Understanding Hypertrophy Training And Making The Most Out Of It!

When I first started going to the gym

I was fascinated by lifting weights.

At first, I thought it was for meatheads who just wanted big muscles and didn’t care too much about running fast let alone running at all.

What I learnt over the next 8 months, is how beneficial it was in improving my rugby game.

I had never set foot into a weights gym until my first year at Uni. 

For those who don’t know me, I grew up in South Otago and Southland New Zealand.

The only sort of weights we did was chopping firewood for winter, lifting lambs into a tailing shoot or newborn calves into the back of the trailer during calving.

So to start working out in a gym was super foreign to me.

I was at the Sports Institute of Otago doing my first year in the Sporting Performance course with about 20 other rugby heads wanting to try and crack the big time. 

I was behind the 8 ball right from the start.

I always relied on my skills and prided myself on my fitness to get me into teams 

However, this all had to change if I was going to compete with these boys.

As part of our course, we had to attend the gym 3 times a week, and for someone who had never hit the gym before,

I packed on the kgs pretty quick.

I went from 84kgs to 94kgs in 8 months.

5kgs of that was probably the ‘Fresher 5’ but I’m claiming it as muscle!

My second year I only got up to 96kgs and struggled a lot to put any mass on. 

I was stuck and was in massive need of some help.

I knew the following year I’d be playing premier rugby and that was against grown men, I had to compete.

This led me into the study of Hypertrophy and strength training which eventually guided me to Personal Training.

I tried stuff with my clients, learnt what works and what doesn’t and this process has given me the foundations of what I coach and believe in now.

Now before we get into Hypertrophy, let’s understand what it is.

Hypertrophy by definition is an increase and growth in the size of muscle cells achieved through exercise

There are two types of Hypertrophy,

Myofibrillar which is the growth of muscle contraction parts (strength and speed)

Sarcoplasmic which is increased muscle glycogen storage (energy storage for endurance)

The process of Myofibrillar growth is to damage the muscle tissue so it forces a recovery response. 

This makes the muscle fibres grow back stronger and bigger.

We all know this process

However Sarcoplasmic growth, is when we put the muscle through that much strain over time, it adapts and increases the glycogen stores in the muscle

To help us sustain that endurance and work for longer. This gives us a leaner muscular look.

Examples of both would be BodyBuilders for your Myofibrillar growth and marathon runners for your sarcoplasmic growth.

Now, why is it important to understand this?

2 reasons, 1 is your training, 2 is your nutrition.

For someone training to stimulate muscle growth hypertrophy, a high protein and a high fat diet would be ideal for them as they need the amino acids to help repair muscle tissue and the good fats will help maintain energy stores over time.

Whereas, if someone was doing glycogen store hypertrophy work, a high protein, mod carb diet would be more suited as this would help the glycogen stores replenish faster and adapt quicker.

Does this all make sense?

Let's unpack this a bit more then.

Have you ever heard of the 3 Somatotypes?

Ecot, Meso and Endomorph body types?

Ectomorph is described as someone tall and skinny with hips smaller or the same size as their shoulders

Endomorph is described as someone shorter and fuller with hips wider than their shoulders.

Lastly, we have Mesomorph, which is a mix of both but a more muscular frame.

We are always either 1 or 2 of these body types at any one time.

We can be tall but carry weight at the same time making us look full.

We can be short but be slim also.

The reason this is important because even though you may be a mix of both at any one time,

You will always fit into 1 category all the time and that’s what you should base your diet off if you are looking to make changes in your body's physical shape.

You can be tall and carry weight, but your skeletal makeup will always be the same. Your hips and shoulders will always be the same width no matter what you do. (Surgery exception of course)

Same if you are short and slim, your hips will generally always be, slightly wider than your shoulders.

So why is this part important?

Because these different body shapes tend to react better to different macros than one another.

By react I mean their bodies physiology works better when provided with a different mix of macros.

Ectomorph body shapes react better with a high protein and high carb diet

Endomorph body shapes react better with a high protein and high-fat diet

And Mesomorphs enjoy a balance of them both.

As you can see, a lot of this tends to ring true when you look at the hypertrophy effects for different athletes.

Marathon runners, tall and skinny, bodybuilders, short and stocky.

So how do we bring this all together so we know how to make our training work for us?

If you know what body type you are, work with your body and not against it. Start applying the right recovery and nutrition plan to get the best hypertrophy results.

Then once you begin to change and gravitate towards the physique you are looking for

Then adjust your diet and training to work the other hypertrophy effect for a period and then go back to what is comfortable and familiar with your body.

Don’t train the other aspect for prolonged periods of time or your body will start to fight it.

Your body will reject what you're trying to do and begin to break down.

This is why it takes so long to see sustained muscular changes 

Because you’re either fighting what's natural for your body

Or you’re not bouncing between the two enough to get any variation stimulus.

As for applying this to females and males.

You need a certain level of testosterone to produce sustained muscle mass growth for males let alone females.

Females simply lack the hormonal requirements to put on heaps of muscle mass so your body will reject it unless you influence your hormones yourself which I wouldn’t advise not to.

Females are charged with the growth of the human race not to get massive.

Work with your body not against it.

Getting lean and pushing your muscles to complete fatigue is your weapon of choice

I hope that helps you all in terms of your current program design and nutrition.

Either that or I’ve just confused you all haha, but If anyone needs advice or help, feel free to email us or message me at any time.

I love this stuff so am happy to help!