The Key to Muscle Hypertrophy

Hypertrophy is an increase in muscular size 💪🏽

It occurs at all rep ranges if we adhere to the following:

✅ Exercise execution with perfect technique
✅ focusing on squeezing and contracting the working muscles
✅ Lifting until muscle failure
✅ Moving through full ROM
✅ Lifting a high volume of weight
✅ Always applying progressive overload principles

Mechanisms which can lead to hypertrophy:

1. Mechanical Tension: most important.
The force placed on muscles when contracting them against resistance.
🔹 85-90% of your 1RM weight or until muscular failure
🔹 High amount of reps
🔹 Slow tempo/pauses.

2. Metabolic Stress: important.
The theory behind the benefits of a pump/burn. The accumulation of fluid in your cells increases pressure and tension on the cell membranes. This is seen as a threat to the cell so it responds by growing thicker, which leads to muscle growth.
🔹 Burnouts
🔹 Partial reps
🔹 Short rest periods
🔹 High reps at fast speeds
🔹 Using bands.

3. Muscle Damage: important.
 Creating inflammation, lesions and microtears in the muscle through exercise, leads to super compensation (building back stronger). It's not necessary to feel sore for optimal training results. In some cases, it can hinder results by leading to a decreased training frequency, volume and poor performance.
🔹 Stretching a muscle to long lengths (e.g. squats and lunges) 
🔹 Performing something unfamiliar
🔹 Slow eccentric phase of movement.