In resistance training we can categorize training purpose into 2, hypertrophy training and strength training. Even if your goal is fat loss or improving your health, when performing resistance training you are performing hypertrophy or strength training.
Some may think these two are the same. Although there are crossovers, however, the focus each will have will be different.
Definition of Hypertrophy and Strength
When talking about hypertrophy training, we are talking about training to stimulate the size of the muscle.
When talking about strength training, we are talking about training to increase the amount of weight you can lift. This lift can be in squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press, pull ups and so on.
4 Key Factors to Strength Training
Strength training is improving the ability to produce force in any given movement such as squat, bench, deadlift, etc.
There are 4 factors that contribute to strength. First is muscle size. In comparison, muscles that are larger in size tend to produce more force. A simple analogy is a car with a V6 engine versus V8 engine. V8 engine can produce more velocity than V6 can. Similarly, the larger muscle size can produce more strength.
Second is architecture. To perform exercise efficiently, the muscles respond for the specific movement and realign the muscles so that the exercise can be performed in the way you practiced. This is why it is important to practice the proper technique repeatedly so that when the weights get heavy, the body knows how to execute the movement.
Third is technique. When strength training the primary focus is ability to lift heavy weights and ideally with least amount of effort. What does that mean? When training for muscle size, it is important to feel what muscle group you are working on. However, in strength training that is not the case. You want to use as many muscle groups as possible so that the deadlifting heavy weight becomes more efficient.
Fourth is neural drive. This means the ability to force the muscle to contract so that heavy weight can be lifted. Technique is important, muscle size can help to a certain point but the ability to recruit as many muscle groups as possible to its maximum potential requires practice as well.
How to Set Up Hypertrophy Training
Hypertrophy training focuses on training specific muscle groups. As such, technique becomes more focused on how well you can target that specific muscle group. For example, if you want to increase the size of quadriceps (thigh muscles) with squatting, you want to squat with knees pushed forward for better quadriceps stimulation.
Repetitions are set from anywhere between 5-30 repetitions per set and wight will be set according to the repetitions you are wanting to perform. It is also important that weight should be selected so that you can not only perform repetitions but also stimulate those muscle groups properly.
Effort should be 3 to 0 repetitions in reserve (RIR). What this means is you know you can do 15 repetitions when you force yourself but stop at 12 repetitions which means 3 repetitions in reserve. If the exercise is feeling comfortable, most likely you are not stimulating that muscle group enough. Therefore, you may need to change your load or repetitions to get the proper stimulus to the muscle.
The ideal volume of exercise or sets should be 5-20 sets per week per muscle group provided that you can recover from the training sessions. For example, you can do 10 sets of chest exercise on Monday and do another 10 sets of chest exercise on Thursday.
Frequency should be 2-4 times per week per muscle group with progression of 2.5-5lbs per week or 1 rep per week.
How to Set Up Strength Training
In strength training techniques focus on how the exercise can be performed the strongest, safest and most efficiently. Therefore, feeling the stimulus in specific muscle is not important because what is more important is to recruit as many muscle groups as possible. In the initial phase you may need to spend time practicing the technique more than worrying about the load. After 8-12 weeks of proper practice, you can start loading and challenge your movement with the load. The technique should not change because of the load.
Load and reps should be set so you can perform 4-8 repetition for basic strength and 1-3 repetitions for peaking. Effort should be rated from 5-9 (out of 10) of rate of perceived exertion (RPE). RPE is scaled from 1-10 where 1 is walking in the store to 10 being “I’m about to pass out”. For basic strength you want to keep around 7-9 RPE and technic or deload weeks you want to keep around 5 RPE.
Volume should be 5-15 sets per week per movement on basic strength day, and 2-4 sets per week on deload week with frequency of 2-4 times per movement per week.
Ideal progression in strength training is 2.5-5lb of load increase per week. You may keep on increasing until plateau. Then add deload week. Increase in repetition is not ideal since the focus is towards how much you can lift.
How to Train for Both Strength and Hypertrophy
There are several ways but 2 common methods.
First is to perform both strength and hypertrophy in the same training session. When designing this you want to work on strength exercise(s) first because you don’t want to fatigue the muscles too much before the heavy weight exercise. Because the heavy weight is done prior to hypertrophy training the weight you will use during hypertrophy may feel lighter and may become more efficient.
So on the leg days plan may look like following:
A. Back Squat 5 reps x 5 sets @ 80% of 1 RM
B1 Dumbbell Walking Lunges 20-30 steps
B2 Heel Elevated Leg Press 10-15 reps
B3 Leg Extension 15-20 reps
(Repeat B1-B3 4 times)
In this scenario, you have 5 sets of strength exercise with 12 sets total of quadriceps based hypertrophy exercises.
Second common method is separating the strength and hypertrophy in phases. For example, you can work on strength training for 4 weeks then work on hypertrophy for the next 4 weeks. Because strength training is challenging to the joints and nervous system(not just muscles), it gives a good recovery time while working on hypertrophy training which is more specific muscle focus.
Similarities and Differences
Both strength training and hypertrophy training has similarities and differences. Training frequency and necessity for proper exercise technique are the same. By focus of how technique is being used, load, reps are different.
Therefore, when you are designing for your training, make sure you know what you are wanting to accomplish and keep it simple.
Kota Shimada
Comments