Irrational Hypertrophy, or why nothing works forever?

S

slowgrower

New Member
Long time lurker of the HST forums, I've posted a few questions on here and you guys always give great responses. My new question is concerning the concept of 'irrational hypertrophy'.

Pulling from the following link: http://www.ironmagazine.com/article316.html

To quote specifically:

Metabolic processes within the cell require ATP to "fuel" them (ATP is the body's primary fuel source for all of its energy). If enough ATP isn't present then a host of cellular processes slow down (including protein synthesis), resulting in the operations of the cell being compromised. This means, among other things, slower removal of waste products, slower recovery from training and slower or less protein synthesis. Research done in the former Soviet Union by Zalessky and Burkhanov has shown that if the contractile components of the cell continue to grow (sarcomere hypertrophy) without a concurrent increase in the energy supplying systems of the cell (i.e. mitochondria, etc. - sarcoplasmic hypertrophy) then such a situation will develop. Essentially, the contractile machinery of the cell has grown too large for the energy systems to support it. In addition, fellow Soviet researchers, Nikituk and Samoilov have demonstrated that such a condition can be brought about through poorly planned resistance training.

Once such a situation is created, the full potential strength of the muscle cannot be exerted because the cell cannot produce and utilize enough momentary ATP to cycle actin-myosin cross-bridges sufficiently. Likewise, when hypertrophy and strengthening is stimulated, growth cannot be supported because the cell lacks the energy systems necessary to support the synthesis and maintenance of new proteins (muscle protein is constantly being broken down and rebuilt - a process of 'maintenance'). In Bodybuilder's terms, you hit a plateau. Because such a condition is unproductive from an adaptative standpoint, it is called irrational hypertrophy. The defining characteristic of this kind of growth is cells that contain significantly larger mitochondria than in the untrained state, but fewer of them per myofibril. The net result is an ATP shortage in the cell.
Click to expand...

Is this why 'nothing works forever'... so to speak? Doesn't HST take advantage of what is quoted here by cycling heavier weights with low reps, deconditioning, and then starting the process over, essentially preventing the irrational hypertrophy from occurring? It's like you need low and high rep training if you are going to make improvements in your physique.

I just wanted to get more expert opinions on this phenomena, because I'm sure Bryan or Dan have come across the study mentioned in their pubmed crawls. Thanks for your time.
 
Sit back and grab a cup of coffee.

The idea of rational or irrational hypertrophy was actually coined by Russian coaches not researchers. Anyway these ideas are rather outdated and more current research begins to paint a clearer picture of what truly is happening.

When one begins to train all fractions of muscle protein are elevated, both soluble and insoluble. In the work of Rennie's group out of the UK they have now shown how the different fractions react to the commencing and continuation of training. What they have seen is that at commencement of training both fractions are elevated but by ten weeks the sarcoplasmic protein response is diminishing while the myofibril proteins are still elevated post training. It may be due to this training affect that the notion of irrational hypertrophy came about but most likely it is due to the idea that weight lifters are stronger while body builders are bigger (muscles not weight).

I wouldn't worry about the ATP concept much because ATP is quite closely controlled and rarely ever gets depleted. Especially in the realm of weight lifting. There is a paper that looked at the various metabolic constituents and how training impacted them and what was noted in that paper is that experienced lifters muscle ATP was barely even changed post workout but glycogen was. So as long as metabolites are available then ATP shouldn't largely be impacted.
 
Part 2

Looking strictly at the mitochondria issue. A while back there was a really nice paper series (Goreham and Green I believe) on this very issue and what was seen in that study was that as muscle fibers hypertrophy the fibers oxidative potential remained intact, indicating that the mitochondrial function did not change. In another paper they actually counted mitochondria and saw that although the density of mitochondria shifted they did not change in number. Lastly as a fiber hypertrophies more satellite cells are called upon and fused into the existing fibers, donating their nuclei. So their mitochondria would also become part of the fiber. Keep a relatively constant energy producing machine for the relative size of the fiber.

With all that in mind and with the work of Rennie's group it would stand to reason that as one commences a resistance training regime that initially it would be taxing and therefore the energy homeostasis of the cell would need to compensate. Therefore we see a higher turnover of the sarcoplasmic fractions of proteins but as the training becomes less and less novel this begins to shift. Yet as long as the signaling is sufficient to kick up the growth machinery the myofibril fractions remain elevated post training.
 
Lastly, the issue of anabolic resistance (the plateau). The is the problem and as of yet it is not known why this occurs. It may be due to the repeated bout effect but in my opinion only, this revolves more-so around the issue of damage and sarcomerogenesis rather than hypertrophy per se. But suffice it to say there simply is not enough evidence yet to point out why or how one can overcome this.
 
Wow Dan, thank you very much for your reply and clarification.

In a way, could the plateauing be due to a combination of RBE and lack of sufficient rest/protein/calories?

Strength training programs like Stronglifts 5x5 and Starting Strength recommend GOMAD (gallon of milk a day) for people starting the program to ensure they are getting the caloric requirements... but then again, they are also leveraging beginner gains... but often times they don't start to stall until the mid-200s in Squat for 5 reps. That's still a lot of weight!

I am currently cutting (down 20 lbs as of this morning from 12 weeks ago)... and I've started to notice the wear and tear upon myself, my joints, etc, as a result of the low carb cycling and caloric deficit. Additionally, all my weights are down 20% from their maxes when I was much heavier/fatter.

I know this is anecdotal, but it really seems like a nutritional issue in the end.
 
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