November 22, 2022

Have you ever recovered from an injury or had a gain in strength or muscle mass? If you have, then you have experienced muscle hypertrophy. Hypertrophy is the growth or increase in muscle cells.

My purpose in this column is to speak to both athletes and those interested in how the body works. Hypertrophy is an essential process for everyone. Without it, muscles cannot grow or be repaired, and the body cannot function properly. Athletes might be especially interested in how to increase their hypertrophy.

The best way to have an increase in hypertrophy is through progressive overload. Progressive overload is the action of increasing weight or reps (repetitions) when working out, putting more stress on the muscle than last time.

When a muscle recovers, it goes through a process called protein synthesis, which is your body using enzymes, DNA and RNA to produce protein. You cannot do this every day for the same muscle group, as you need to take time to recover. It takes about two to three days for a muscle group to fully recover and be targeted again.

When working out, it is hard to know what rep range to use when exhausting the muscle. To understand the best range, you should have a proper understanding of the types of muscle fibers.

Every person has fast twitch muscle fibers (type two) for strength and explosive power, and slow twitch muscle fibers (type one) for endurance.

Rep ranges under eight are more likely to work slow twitch and over eight are more likely to work fast twitch muscles fibers. The best way to train also depends on what sports you participate in. For example, a bodybuilder would work fast twitch muscle fibers, doing reps over eight, and someone doing shot put would use rep ranges under eight.

Using this information, you can start to build a workout ‘split.’ A split is a schedule or plan for the muscle groups you will be training, including sets (a group of repetitions) per workout and reps. When building a split, remember to avoid working the same muscle group back-to-back. Distribute muscle groups throughout a split and always take recovery time into account.

‘Push Pull Legs’ (PPL) is an example of a balanced workout split. It includes working out for three days followed by a rest day. The first day is a ‘push’ so you would train your chest, shoulders and triceps. On ‘pull’ day you would train your back, and biceps. The last day is legs, followed by a rest day.

I hope that this information enables you to have a better understanding of ideas like hypertrophy, recovery, reps, sets and splits.