3 Muscle Growth Myths Debunked — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00An argument for delaod weeks and other forms of volume cycling
2. 0:03is that they may cause anabolic resensitization.
3. 0:06The idea is that during the course of a training program you desensitize
4. 0:10to the anabolic stimulus from the training and fatigue accumulates.
5. 0:14As you do a deload week,
6. 0:15you get rid of the fatigue and you resensitize the anabolic tissue,
7. 0:18and afterwards you'll actually grow muscle faster.
8. 0:21So can you get more gains with less work?
9. 0:24A new dissertation study put this to the test.
10. 0:28I would note that because it's a dissertation,
11. 0:30it has only been peer
12. 0:31reviewed by the university and not by an academic journal,
13. 0:34but the researcher in question is quite capable.
14. 0:37I know him personally, so I don't expect massive changes during peer review.
15. 0:41In this study, 37 trained men and women trained one of their calves
16. 0:45with a constant training volume -12 sets to failure for 20 weeks straight.
17. 0:50The other group had two four week periods of extended deloads
18. 0:54or volume cycling, if you will, where they did only four sets,
19. 0:58basically minimum effective volume, to failure during those periods
20. 1:02and during the rest of the periods they were still training
21. 1:04with the same volume as the constant training volume group.
22. 1:07Muscle size was measured via ultrasound muscle thickness measurements
23. 1:11with an added check with a simple tape, checking the circumference of the muscle.
24. 1:16The volume cycling did not result in anabolic resensitization.
25. 1:19Muscle growth rates, after the extended
26. 1:21deload periods, were the same as before.
27. 1:24Consequently, the constant volume group ended up with slightly better gains.
28. 1:28The effect sizes were small, but it was a 99% Bayesian probability
29. 1:31of superiority for muscle growth and 82% for 10 rep max strength gains.
30. 1:36There was even some evidence that during the lower volume phases the calves shrink
31. 1:40a little bit.
32. 1:40These were trained individuals, so four sets a week did not seem enough
33. 1:44to make gains, or even consistently maintain their gains.
34. 1:48Other research has generally found that four sets a week is definitely enough
35. 1:52to maintain your gains if you train hard enough.
36. 1:55An arguably large limitation of the study is that 12 sets a week,
37. 1:58even if done to failure, is probably not enough for many people
38. 2:01to warrant a deload week, especially not a four week deload week.
39. 2:05However, if we look at previous research, we have seen that deload weeks
40. 2:09have similar effect, even in trained individuals doing
41. 2:1220 sets a week to failure for their calves and their quads.
42. 2:16In this study,
43. 2:17taking a week off every four weeks reduced strength gains with 85 to 92%.
44. 2:22Bayesian probability and muscle growth was largely unaffected,
45. 2:25but the effect sizes,
46. 2:268 out of 10 of them, also favored not deloading.
47. 2:29Taken together, these studies can be understood with a very simple explanation.
48. 2:33In my experience many lifters tend to seek for very elaborate,
49. 2:36complex explanations that seem intelligent,
50. 2:39but scientists actually often prefer the simplest explanation.
51. 2:44This principle is called Occam's razor.
52. 2:45The simplest explanation is often statistically, simply the most likely.
53. 2:49In this case, the simplest explanation is that doing a deload week
54. 2:53has nothing to do with volume cycling, or the deload week per se,
55. 2:56is just a reduction in the average training volume.
56. 2:59Whether you achieve that with slightly lower volume during the whole period,
57. 3:02of one week without any training probably doesn't matter as much.
58. 3:06In that sense, the new study was simply a comparison of an average of 12 sets
59. 3:10per week versus an average of 8.8 sets a week.
60. 3:13This is consistent with the literature
61. 3:15that, on average, people make better gains with 12 than with around 9 sets.
62. 3:19However, the difference is not very big because it's a relatively small difference
63. 3:22in training volume.
64. 3:23As for deloading for recovery, my strong preference, what I teach my students
65. 3:27in my PT course and what I also implement in my app is reactive loading.
66. 3:31Proactive deloading doesn't make a lot of sense
67. 3:33because you don't know when you will need it,
68. 3:35and you also don't know which body parts need it.
69. 3:37So a reactive deload scheduled for muscle groups
70. 3:41when they regress in performance, or when you plateau in performance,
71. 3:44and then you specifically deload that body part when your data tell you
72. 3:49that this body part has probably not yet recovered from the previous workout.
73. 3:53This means that you specifically deload the body parts that actually need it
74. 3:57when they actually need it.
75. 3:58The second new study I have for you today looked at another relatively complex idea
76. 4:03in bodybuilding -anabolic research competition.
77. 4:06Some bodybuilders claim that if you do a lot of volume for one body part,
78. 4:10then you cannot get the maximum gains with another body part
79. 4:14because you have a limited pool
80. 4:15of anabolic resources and muscles compete for that pool.
81. 4:19This would be an argument, for example, for specialization phases,
82. 4:22as opposed to just doing the same volume for all muscle groups.
83. 4:25A new study put this to the test.
84. 4:27The researchers had 105 untrained individuals either stay untrained,
85. 4:31the control group, or introduce them to the wonders of biceps training,
86. 4:35and they trained their biceps either just training their biceps
87. 4:38or they trained their biceps, and afterwards they trained their quads.
88. 4:41Specifically, they did bicep curls and leg extensions.
89. 4:44After six weeks, the gains in their one rep max and muscle thickness
90. 4:48were virtually identical
91. 4:49between the groups, so it didn't matter whether they trained their legs
92. 4:52after their arms, the gains and their arms were the same.
93. 4:55The researchers
94. 4:56titled their paper: “Skeletal muscles do not compete for growth:
95. 4:59Activating additional muscle mass does not compromise changes in muscle size.”
96. 5:04This might seem a bit like an overreach, given that this was a six week study
97. 5:07and in untraind trained individuals
98. 5:08doing only six sets of biceps girls and then 12 sets of quads,
99. 5:12and yes, it was to failure, but that's still a very, very low
100. 5:15training volume, in a short duration, in untrained individuals.
101. 5:19However, the idea is probably true because this study builds
102. 5:23on a large literature that already exists with much higher training volumes,
103. 5:27which actually found some trends for leg
104. 5:30training to increase gains in bicep size.
105. 5:33This was the whole idea of training legs, especially with compound movements
106. 5:37like squats, to get a positive anabolic hormonal milieu to stimulate arm gains.
107. 5:42Most of these studies have failed to replicate,
108. 5:44but it's quite clear that doing even significant leg training after
109. 5:48or before arm training does not compromise gains in your arms.
110. 5:53If anything, it's the case
111. 5:54that leg training might be slightly positive for your arms.
112. 5:59Mechanistically
113. 6:00this makes perfect sense because research is very clear
114. 6:03that muscle growth is primarily a local process.
115. 6:06Your biceps is a slab of meat.
116. 6:08You put tension on it, the meat grows.
117. 6:10That's muscle growth.
118. 6:11There aren't a lot of whole complicated systemic effects, fatigue,
119. 6:15many of these things that you hear are simply bro science.
120. 6:18Again, Occam's razor.
121. 6:19The simplest explanation is often the best.
122. 6:22So what I teach the students in my PT certification
123. 6:25and what I implement in my app, is that program design
124. 6:28should basically be a combination of individual programs
125. 6:31for every single muscle group.
126. 6:33You can emphasize a muscle group by doing more volume for that muscle group
127. 6:36and putting it earlier in your workouts,
128. 6:38but by and large,
129. 6:39what you do for your triceps does not affect how your hamstrings grow.
130. 6:43The only thing that affects how your hamstrings are growing
131. 6:45is how you train your hamstrings.
132. 6:47So an optimized
133. 6:48total training program is basically the sum of an optimized program
134. 6:52for each individual muscle group, then put together in a way
135. 6:56so that the optimal volumes actually work out.
136. 6:58Which, of course, is where science meets art,
137. 7:00because if you're doing squats, you're not just training your quads,
138. 7:03you're also training your glutes,
139. 7:04which means that you have to make all of the muscle groups fit together.
140. 7:08The volumes have to work out.
141. 7:09This is a large part of optimized program design, and it can be complex,
142. 7:13so if you want an app to do it for you, you can check out my app in the link
143. 7:18in the description. You get the two week free trial,
144. 7:20and it optimizes your volume for every single muscle group.
145. 7:22And you can also select which one of those you want to emphasize or not.
146. 7:25The third new study I have for you
147. 7:27today looks at another complex idea of how to gain muscle.
148. 7:31The idea is that only the last five reps of a set,
149. 7:34the last five reps to failure, are effective reps for muscle growth.
150. 7:38Everything you do before that is basically wasted effort.
151. 7:41It's just there to get you to the point where muscle recruitment is
152. 7:44high enough to actually stimulate significant muscle growth.
153. 7:47This means that if a set is not within five reps to failure,
154. 7:50it shouldn't really result in muscle growth
155. 7:52and every set can contribute at a maximum five effective reps.
156. 7:56A new study put this to the test.
157. 7:5819 strength trained
158. 7:59men and women trained one of their legs to absolute brutal failure
159. 8:03with leg extensions, true momentary muscle failure under supervision.
160. 8:07The other group left two reps in reserve. Training intensities as percentage of one
161. 8:12rep max were equated, and they did no other quad training.
162. 8:15After eight weeks
163. 8:15muscle growth was very similar between the groups, with no clear
164. 8:18trend in the data for any group to outperform the other group.
165. 8:21There were 3-4% increases in muscle thickness with ultrasound scans
166. 8:25across the vastus lateralis and the rectus femoris.
167. 8:27Gains in one rep max strength
168. 8:29were also virtually identical.
169. 8:30However, I would note that strength gains in this case are confounded
170. 8:33because you're training both of your legs and there is a cross education effect.
171. 8:37When you train one leg, the other leg also gets stronger.
172. 8:40Basically, the motor cortex, the part of your nervous system
173. 8:43that governs movement, learns that if you train your right leg,
174. 8:46it's like, hey, I can do this trick with the left leg as well.
175. 8:49And therefore your recruitment and the coordination of the left leg
176. 8:53also improve.
177. 8:54Motor cortex
178. 8:54is just mirroring what it learned on one side and applying it to the other side.
179. 8:58Now, importantly, many people think that this confounds
180. 9:00muscle growth, but it does not.
181. 9:01It's purely a neural learning effect.
182. 9:04Going back to the earlier study,
183. 9:05what happens in one leg in terms of muscle growth does not affect the other leg.
184. 9:09It's just a slab of meat.
185. 9:10Whether it's exposed to tension or not is the only thing that determines
186. 9:13whether it grows.
187. 9:14These results are hard to reconcile
188. 9:16with the idea that only the last five reps to failure are effective,
189. 9:19because one group clearly should have just had
190. 9:21two more effective reps in every set, in this case.
191. 9:24However, most research has found
192. 9:26that it's not just the last five reps that stimulate muscle growth.
193. 9:29Every rep stimulates tension on the muscle.
194. 9:31Every rep is therefore effective to at least some degree,
195. 9:34and what ultimately determines the total growth stimulus is primarily
196. 9:37the total repetition volume. I’ve covered training to failure multiple times on this topic,
197. 9:41and the conclusion every single time is that the total volume of repetitions is
198. 9:46what determines whether you grow or not, and how much you grow.
199. 9:49So whether you hit failure or not by itself doesn't really matter.
200. 9:52Now, what often happens in these studies
201. 9:54is that when you train to absolute failure, your reps drop so fast
202. 9:57that the group leaving some reps in reserve
203. 10:00actually ends up with the same total repetition volume.
204. 10:02If you end up with the same total repetition
205. 10:04volume, in research you get the same gains.
206. 10:06For example, multiple prior
207. 10:08studies have compared to doing a 4 sets of 7 at 12 rep max versus
208. 10:123 sets to failure, which tend to end up
209. 10:14with the same repetition volume, and therefore
210. 10:16they also end up with similar muscle growth.
211. 10:18Both of these options end up with more muscle growth than 3 sets of 7.
212. 10:22So when you do 3 sets of 7 you can increase your repetition volume
213. 10:25by doing an additional set of 7,
214. 10:26or you can increase your repetition volume by training harder and doing your sets
215. 10:31to failure.
216. 10:32In both of these cases, you increase your total repetition volume
217. 10:34and it doesn't seem to matter how you achieve it.
218. 10:37The results in muscle growth are the same.
219. 10:39Unfortunately, a massive gap of the new studies
220. 10:41that they didn't actually measure the total repetitions,
221. 10:44but because they were doing 5 to 6 sets to absolute failure under supervision,
222. 10:48I think it's very likely
223. 10:49that they lost reps significantly faster than the group leaving
224. 10:52two reps in reserve.
225. 10:53And like I said, in previous research we see that you often end up
226. 10:56with a similar total volume and therefore similar total gains.
227. 10:59The conclusion from this study is therefore
228. 11:01not that you can just train less hard and still make better gains.
229. 11:05Training harder does improve muscle growth because it increases your total
230. 11:09training volume, specifically your repetition volume.
231. 11:11But actually hitting failure is not necessary for muscle growth.
232. 11:15I hope these new studies help you stop overcomplicating training program design.
233. 11:19If you're interested
234. 11:20in more detailed, comprehensive coverage of how to gain muscle
235. 11:23and how to take your physique to the next level, check out my online PT course.
236. 11:26The link is in the description.
237. 11:27Or if you just want to apply everything for yourself, you can also get a two week
238. 11:30free trial to my app, which will do everything for you.
239. 11:33See you next time!