What is Hypertrophy?

Have you ever seen some Tik Toks of a professional weightlifter disguised as a janitor in a gym and “trying” to lift bodybuilder’s dumbbells? I’m pretty sure you have seen them. Did you wonder how a “skinnier” guy could lift so easily the same weight as a bodybuilder? Welp, the answer is: strength and hypertrophy are different.

What is hypertrophy?

Hypertrophy is the physical process of increasing muscular mass and fibers through resistance training. There are two main types of muscle hypertrophy:

• ·       Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is what most people mean when they refer to hypertrophy training.  It is the physical increase of the muscle.
• ·       Myofibril hypertrophy is when a muscle becomes denser and more compact.

Usually, these two types of hypertrophies happen simultaneously, and so for the distinction doesn’t really matter.

What are the benefits of hypertrophy training?

·        Builds More Muscle

Hypertrophy training allows for greater increases in muscle size and growth.

Less Risk of Injury

Hypertrophy training often has less risk of injury due to lighter loads and less injury risk when training closure to failure.

Increased Energy Expenditure

Energy expenditure can be increased by increasing your output. In other words, the more work you do (training volume), the more calories you burn.

Improves Muscular Symmetry

Hypertrophy training allows you to back off on focusing on moving a load from point A to point B, and really learn how to engage muscles, attack lagging muscle groups, and correct movement asymmetries.

Note that many of these benefits can also be seen with strength training as well, especially in beginner lifters.

Now that we know the exact word for muscular gain, we need to know what is strenght, but is late. See you next week.