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As a natural bodybuilder muscle growth is not something that is easy to come by. It is a grueling, demanding, and time consuming process. In order to continually progress, we have to focus on doing as many things in an optimal manner as possible. The last training article you read in that muscle magazine is likely not catering to serious natural bodybuilders. Likely it was written in a “sex sells” fashion for those who are recreational lifters looking for the newest shortcut or for someone who is taking up working out for a month or two, and wants a “fast food” solution.
In this article we are going to discuss optimal methods to organizing your training, a technique more commonly known as periodization. Having some structure to your training will aid you in continually making progress, and will ensure that your hard work will be maximized.
Periodization will also help you avoid the revolving door that many bodybuilders find themselves in from time to time when they hit sticking points in their training.
After implementing periodization into your training, getting past a plateau will simply be a matter of evaluating your current phase, and adjusting it. This is a much more effective approach rather than just doing the same thing again, with what is perceived to be more effort than before.
Understanding Hypertrophy
Physical loading will stimulate hypertrophy given that the load is adequate and that your muscles can produce the required force. In order to continually make progress, progressive loading must be introduced over time. Bodybuilders are cosmetic athletes, but performance within the weight room is still important. Different training stimuli will induce different types of growth and if you are exclusively training in a manner that only stimulates a single type of growth you are selling yourself short.
Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy
This is the growth of non-contractile tissue and semi-fluid between muscle fibers. This type of growth comes from work in the rep ranges that illicit the most depletion of sarcoplasm. Sets in the 8-20 rep range will induce this type of growth.
While cross sectional area of the muscle increases, there are minimal gains in strength and the density of the muscle fibers per unit actually decreases during training phases exclusively dedicated to sarcoplasmic growth.
Myofibrillar Hypertrophy
This is the growth of actual contractile muscle fiber. This increase in myofibrils and mitochondria makes for an increase in strength along with the increases in muscle size. This improved performance also trickles down to higher rep efforts, and you will be able to use heavier weights in the 8-20 rep range.
A more complete approach
Muscle is a highly valued commodity to the natural bodybuilder. Often bodybuilders are not willing to leave their current strategy for fears of back tracking, and losing their precious muscle. Unlike most performance athletes, cosmetic athletes don’t have coaches and are thus prone to shooting themselves in the foot. They often make gains, but these gains are not optimal. Success comes not because of what they do, but despite of what they do. With that said, the solution to this problem is in developing a basic structure and organization to training.
All means by which hypertrophy can be stimulated should be taken into account when designing your training program. Be it sarcoplasmic or myofibrillar hypertrophy, a complete approach to bodybuilding should include both or at the bare minimum the maintenance of one while focusing on the other if it happens to be lacking.
Periodization Schemes
For the bodybuilder there are two ideal periodization schemes: alternating and concurrent periodization. In alternating periodization you alternate blocks of heavy lifting focused on compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, and heavy pressing with blocks of traditional bodybuilding workouts in the higher rep ranges, and perhaps using some intensity techniques. Your weeks would ideally look something like the graph below, but you can break this up into 2-3 week-long blocks if desired.
Another efficient method is concurrent periodization, in which you train both routes to hypertrophy over the same period in a specific and carefully chosen sequence. This training system is more commonly known as conjugated periodization, or as presented here, daily undulating periodization. It has recently gained quite the reputation for producing results in the elite powerlifting ranks because of its ability to aid advanced lifters in continuing their progress.
If you are an advanced lifter I would recommend concurrent periodization, simply because there is a little more overlap than what a less advanced trainee can handle and setting up a concurrent periodization scheme requires experience.
Conclusion
Training with structure that incorporates all methods of inducing hypertrophy is not only optimal for physique development, but also will lend a hand in breaking through the plateaus that arise from time to time. When you have more control over the variables in the experiment, it is much easier to fine tune, adjust and continue progressing. This is done by fluctuating throughout the year from training setups focused primarily on strength development to programs focused on training frequency and volume. Breaking your plateau is not simply a matter of “working harder,” but putting yourself in a position where your efforts in the gym pay off. You know what they say about doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results? Indeed, train the same and go insane, but periodize and you will progress.
In this article we are going to discuss optimal methods to organizing your training, a technique more commonly known as periodization. Having some structure to your training will aid you in continually making progress, and will ensure that your hard work will be maximized.
Periodization will also help you avoid the revolving door that many bodybuilders find themselves in from time to time when they hit sticking points in their training.
After implementing periodization into your training, getting past a plateau will simply be a matter of evaluating your current phase, and adjusting it. This is a much more effective approach rather than just doing the same thing again, with what is perceived to be more effort than before.
Understanding Hypertrophy
Physical loading will stimulate hypertrophy given that the load is adequate and that your muscles can produce the required force. In order to continually make progress, progressive loading must be introduced over time. Bodybuilders are cosmetic athletes, but performance within the weight room is still important. Different training stimuli will induce different types of growth and if you are exclusively training in a manner that only stimulates a single type of growth you are selling yourself short.
Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy
This is the growth of non-contractile tissue and semi-fluid between muscle fibers. This type of growth comes from work in the rep ranges that illicit the most depletion of sarcoplasm. Sets in the 8-20 rep range will induce this type of growth.
While cross sectional area of the muscle increases, there are minimal gains in strength and the density of the muscle fibers per unit actually decreases during training phases exclusively dedicated to sarcoplasmic growth.
Myofibrillar Hypertrophy
This is the growth of actual contractile muscle fiber. This increase in myofibrils and mitochondria makes for an increase in strength along with the increases in muscle size. This improved performance also trickles down to higher rep efforts, and you will be able to use heavier weights in the 8-20 rep range.
A more complete approach
Muscle is a highly valued commodity to the natural bodybuilder. Often bodybuilders are not willing to leave their current strategy for fears of back tracking, and losing their precious muscle. Unlike most performance athletes, cosmetic athletes don’t have coaches and are thus prone to shooting themselves in the foot. They often make gains, but these gains are not optimal. Success comes not because of what they do, but despite of what they do. With that said, the solution to this problem is in developing a basic structure and organization to training.
All means by which hypertrophy can be stimulated should be taken into account when designing your training program. Be it sarcoplasmic or myofibrillar hypertrophy, a complete approach to bodybuilding should include both or at the bare minimum the maintenance of one while focusing on the other if it happens to be lacking.
Periodization Schemes
For the bodybuilder there are two ideal periodization schemes: alternating and concurrent periodization. In alternating periodization you alternate blocks of heavy lifting focused on compound movements such as squats, deadlifts, and heavy pressing with blocks of traditional bodybuilding workouts in the higher rep ranges, and perhaps using some intensity techniques. Your weeks would ideally look something like the graph below, but you can break this up into 2-3 week-long blocks if desired.
Another efficient method is concurrent periodization, in which you train both routes to hypertrophy over the same period in a specific and carefully chosen sequence. This training system is more commonly known as conjugated periodization, or as presented here, daily undulating periodization. It has recently gained quite the reputation for producing results in the elite powerlifting ranks because of its ability to aid advanced lifters in continuing their progress.
If you are an advanced lifter I would recommend concurrent periodization, simply because there is a little more overlap than what a less advanced trainee can handle and setting up a concurrent periodization scheme requires experience.
Conclusion
Training with structure that incorporates all methods of inducing hypertrophy is not only optimal for physique development, but also will lend a hand in breaking through the plateaus that arise from time to time. When you have more control over the variables in the experiment, it is much easier to fine tune, adjust and continue progressing. This is done by fluctuating throughout the year from training setups focused primarily on strength development to programs focused on training frequency and volume. Breaking your plateau is not simply a matter of “working harder,” but putting yourself in a position where your efforts in the gym pay off. You know what they say about doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results? Indeed, train the same and go insane, but periodize and you will progress.