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majutsu
Well-known member
For those who are HST fans, I have a hypothetical story to bring up some issues about what it really takes to build muscle.
Imagine we have a 16yo Johnny who starts to lift weights. Having played football etc, he's in good shape, well-coordinated and athletic. Now Johnny is odd in that although he's new to weights, he happens to be an HST devotee. So he figured out his maxes on his chosen exercises, and begins with his first HST cycle.
For those who don't know, essentially, HST believes that it's not the burn that builds muscle, and that muscles don't tear and take 7 days to heal (like the HIT crowd believes). They believe muscles grow from stimulation. If you never have done anything, then curl, the next day your muscles in your biceps will be quite sore, and you will grow. To grow further, you need more stimulus, which is why people increase the weight. People often plateau in growth though eventually, even with this progressive overload method. To deal with this problem, to get the growth of a perpetual newbie, HST does a few neat tricks. One, they decondition for 2 weeks (every 8 weeks) to reset the clock, so lighter weights are an effective stimulus again. Also, they do 2 weeks of 15reps sets, then 2 weeks 10 rep set, then 2 weeks 5 rep sets, then power rep or negative sets for 2 weeks. So your weight on the muscle is constantly increasing over time. The high reps are needed initially because the weights are so light, high reps are needed to make it some sort of an effective stimulus. (Old timers like Serge Nubret used to do 20sets of 20 rep bench, so this is not unheard in hypertrophy training history. Plus the famous 20-rep squat is another example.) Now your weights at the end of each 2 week period approach your max weight for that rep count. The only reason the first workout in a 2 week period is an effective stimulus is because of the relative deconditioning that has taken place. Your weight increase the same increment each workout. That means you get a fairly constant workout stimulus [S(w)] each time. Each S(w) or stimulus of workout give you a little hypertrophy boost. Your hypertrophy or the inches on your bicep are the sum of the S(w) or the sum of the stimuli of workout. Since HST tries to make this fairly constant by using the same increments and increasing the weight smoothly from very low to your 5RM, your hypertrophy is just the number of workouts
times the S(w) stimulus of workout. H=n*S(w)
At the end of his workouts, an HSTer takes 2 weeks off to decondition. In theory, if he takes the right time off, he will not lose too much size, but his weights can be the exact same as his last HST cycle and he will still have the effective stimulus from each workout. So his lifetime hypertrophy will just be the total number of workout he's done times his workout stimulus n*S(w).
Now, back to Johnny, he starts with a 10RM bench of 135lbs. Since he does HST from day one he follows the same cycle every time, building mass with each workout stimulus. He never increases his 10RM or 5RM as most do with HST, as he want to focus on hypertrophy as exclusively as possible. So, Johnny builds 80 lbs of lean muscle of the years with HST without every increasing his 10RM bench from 135lbs. We now have a Mr. Olympia who can only bench 135lbs for 10reps. Is this possible? Or is something wrong with the convential understanding of HST and strategic deconditioning?
Think about it awhile . . . .
The answer . . . deconditioning, or resting, or recovering, or preventing overtraining, whatever you want to call it, doesn't really exist. It is not the withdrawal of stimulus, or the above story would be possible. The truth is ignore the weight, deconditioning is another stimulus for hypertrophy S(d), the stimulus of deconditioning. In other words, the reason why Johnny can't do the Olympia without increasing his bench is because, he can probably grow off 2-3 HST cycles without changing weights, but eventually, his body mass will have increased to a certain point where even with 2 weeks deconditioning, that first workout with the low weights will not equal the old stimulus of workout S(w). The stimulus of workout will not be enough to maintain the mass acquired, so there is a minimum stimulus required to maintain certain muscle masses (maintenance by resistance training, diet, or even drugs at certain way-over-natural levels). So there is the daily subtraction of the Stimuli required to maintain [S(m)]. This has been proven in denervation studies, where once devervated, and deprived of stimulation, muscle go into quick catabolysis. So the hypertrophy in a 2-month period (or any time period days to years) is the total stimuli of workout plus the total stimuli of any deconditioning minus the stimuli required to maintain the mass in that time period:
H= S(w) + S(d) - S(m)
The stimuli of workout S(w) are limited by what a human body can take, and what increments are possible. S(d) is limited as anything over five weeks seems to provide no further benefit in studies. S(m) has many factors, but diet, genetics, and anabolics are the most important factors in your maintenance. In other words, to truly understand HST you must get out of the "tear-and-repair" mentality. I found for myself that Strategic Deconditioning often is the place where misunderstanding and old ideas still rule the roost.
A good study of the proof of the stimulus of deconditioning (that actually brought this train of thought on . . . )
J Appl Physiol. 2003 Dec 5 [Epub ahead of print] Links
Hypertrophy of chronically unloaded muscle subjected to resistance exercise.
Tesch PA, Trieschmann JT, Ekberg A.
Department of Geriatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas 72205, USA; Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, S-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Clinical Physiology, Huddinge University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, S-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.
In an effort to simulate the compromised function and atrophy of lower limb muscles experienced by astronauts after spaceflight, twenty-one men and women age 30-56 yrs, were subjected to unilateral lower limb unloading for five wk. Whereas ten of these subjects performed unilateral knee extensor resistance exercise (ULRE) two or three times weekly, eleven subjects (UL) refrained from training. The exercise regimen consisted of four sets of seven maximal actions, using an apparatus that offers concentric and eccentric resistance by utilizing the inertia of rotating flywheel(s). Knee extensor muscle strength was measured before and after UL and ULRE and, volume of knee extensor and ankle plantar flexor muscles was determined by means of magnetic resonance imaging. Surface EMG activity measured following UL inferred increased muscle use to perform a given motor task. UL induced an 8.8% decrease (p<0.05) in knee extensor muscle volume. Following ULRE and, as a result of only about 16 min of maximal contractile activity over the five wk course, muscle volume increased (p<0.05) 7.7%. Muscle strength decreased 24-32% (p<0.05) in response to UL. Grp ULRE showed maintained (p>0.05) strength. Ankle plantar flexor muscle volume of the unloaded limb decreased (p<0.05) in both groups (UL 10.5%; ULRE 11.1%). In neither group did the right weight-bearing limb show any change (p>0.05) in muscle volume or strength. The results of this study provide evidence that resistance exercise may not only offset muscle atrophy, but is in fact capable of promoting marked hypertrophy of chronically unloaded muscle.
Imagine we have a 16yo Johnny who starts to lift weights. Having played football etc, he's in good shape, well-coordinated and athletic. Now Johnny is odd in that although he's new to weights, he happens to be an HST devotee. So he figured out his maxes on his chosen exercises, and begins with his first HST cycle.
For those who don't know, essentially, HST believes that it's not the burn that builds muscle, and that muscles don't tear and take 7 days to heal (like the HIT crowd believes). They believe muscles grow from stimulation. If you never have done anything, then curl, the next day your muscles in your biceps will be quite sore, and you will grow. To grow further, you need more stimulus, which is why people increase the weight. People often plateau in growth though eventually, even with this progressive overload method. To deal with this problem, to get the growth of a perpetual newbie, HST does a few neat tricks. One, they decondition for 2 weeks (every 8 weeks) to reset the clock, so lighter weights are an effective stimulus again. Also, they do 2 weeks of 15reps sets, then 2 weeks 10 rep set, then 2 weeks 5 rep sets, then power rep or negative sets for 2 weeks. So your weight on the muscle is constantly increasing over time. The high reps are needed initially because the weights are so light, high reps are needed to make it some sort of an effective stimulus. (Old timers like Serge Nubret used to do 20sets of 20 rep bench, so this is not unheard in hypertrophy training history. Plus the famous 20-rep squat is another example.) Now your weights at the end of each 2 week period approach your max weight for that rep count. The only reason the first workout in a 2 week period is an effective stimulus is because of the relative deconditioning that has taken place. Your weight increase the same increment each workout. That means you get a fairly constant workout stimulus [S(w)] each time. Each S(w) or stimulus of workout give you a little hypertrophy boost. Your hypertrophy or the inches on your bicep are the sum of the S(w) or the sum of the stimuli of workout. Since HST tries to make this fairly constant by using the same increments and increasing the weight smoothly from very low to your 5RM, your hypertrophy is just the number of workouts
times the S(w) stimulus of workout. H=n*S(w)At the end of his workouts, an HSTer takes 2 weeks off to decondition. In theory, if he takes the right time off, he will not lose too much size, but his weights can be the exact same as his last HST cycle and he will still have the effective stimulus from each workout. So his lifetime hypertrophy will just be the total number of workout he's done times his workout stimulus n*S(w).
Now, back to Johnny, he starts with a 10RM bench of 135lbs. Since he does HST from day one he follows the same cycle every time, building mass with each workout stimulus. He never increases his 10RM or 5RM as most do with HST, as he want to focus on hypertrophy as exclusively as possible. So, Johnny builds 80 lbs of lean muscle of the years with HST without every increasing his 10RM bench from 135lbs. We now have a Mr. Olympia who can only bench 135lbs for 10reps. Is this possible? Or is something wrong with the convential understanding of HST and strategic deconditioning?
Think about it awhile . . . .
The answer . . . deconditioning, or resting, or recovering, or preventing overtraining, whatever you want to call it, doesn't really exist. It is not the withdrawal of stimulus, or the above story would be possible. The truth is ignore the weight, deconditioning is another stimulus for hypertrophy S(d), the stimulus of deconditioning. In other words, the reason why Johnny can't do the Olympia without increasing his bench is because, he can probably grow off 2-3 HST cycles without changing weights, but eventually, his body mass will have increased to a certain point where even with 2 weeks deconditioning, that first workout with the low weights will not equal the old stimulus of workout S(w). The stimulus of workout will not be enough to maintain the mass acquired, so there is a minimum stimulus required to maintain certain muscle masses (maintenance by resistance training, diet, or even drugs at certain way-over-natural levels). So there is the daily subtraction of the Stimuli required to maintain [S(m)]. This has been proven in denervation studies, where once devervated, and deprived of stimulation, muscle go into quick catabolysis. So the hypertrophy in a 2-month period (or any time period days to years) is the total stimuli of workout plus the total stimuli of any deconditioning minus the stimuli required to maintain the mass in that time period:
H= S(w) + S(d) - S(m)
The stimuli of workout S(w) are limited by what a human body can take, and what increments are possible. S(d) is limited as anything over five weeks seems to provide no further benefit in studies. S(m) has many factors, but diet, genetics, and anabolics are the most important factors in your maintenance. In other words, to truly understand HST you must get out of the "tear-and-repair" mentality. I found for myself that Strategic Deconditioning often is the place where misunderstanding and old ideas still rule the roost.
A good study of the proof of the stimulus of deconditioning (that actually brought this train of thought on . . . )
J Appl Physiol. 2003 Dec 5 [Epub ahead of print] Links
Hypertrophy of chronically unloaded muscle subjected to resistance exercise.
Tesch PA, Trieschmann JT, Ekberg A.
Department of Geriatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas 72205, USA; Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, S-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden; Department of Clinical Physiology, Huddinge University Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, S-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.
In an effort to simulate the compromised function and atrophy of lower limb muscles experienced by astronauts after spaceflight, twenty-one men and women age 30-56 yrs, were subjected to unilateral lower limb unloading for five wk. Whereas ten of these subjects performed unilateral knee extensor resistance exercise (ULRE) two or three times weekly, eleven subjects (UL) refrained from training. The exercise regimen consisted of four sets of seven maximal actions, using an apparatus that offers concentric and eccentric resistance by utilizing the inertia of rotating flywheel(s). Knee extensor muscle strength was measured before and after UL and ULRE and, volume of knee extensor and ankle plantar flexor muscles was determined by means of magnetic resonance imaging. Surface EMG activity measured following UL inferred increased muscle use to perform a given motor task. UL induced an 8.8% decrease (p<0.05) in knee extensor muscle volume. Following ULRE and, as a result of only about 16 min of maximal contractile activity over the five wk course, muscle volume increased (p<0.05) 7.7%. Muscle strength decreased 24-32% (p<0.05) in response to UL. Grp ULRE showed maintained (p>0.05) strength. Ankle plantar flexor muscle volume of the unloaded limb decreased (p<0.05) in both groups (UL 10.5%; ULRE 11.1%). In neither group did the right weight-bearing limb show any change (p>0.05) in muscle volume or strength. The results of this study provide evidence that resistance exercise may not only offset muscle atrophy, but is in fact capable of promoting marked hypertrophy of chronically unloaded muscle.
