Scientific Principles of Hypertrophy Training (Renaissance Periodization Book 1)

regional hypertrophy occurs with specific exercises17.

lifting a weight that’s 10% of your 1RM (one rep maximum or the most you can lift for one repetition) might cause a tiny bit of growth per repetition, lifting a weight that’s 70% of your 1RM (seven times heavier) causes much more than seven times the growth7.

Directed adaption describes the idea that repeated, sequential training is needed for best adaptation. Adaptation is a change initiated by the training stimulus, such as muscle growth from resistance training1.

For safe execution and the continual stimulation of muscle activity, there is almost never a place for completely relaxing at the top or bottom of a lift, or of letting the weight drop in an eccentric.

smaller muscle cells that tend to be ‘slower-twitch’ and therefore weaker, but more fatigue resistant. Larger motor units have more, larger muscle cells that tend to be ‘faster-twitch’ and therefore stronger, but more quickly fatigued4.

For most people who have been lifting less than three years or so, training the whole body each mesocycle will probably not impede the growth of any individual muscles. Placing the more prioritized muscle groups earlier in the lifting session will suffice. As muscles get bigger over the years, this becomes less the case, and prioritizing and deprio

The principle of Specificity is the most important principle in sport science theory. In simple terms, it states that to get better at something, you should train that thing or things that potentiate it. If you cannot describe how your training supports your goals, you are probably violating the Specificity principle.

When applied to hypertrophy training, the idea of directed adaptation leads to multiple training recommendations. The first being that the major features (exercises and fundamental structure) of a hypertrophy program should be relatively consistent for a period of time11.

The Principle of Specificity of Training: To improve at a specific sport or physical endeavor, training must either directly support or potentiate improved performance in that sport or endeavor.