Functional power production and "sarcoplasm".

[SMF]

I am sure many of has read this article and I do offer apologies if it has been posted here before. To avoid merely posting an article and offering no comments, I am especially curious as to where routines such as the famed “20 rep squats” fit into the picture when one considers “sarcoplasmic” versus “myofibrillar”. hypertrophy. Other points to consider IS THE ARTICLE A BUNCH OF SHITE? I would appreciate discussion of weight training for that which is all go and not all show. Thanks in advance, your local delusional arse.
http://www.dolfzine.com/page216.htm:

One day when you're in the gym, a freak of nature walks in. This guy has massively ripped muscles from head to toe. As you watch the specimen, he approaches the squat rack. You begin to get excited as he loads the bar in the squat rack. You are wondering how much this guy squats. He begins going through his warm-up sets. He starts with 135 and then 225. He puts 295 on the bar and begins his decent. Guess what? He is stuck at the bottom. The next day at the gym you notice a short chubby guy walk in that you have not seen before. You watch as he approaches the squat rack. He begins to go through his warm-up sets. He starts his warm-up sets with 135 then 225 and then 315. You are very suprised. This guy's physique development does not even come close to the level of the freak that was in the gym yesterday. This guy is now squatting 405 with ease. Eventually he moves up to 500lbs. for 3 reps. This is a common scenario. How do we explain the chubby guy squatting more than the lean muscular machine? The same way we would explain the comparison of powerlifters to bodybuilders. There is a noticeable difference in physique development. The bodybuilders show supreme muscular and physique development in comparison to the powerlifters; but powerlifters are usually stronger. There are numerous factors that contribute to the supreme strength displayed by the powerlifter. These factors include mechanical advantages such as limb length and tendon insertions. A higher rate of fast twitch muscle fibers and better neural efficiency can also contribute to the disparity of strength between the two athletes. In this article we will look at sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, and myofibrillar hypertrophy.

Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (common in bodybuilding) involves the growth of the sarcoplasm (fluid like substance) and non contractile proteins that do not directly contribute to muscular force production. Filament area density decreases while cross-sectional area increases, without a significant increase in strength. Myofibrillar hypertrophy occurs due to an increase in myosin-actin filaments. Contractile proteins are synthesized and filament density increases (Zatsiorsky 1995). This type of hypertrophy leads to increased strength production.
Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy Muscle fibers adapt to high volume training by increasing the number of mitochondria (organelles in the cell that are involved in ATP production) in the cell. This type of training also leads to the elevation of enzymes that are involved in glycolytic and oxidative pathways. The volume of sarcoplasmic fluid inside the cell and between the cells are increased with high volume training.
This type of training contributes little to maximal strength while it does increase strength endurance due to mitochondria hypertrophy. Growth of connective tissue is also present with sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.
Myofibrillar hypertrophy occurs due to increases in the number of myosin/actin filaments (sarcomeres) inside the cell. This leads to increased strength and size of the contractile unit of muscle.

Ultimately this means greater force production. This is often referred to as functional muscle, while sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is referred to as non-functional muscle. ATP and Muscular Growth As we said earlier, increasing the number of mitochondria in the cell means increased ATP production.
ATP is required for protein synthesis to occur. Low levels of ATP will halt muscular growth as well as inhibit other metabolic functions that take place inside the muscle cell. Siff and Verkhoshansky have shown that it is possible to increase your muscles contractile unit faster than the mitochondria’s ability to compensate for this growth.
When actin/myosin filaments out grow the number of mitochondria, growth of elements besides the sarcomere is inhibited. The insufficient quantity of ATP results in the bodies inability to promote protein synthesis.
In general, bodybuilders are more muscular than powerlifters, but powerlifters are stronger.

How does training with weights that are 90% of 1RM develop strength and power, but do very little for hypertrophy?

Studies have shown an intense set of 5 reps involves more fibers than an intense set of 1rep. Research has shown that using loads in the 90% range causes failure to occur before a growth stimulus has been sent to the cells. Therefore other factors besides muscle fiber fatigue result in termination of the set. The muscle simply does not have sufficient time under tension to stimulate the growth process. High rep training produces high levels of phosphate and hydrogen Ions which enhance the growth process.
Research has shown heavy lifting enhances neural efficiency ( improved motor recruitment, and firing rates) which enhances strength , but does not necessarily result in muscular growth.

With this information you can see why the strength, and size levels are different between bodybuilders and powerlifters. There are powerlifters that possess muscularity comparable to bodybuilders. There are also bodybuilders who have equal or greater strength than powerlifters. Do not misinterpret this article to mean there is no relationship between strength and size. If you gain 30lbs. of lean tissue you will probably become stronger. The basic idea presented in this article is there is a relationship between size and strength , but strength increases can occur due to other reasons. Just as size increase can occur with a non-linear strength increase.

References

The Weight Trainer(2001)
Muscle Growth part 1811: Why, And How Does A Muscle Grow and Get Stronger?
http://weightrainer.virtualave.net/
training/growth/.html
Zatsiorsky,V.(1995) Science
and Practice of Strength
Training. Human Kinetics

[PizDoff]

Didn't read, too blurry. Lazy layman terms:
Skimmed it, yes # of reps affects what grows most.
Shorter guys need less strength to move weight. Shorter joints = better leverage.

[Mediocrates]

This article is sort of all over the place.

The first problem is that looking at a bodybuilder versus a powerlifter is subject to the skews of perception. Bodybuilders tend to have low bodyfat levels, which accentuates muscularity. Bodybuilders also have favorable genetics for muscle SHAPE, since that's the nature of what they do. Particular insertion points, tendon lengths, muscle belly sizes.....things like that make a given amount of muscle mass APPEAR larger. Remember, Arnold was 6 foot 2 and only 235 pounds in his prime. It is never random that people excel in the areas that they do.

There is some merit to avoiding very low repetition/TUL schemes, much like mentioned here. Using a resistance close to maximum allows one to fatigue only a small percentage of fibers. Being that fiber fatigue is a fairly important part of the stimulation process, one would want to achieve greater inroad. This is why the typical target range is 30-90 seconds of TUL for a given movement. If one is moving in a proper (read: slow and controlled) fashion, this is easily achieved in 1 or 2 sets in the 5 to 15 repetition range (depending on actual cadence and target TUL). If one bangs out reps like most ignorant gym inhabitants, it will take more sets and/or sets of more repetitions of an inferior degree of loading. Let us not forsake efficiency.

As for the variance in hypertrophy....if one is really the type who is spending hours and hours a week in the gym doing countless repetitions of every possible movement from every angle to "pump" the hell out of oneself......then the problem is psychological, not physical.

[Nid]

Particular insertion points

This is worthy of note.

http://neutrino.phys.washington.edu/...tes/lect9.html

Chimpanzees, by the way, are designed "better" from the point of view of strength. The total muscle mass of an adult chimpanzee is only about one third that of an adult human male. But chimpanzees can exert over twice the force that humans can for certain motions. The reason is that the point of attachment between the biceps and the forearm is further from the elbow in chimps than in humans, hence the chimp's mechanincal advantage (d2/d1) is greater.





Just in case anyone was still polluted by Djimbe's ideas about more "juice" flowing to chimp muscles and our supposed ability to train ourselves to do likewise.

[Nid]

....and are mitochondria capable of hypertrophy per se?

[Jaguar Wong]

....and are mitochondria capable of hypertrophy per se?

Midichlorians are, right?

[IzzyDaHedgehog]

Keinhaar: In physics last semester, I recall the teacher saying that humans' arms weren't designed for lifting things; otherwise the anchor (insertion?) points for the tendons would be farther down the forearm. What we're really supposed to do is lift with our legs and throw with our arms. Somewhere along the line humans evolved to be better at throwing than lifting.

[Nid]

Word.

[VikingPower]

I am sure many of has read this article and I do offer apologies if it has been posted here before. To avoid merely posting an article and offering no comments, I am especially curious as to where routines such as the famed “20 rep squats” fit into the picture when one considers “sarcoplasmic” versus “myofibrillar”. hypertrophy. Other points to consider IS THE ARTICLE A BUNCH OF SHITE? I would appreciate discussion of weight training for that which is all go and not all show. Thanks in advance, your local delusional arse.
http://www.dolfzine.com/page216.htm:

What most people don't know about the 20-rep squats is how you actually go about doing the program. Most people think you just throw on enough weight to do 20 reps with, and boom, that's all it takes. To properly do the routine, you need to take the weight you can normally only do TEN reps with, and then do the twenty. This relates to the overload principle, because if you're not doing more than you're used to, you're not gaining size and strength. "No pain, no gain" probably came from someone using the overload principle. After the tenth rep, your body is virtually done and that's when sheer mental willpower takes over and you strive to finish. Add to that progressive resistance (throwing a nickel or dime on each time), often combined with deep full breathing and there you have it.

Take my test subject for the 20-rep squat routine. Today he finally graduated to breathing squats. He's now doing 20 breathing squats (butt to calf) with 160lbs, and hurting every minute of it. That's 55 more pounds than he had when he first started a mere 2 1/2 weeks ago. He had tears streaming down his face after rep 15, rep 17 had him screaming like he was being crucified, and after rep 20 he fell onto his back and just laid there rasping for air for over three minutes.

If you want more info, check out "Super Squats" by Randall J. Strossen, Ph.D. and the president of IronMind. He explains it all in there.