[b said:
Quote[/b] (Sub7 @ Dec. 19 2005,6:19)]
"You make the classic mistake of conflating fatigue with growth numerous times throughout the paper." This is not a hard one to give evidence for. Here goes:
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]By the end of such a set, you can be sure that you have thoroughly exhausted and worked all of your fibers, including the large and strong FT fibers which have the most growth potential. This is the reason you grow more from doing just one set of heavy barbell curls to failure than you would from stacking the shelves with bottles for hours.
Sounds like you're equating fatigue with gowth to me. You're saying the heavier weight recruited the FT fibers, but because it "thourougly exhausted" them since the set was done "to failure." Is this why you grow more? Or is it because the barbell produces more tension, regardless of the fatigue?
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]This is also the reason those last few reps are the most important. Doing 3 sets of 6 reps when you could have performed 9 or 10 each time is not going to give you the same growth as doing just one set but performing as many reps as you possibly could because in the first instance you do not get the high rate coding and maximal utilization of the all-important FT fibers. In other words, you will never really work your big and heavy FT fibers hard by stopping short of failure.
Doesn't get any clearer than this. This is exactly what I'm talking about. You make no mention of absolute load, but just talk of failure. If the load is heavy enough, you certainly can work all of your FT fibers without going to failure. And working all of them in 3 sets of 6 reps will expose them to that tension (growth stimulus) for longer than one set of 9 or 10 reps to failure would.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Now that’s all good and fine, but is it good enough? Have the FT fibers really been sufficiently [/b]exhausted[/b]? Will they really grow as much as they possibly could after that one single set of barbell curls?
You're seriously telling me that you're no conflating the two here?
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]When I was able to lift 90 lbs at the beginning of the set and terminate the set when I am able to lift only 75 lbs, the amount of inroading I have achieved is 15 lbs (if I can do an entire set with 80 lbs, my strength during the first rep is likely more than 80 lbs, say 90 lbs for this example). When you think about it, I have not really worked the heavy and strong FT fibers that much then, have I?
Yes, you have. If the load was heavy enough, you worked the "heavy and strong FT fibers" with every rep.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I can simply ask my partner to help me perform 3-5 more reps. He can push the barbell up while I try to lift so that the actual amount of weight I have to move goes down from 80 to maybe 50 lbs. When I can not continue to move despite his assistance, I know that I don’t even have 50 lbs of strength left in me. Good, now I have achieved a deeper state of inroading –namely 40 lbs- and I can be sure that I have worked my muscles even harder. Those dang FT fibers which are lazy and join in only when absolutely required had to join in a great deal more and are more likely to grow now.
Since they were fatigued more, they're more likely to grow? And fatigued with less tension even? Once again, a clear case where you're equating fatigue with growth.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Do you remember what my main problem was with doing only a single set taken to failure? It was the fact that the FT fibers joined in only at the last possible moment and were highly active (to be more accurate, they achieved a sufficiently high rate coding) only during the last 1 or two reps. So they worked hard for just around 5 seconds or so; not enough to make them grow.
Once again, with a sufficient load the FT fibers do not only join in during the last rep or two. All fiber types are recruited from rep one.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]So after finishing such a set, I can put the weight down, rest 1-3 minutes and do another set just like the one before. Now the FT fibers got another 5 seconds or so of good work. Then another set taken to failure and so on. In the end, whether I perform only a couple of sets taken beyond failure or many more sets taken to just failure, I will have worked my FT fibers long enough and hard enough to force growth.
Again, fatigue/failure = growth. Yes, you are saying that. Wrong on two counts here: First of all, you'll work the FT fibers the entire time under tension with a decent load. Second of all, working them doesn't simply "force growth." You can train to failure (repeatedly)with a weight that doesn't produce enough tension to stimulate growth (cause sufficient microtrauma), especially after adapting to the load (RBE).
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]People take recovery-enhancing supplements, refuse to even lift a finger outside of their workouts to conserve valuable recovery resources, refrain from partying, but at the end of the day, very few can avoid the dreaded plateau that comes from overtraining.
Yeah, especially when you take every set to failure (or beyond) because you've been told that that's the only way to "force growth." A good way to fry your CNS. I wonder where people get these ideas.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]When you look at the picture above, you will see that most of the problem comes from the way our muscles were designed. As a bodybuilder, my dilemma is that I wish to work the FT fibers because they are the ones that have the greatest potential for growth. However, those dang FT fibers will not activate until the ST fibers and all other intermediate fibers have been thoroughly worked and I am in a very exhausted state. So each time I want to work the FT fibers, even if it is just a little bit, I must spend a load of time and energy going through all the STs and intermediates because this is just the way we are designed.
The goal of ACIT is to get full recruitment faster... but it's based on a bad premise. Once again, you get full recruitment without going to failure (or using ACIT techniques) with a sufficient load. This obviates the "solution" and means there is no "problem."