidence in bodybuilding (Siff & Verkhoshansky
"Supertraining" 1998 Ch 1.12).
MUSCLE GROWTH & PERFORMANCE
To provide some more relevant information on this important and controversial
topic, I have included this fairly lengthy extract from "Supertraining" (pp
58-60) for those who may be interested:
Other research has found that hypertrophied muscle fibres need a significantly
larger tissue volume to perform a given amount of work. With the development
of non-functional muscle bulk (sarcoplasmic hypertrophy), the increase in
muscle mass outsrtips the development of the circulatory system, resulting in
decreased nutrition and oxygenation of the muscle, slowing down the metabolic
processes in the muscle and less efficient disposal of metabolic waste
products from the musculoskeletal system (Zalessky & Burkhanov Legkaya
Atletika 1981: 1-7).
Furthermore, adaptation occurs more slowly in connective tissue (such as
tendons and ligaments) than in muscle and any increased tension made possible
in the musculotendinous complexes by the increased muscle mass can cause
damage to these structures (Zalessky & Burkhanov, 1981). Thus, excessive
hypertrophy usually leads to slower muscle recovery after exercise,
deterioration in speed, speed-strength and speed, as well as an increased
incidence of injury.
THE ENERGY COSTS OF TOO MUCH HYPERTROPHY
This might suggest that all muscle fibre hypertrophy lowers work capacity.
Hypertrophy is an adaptive response to physical stress and does offer the
benefit of increased mitochondrial surface area, which provides for more
efficient energy processes than would an increased number of mitochondria.
With a rapid increase in loading, the size of the mitochondria continues to
increase markedly, but their number decreases and the concentration of ATP
drops, thereby diminishing the partial volume of the contractile myofibrils.
The resulting energy deficit soon inhibits the formation of new structures and
the decreased amount of ATP stimulates various destructive processes
associated with decrease in the number of myofibrils. This process is
referred to as irrational adaptation.
Growth of any living structure is related to the balance between its volume
and its surface area. When muscle hypertrophy occurs, the surface of the
fibres grows more slowly than their volume and, this imbalance causes the
fibres to disintegrate and restructure in a way which preserves their original
metabolic state (Nikituk & Samoilov, 1990).
It would appear that light and medium increases in loading require less
energy, facilitate cell repair, minimise the occurrence of destructive
processes and stimulate the synthesis of new, non-hypertrophied cellular
structures. Medium loads applied with a medium rate of increase in loading
produce intense muscular development, the process in this case being referred
to as rational adaptation..
The fact that conventional isometric training improves performance in static,
rather than dynamic, exercise may be due to the different structural effects
of isometric training on the muscle fibres, muscle cells, connective tissues
and blood capillaries.
MORE ON OPTIMAL HYPERTROPHY
This work seems to corroborate the hypothesis referred to earlier that there
may be an optimum size for muscle fibres undergoing hypertrophy (MacDougall et
al, 1982; Tesch & Larsson, 1982). The importance of prescribing resistance
training regimes which produce the optimal balance between hypertrophy and
specific strength then becomes obvious. Thus, it is not only prolonged
cardiovascular training which can be detrimental to the acquisition of
strength, but multiple fairly high repetition sets of heavy bodybuilding or
circuit training routines to the point of failure may also inhibit the
formation of contractile muscle fibres.
Therefore, it is vital to monitor regularly changes in muscular structure and
function alongside changes in size and mass. In most cases the taking of
biopsies is not possible or financially practical, so that indirect assessment
of the adaptive processes is necessary. Increase in hypertrophy of a given
muscle zone may be assessed from muscle girth and skinfold thicknesses at that
site, while factors such as relative strength, maximal strength and the
strength deficit (see Ch 1) serve as useful indicators of functional
efficiency.
INDISCRIMINATE WEIGHT TRAINING
Bosco (1982) cautions against the indiscriminate use of resistance training
that typifies much of the 'cross training' prescribed with weights and
circuits by Western personal trainers and coaches. He emphasizes that,
although heavy resistance training serves as a powerful stimulus for the
development and hypertrophy of both ST and FT fibres, the invaluable role
played by FT development can be impaired by the accompanying growth of ST
fibres, because the latter appear to provoke a damping effect on FT
contraction during fast movement.
This is due to the fact that, during high speed shortening of muscle, the
sliding velocity of ST fibres can be too slow and therefore, may exert a
significant damping effect on the overall muscle contraction. He concludes
that the central role played by the storage and release of elastic energy by
the connective tissues of the muscle complex should never be ignored in sport
specific training programmes.
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Dr Mel C Siff
Colorado, USA
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