By Ayaan Shamsie (Y12)
Ever wondered how Hollywood stars and bodybuilders get lean muscular physiques?
These impressive physiques you see in movies and magazine covers are built from something called hypertrophy training → the enlargement of an organ or tissue from an increase in size of its cells.
In a weightlifting context , it simply means making your muscles look bigger by increasing the size of your muscle fibres. In weightlifting, this happens when you train with resistance
( like dumbbells, cable machines etc. ) Basically hypertrophy training is all about getting bigger and stronger muscles. Muscle growth can happen through many different training approaches as a byproduct, however if your main goal is to build an aesthetic and strong body then you need to follow a few rules in order to achieve this dream physique.
1) How to achieve muscle hypertrophy ( in simple terms )
- Mechanical tension : This is the main driver of muscle growth, when force is exerted on the muscle fibres, they contract and stretch under load. Think of it as your muscles getting stressed in a good way, so to adapt, your body naturally signals your muscle fibres to grow in order to handle the load better next time.
It’s that simple, many people overcomplicate the idea of getting big and strong, promoting supplements, and complicated workout regimens, but at its core, getting bigger is very simple. All you need is to create mechanical tension through heavy weight training and maintaining good form
- Progressive overload : This means gradually adding weights to each exercise over time, so that your body is forced to keep adapting and growing. This is essential for muscle hypertrophy and strength gains
2) How to train for muscle hypertrophy
- Chest : All you need is 2 exercises ,
- 1st exercise where your elbows are in a flared position and force is exerted towards you. This can be achieved with a Pec dec or any flat pressing movement of your choice.
- 2nd exercise , pick anything where your elbows are more tucked, ideally in an inclined position to bias the upper region of your chest. Exercises like incline press or low to high fly will suffice.
- Triceps : Your tricep has a long head and a short head, the medial head is difficult to bias so again, just pick 2 exercises.
- 1st exercise where your elbows are against your body and you extend downwards ( tricep pushdowns )
- 2nd exercise where your elbows are extending over your head (overhead tricep extensions, skull crushers)
- Shoulders : The shoulders are made up of 3 deltoids, front,middle and rear deltoids. This muscle is what gives the wide frame many people desire so it is important to hit all 3 deltoids properly.
- Rear delts : pick 1 exercise like rear delt flys, cable dumbbells will suffice as long as you maintain good form.
- Middle delts : any lateral raise movement with dumbbell or cable with good form ( for the rear and middle delts it is important to not involve your trapezius muscles as they will take more load and you will end up not biasing the rear / middle deltoids )
- Front delts : best targeted by overhead pressing movements or front raises with dumbbells or cable.
- Biceps : This muscle is made up of a short head and a long head, however it is difficult to bias only one of these heads. Recommended exercises are Preacher curls as it is very easy to maintain good form, and Hammer curls so you can hit your brachialis and brachioradialis muscles too ( this will give your forearms a thicker appearance ) . However, both long and short heads are still effectively hit by any curl variation where your arm moves from down to up as long as you maintain good form.
- Back : This part of your body is composed of many different muscles so don’t focus on biasing every single one. Divide your back into…
- Upper back : composed of your rear delts, traps and rhomboids, these will be hit effectively through : Upper back row ( elbows flared ) , this will target your rhomboids, traps and rear delts. To bias just your traps you can do any shrug movement variation.
- Lats : These are on both sides of your back, contributing to the wider frame look. They can be biased through wide pullup or any pulling movement ( lat pulldowns, barbell rows )
- Lower back : Made up of the erector muscles, biased through back extensions
- Legs : This is a big part of your body and many people tend to skip training them but it is very important as it will complete the muscular look you want to achieve
- Quadriceps : basically your thighs, these can be biased through leg extensions but will also be hit through compound movements such as squats, bulgarian split squats and any other squatting variation
- Hamstrings : the muscles behind your thigh, can be biased through any hamstring curl variation or RDL’s
- Calves : very simple to target, done through weighted calf extensions
- Adductors : Part of your inner thigh muscles, very overlooked but contribute to a thicker look from the front, you can easily bias them on the sus machine.
- Abs : There are many misconceptions about ab training. If you want the aesthetic look you see on magazine covers and movies then being lean isn’t enough. Online you may see people doing a lot of crunches or fancy ab circuits but these won’t do the job if your sole goal is hypertrophy. You must do any movement where you are performing spinal flexion, like weighted crunches, seated ab curls on a machine. In short you must train your abs just like any other muscle, with proper resistance and progressive overload to make them pop out.
3) Set’s and rep ranges
Ideally for muscle hypertrophy , on each exercise you must do 2-3 sets to failure with a 5-8 rep range,resting 2-3 minutes between sets. If you can’t do 5 reps with a weight, then pick a slightly lighter weight, if you can do 8 reps with a weight, then pick a slightly heavier weight next time , this will allow you to achieve progressive overload , prevent you from overcomplicating your workout, help you achieve optimal mechanical tension and bonus points as it will also prevent you from spending more than 1-2 hours at the gym.
4) Workout split and Resting
There are many splits to choose from, the one you choose depends on your availability and how much time you are willing to dedicate to the gym. Note : It is important to hit each muscle 2x a week for optimal results
- the PPL split ( Push, Pull, Legs ), push day you do all your pushing movements hitting your shoulders chest and triceps, pull day you do all pulling movements so , biceps and back. This split is usually ideal for beginners as it’s easy to stick too and not very time consuming.
- Upper Lower split where you do all upper body movements one day, then Lower body another day. This can be good for people who are able to dedicate a lot more time in the gym, however it can become very fatiguing in the long term.
- There are many other splits to choose from, you can alternate depending on personal preferences.
REMEMBER : The most important things are consistency, nutrition and rest, ideally take 1-2 days off from the gym in order to let your muscles recover.
5) Cutting
- To put it simply, a person would go on a cut with the goal to reduce body fat whilst maintaining as much muscle as possible. To achieve this you MUST be in a calorie deficit.
Calories are your body’s source of energy, to be in a calorie deficit you must be under your calorie maintenance level ( basically the amount of calories your body would need to keep your body the same ), this can be done through burning calories through movement, and eating less. You can be 300-500 calories under your maintenance per day, or 500+ calories under maintenance for faster results.
- In simple terms, your body stores excess calories as fat in your body, when you are in this deficit, your body will use these fat stores to compensate for the deficit, and that’s how you lose the fat.
- When cutting, it is most important to be consuming at least 1.2g of protein per kilogram of body weight, sleeping 8 hours everyday and working out hard in order to force your body to maintain as much muscle as possible.
Note : you cannot target fat loss in specific areas of your body. Where your body chooses to store more fat ,whether it be on your face, legs , belly, is determined mostly by genetics. The only way to reduce overall fat is by being in a calorie deficit for a long enough time.
Sources :
1) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6950543