Peak_Power
New Member
We can all pretty much agree that hypertrophy is caused by "workload", that is work done with a particular load, and within certain limits, the more work done and the more load, the more hypertrophy is stimulated (with load being more important, according to Bryan's research).
So in order to do lots of work with heavy loads, you need to be strong and have good muscular endurance. Of course you can also take advantage of fatigue management techniques like max-stim (though Dan will point out that max-stim is more than just a fatigue management tool
). It lessons the need to have continuous muscle endurance with heavy loads, because you put the weight down after each rep, and allows you to repeatedly do more work with more load.
The point is though that working on strength and endurance in terms of hypertrophy is a means to an end, if your goal is hypertrophy, you can do endurance and strength work and not get any real gains in muscle mass, because you're working the mitocondria and nervous system, and the fuel delivery systems of the body, but the gains you make will make you able to do more total workload: more work with a heavier load, and therefore able to stimulate more growth. This becomes a lot more imporant the closer you get to your genetic potential, because you want to stimulate every last bit of hypertrophy you can, and every ounce of endurance and strength will help with that. As arnie says, it might come down to that one extra rep you do (when you're that close to your genetic potentional).
The great thing is HST takes advantage of this, the 15s work endurance, especially if you do 2 sets of 15 (its killer, I've tried it), the 10s are a nice balance, and the 5s focus mainly on strength. That's why if you're only ever going to do one weights program for the rest of your life, it should be HST. It has everything.
But...if you've been doing HST or maxstim for a long time, you might want to do something a bit different, like Rippetoe or GVM, or something that spefically focuses on an area you want to work on, whether its strict strength, endurance, or overall workload for growth.
The point is though whatever program you do, make sure its specifc for what you want to improve. For instance, someone might critisise GVM as a "bad program", but there's nothing bad about it, just that its not specific to hypertrophy (because the weights are too light), and that people say its good for growth, when strength based, heavy weight programs are generally better for growth than high volume light weight programs, because as Bryan says, load is the most important thing. But at the end of the day its how much work you do with that load, which comes down to how much work you CAN do, that matters.
So in order to do lots of work with heavy loads, you need to be strong and have good muscular endurance. Of course you can also take advantage of fatigue management techniques like max-stim (though Dan will point out that max-stim is more than just a fatigue management tool
The point is though that working on strength and endurance in terms of hypertrophy is a means to an end, if your goal is hypertrophy, you can do endurance and strength work and not get any real gains in muscle mass, because you're working the mitocondria and nervous system, and the fuel delivery systems of the body, but the gains you make will make you able to do more total workload: more work with a heavier load, and therefore able to stimulate more growth. This becomes a lot more imporant the closer you get to your genetic potential, because you want to stimulate every last bit of hypertrophy you can, and every ounce of endurance and strength will help with that. As arnie says, it might come down to that one extra rep you do (when you're that close to your genetic potentional).
The great thing is HST takes advantage of this, the 15s work endurance, especially if you do 2 sets of 15 (its killer, I've tried it), the 10s are a nice balance, and the 5s focus mainly on strength. That's why if you're only ever going to do one weights program for the rest of your life, it should be HST. It has everything.
But...if you've been doing HST or maxstim for a long time, you might want to do something a bit different, like Rippetoe or GVM, or something that spefically focuses on an area you want to work on, whether its strict strength, endurance, or overall workload for growth.
The point is though whatever program you do, make sure its specifc for what you want to improve. For instance, someone might critisise GVM as a "bad program", but there's nothing bad about it, just that its not specific to hypertrophy (because the weights are too light), and that people say its good for growth, when strength based, heavy weight programs are generally better for growth than high volume light weight programs, because as Bryan says, load is the most important thing. But at the end of the day its how much work you do with that load, which comes down to how much work you CAN do, that matters.
