Q: I consider myself a hardgainer, so I’ve followed those methods forever. Heavy-but-brief training has given me some muscle, but gains have been painfully slow. It took me awhile to try the Anabolic Reload method because it started bodyparts with a high-rep set. After finally using it for a month, I look like I’ve put on 10 pounds of muscle. I’m seeing much more size and vascularity. My question is, are higher reps working because I’m getting growth in more slow-twitch fibers or are the fast-twitch ones getting larger as well?
A: Yes, both — and as bodybuilders we want to maximize ALL hypertrophic pathways, even size in the slow-twitch fibers. That’s especially true for you because you say you’re a “hardgainer,” which really means you have more slow-twitch fibers…
That’s why incorporating high-rep sets has immediately resulted in more growth for you — you’re finally getting slow-twitch hypertrophy. You’re all-heavy training left those fibers under-stimulated. Now you’re “waking” them up and getting some fairly freaky growth. Fun, right?
But the STX high-rep-set-first method should also be rotated into the training of those with more fast-twitch fibers for periodic phases. That’s because fatiguing the slow-twitch fibers first will force more fast-twitch activation after — with the heavier sets that follow…
As we’ve said in the past, our biggest challenge training together is that Jonathan is more fast-twitch dominant and Steve is more slow-twitch dominant — but STX and 4X, a moderate-weight progressive-fatigue method, worked well for both of us due to the above…
PLUS, higher-rep sets also trigger anabolic hormone surges…
According to Brad Schoenfeld, Ph.D., muscle hypertrophy researcher, “Sets that last longer than 20 to 30 seconds substantially increase metabolic stress.” Hydrogen ion that fill your muscles during long tension times lower the muscles’ pH due to lactic acid. “That seems to make them bigger by stimulating the production of proteins and HORMONES that act as growth factors for muscle tissue.”
As a review, keep in mind that our Anabolic Reload workouts are based on a Brazilian study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. Researchers had one group do a preliminary set of leg extensions to failure with 20 percent of their one-rep-max before moving to heavier sets. The other group did only standard sets with 75 percent of their 1RM. Rests between sets for both groups were 30 seconds to one minute…
More muscle size and strength occurred in the group that included a preliminary high-rep set because “muscle failure (principally of [slow-twitch] type-1 fibers) and metabolic accumulation induced by prior exhaustive exercise [promoted] a greater global recruitment of type-2 [high-growth] fibers during traditional training sets and, thus, further stimulate muscle performance and adaptations.” [Ergo-log.com]
While the scientists in that Brazilian study surmised that the initial high-rep set fatigued the slow-twitch fibers so that more fast-twitch growth fibers could be stimulated on the heavier sets after, that’s only one of many hypertrophic pathways in which a high-rep set can force new muscles growth. High reps can also…
1) Hypertrophy those slow-twitch endurance fibers that were pre-fatigued (very important for fast-twitch dominant bodybuilders).
2) Trigger more growth in the 2A power-and-endurance (dual-component) fibers.
3) Cause extreme sarcoplasmic, or energy fluid, expansion via mitochondrial growth, glycogen storage, etc. in all fiber types.
Getting ALL of the above will boost muscle size significantly for any bodybuilder regardless of muscle-fiber predisposition….
One last note: We suggest you stop calling yourself a “hardgainer.” That can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, programming your mind into believing your growth has to be slow. Better: Call yourself a slow-twitch-dominant bodybuilder — you can still get freaky growth spurts, as you’re finding out.
Check out the new Anabolic Reload Mass Workout e-book.
For more on the 4X mass method and programs, check out 4X Mass Workout 2.0.
Till next time, train hard–and smart–for BIG results.
–Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com