Lest das mal, da steht alles drin.
BP: Another thing you mentioned in Part 1 of this interview was something called "bag enlargement," which apparently has something to do with stretching the connective tissue around muscle fibers in order to enhance growth. How did you come up with this theory?
TA: The "bag theory" is not mine--it was developed by a scientist named D.J. Millward, a well-known researcher who has extensively studied the muscle-building process. His immense knowledge and research could help a lot of bodybuilders. Basically, Millward has observed three things: 1) the almost unlimited extent to which increased food intake can promote protein deposition during "catch-up growth" in malnourished patients, 2) both active and passive stretch will mediate anabolic and anti-catabolic influences, and 3) the cessation of normal muscle growth coincides with the cessation of bone growth.
[Indentation] There are "connective sheets" surrounding the individual muscle fiber [endomysium], bundles of muscle cells [perimysium], and the entire muscle [epimysium]. These sheets can be thought of as a series of "bags" acting to conduct the contractile force generated by actin and myosin in muscle fibers to the bone by the tendon.
[Indentation] Millward postulates that bag filling and enlargement may increase muscle development. You see, these bags have a minimum elasticity, at least compared to the cell membranes they enclose, so they'll actually inhibit muscle growth--you might think of them as very tight "girdles" that prevent the expansion of tissue.
BP: Doesn't "cell volumizing" help stretch these bags?
TA: Not really. The anabolic state of the muscle fiber does depend on its state of hydration, which is secondary to the amount of osmotic [the ability to attract water] substances in the cells, such as sodium, potassium, creatine, proteins, glycogen, and free amino acids like glutamine. The anabolic phase of my program is designed to maximize this cell-volumizing effect. Within a few days of starting a properly supplemented, high-calorie anabolic phase, your cells will be jam-packed with the aforementioned nutrients and intracellular triglycerides. They'll be "volumized" to the max . A cell will literally swell to fill the entire space of its connective-tissue compartment or, as Millward calls it, "bag." You'll feel "pumped" even when you're not training.
[Indentation] Interestingly, Millward believes that when this occurs, it will elicit a signal to reduce the appetite--this is just one of many regulatory feedback mechanisms that limit the rate of growth in mammals. This means that a few days into the anabolic/bulking phase of my program, you will probably not have a ferocious appetite, but you must keep eating if you want to grow!
----[Indentation] Now, to build extraordinary muscle mass, you need to somehow stretch this "girdle" that confines your muscle tissue. The osmotic gradient over the cell membrane is not strong enough to stretch this tissue all that much; however, the blood rushing into the muscle during resistance training [i.e., the pump] is strong enough to stretch these bags to some extent. This is how "the pump" contributes to muscle growth. It seems, as Arnold and many other famous bodybuilders have reported, the pump is associated with muscle growth. This is very likely due to the compartmental stretching or expansion that is induced by this swelling of muscles while they're trained and full of blood.
[Indentation] Millward confirms "...a key feature of skeletal muscle growth appears to be that it is limited by connective-tissue growth, which controls myofiber diameter and length." Somehow you must stretch this connective tissue--this tight girdle around muscle tissue--to experience dramatic muscle growth. This is very important. All bodybuilders must do this.
[Indentation] Show me a "natural" bodybuilder who is big, muscular, and cut, and you will show me a bodybuilder who has either used steroids in the past and/or has been overeating in the past; thus, he increased his potential for muscle growth by stretching the space for myofibers at one time. Once you have already expanded the connective tissue around muscles, you can be natural with a more normal calorie intake while still being relatively big.
[Indentation] This is what "muscle memory" is really all about. People have talked about this for decades in bodybuilding circles. They make the observation that a bodybuilder who was big in the past is able to gain a significant amount of muscle size--let's say he builds up some muscular 19-inch arms, then he stops training for a few months and loses a lot of mass, and his arms atrophy to 161/2 inches. Whereas the first time it took him years to gain 2 1/2 inches of muscular mass on his arms, this time he'll be able to add that bulk back in only a couple of months with proper training, nutrition, and supplementation. The explanation for this "muscle-memory phenomenon" is that the connective tissue around the muscle fibers has been previously stretched; thus, rapid growth is possible.------
BP: This makes sense. But, if you've never had 19-inch arms, how do you get this tissue to stretch?
TA: You have to bulk up at some point. In the past, as we've discussed, this usually meant going on prolonged periods of overfeeding, basically turning yourself into a blimp, and then cutting up--going on a brutal diet for months and months. Usually, these long, painful diets caused the loss of almost all the muscle mass you gained during the bulking phase, but they did serve one purpose--they stretched the connective tissue around the muscles.
[Indentation] We know that to maximize muscle growth we need to make sure the cell is properly hydrated and volumized. This is accomplished during the overfeeding phase of my Anabolic Burst Cycling program. Next, you need to get a good, solid pump during the workout and, beyond that, if you're looking for greater growth, you can now apply extreme stretching while being pumped.
[Indentation] The American bodybuilding coach John Parillo has made the same observation I have--that extreme stretching when the muscle is pumped, which he refers to as "fascia stretching," results in increased muscular growth. Research at Ohio State University also demonstrates that the amount of myosin heavy chains--a very important contractile protein in skeletal muscle--is increased by stretching.1 The result is obvious within a short period of time. Parillo's theory is that you stretch the fascia around the muscle which, according to him, is limiting muscle growth. However, research supports the idea that the endomysium and perimysium are involved in this limitation of growth--not necessarily the fascia.
[Indentation] What we are basically trying to do is further remodel that encumbering girdle around muscle tissue by stretching. This theory beautifully explains the perfect coordination between the lengthening of the skeleton--and thus a passive stretch of the connective tissue in muscle--and the increased muscle bulk in fast-growing teenagers. This is something few people think about, but when a teenager goes through rapid bone growth and experiences a dramatic increase in muscle mass during puberty, the muscle hypertrophy usually ends when the bones stop growing. Millward has documented that lean body mass increases in direct proportion to height in normal human beings.
[Indentation] Some "old-time" body-builders performed exercises with extreme stretching while they were pumped. I'm not sure how they figured out this was important, but some did. One of them was Arnold. He would perform dumbbell flyes on a flat bench in a relatively slow, high-rep manner after completely pumping up his chest. He could lower the dumbbells until they almost touched the floor! That's a brutal stretch. Was it a coincidence that Arnold built what was unarguably one of the most well-developed pair of pecs ever, in a day and age when steroid use was "minuscule" compared to what today's champs are using? I think not. Arnold used to really stretch out his lats while doing low rowing and high-cable pulldowns, too. And, he did pullovers which are an amazingly effective stretching exercise that you American lifters seem to have forgotten about.
[Indentation] You can stretch during your lifts and between them. But, I only recommend extreme stretching during the second week of the bulking phase of my system. This is when the muscles will get incredibly pumped, and recuperation will be maximal. The stretch-induced fusion and increased nuclei number peak within a week.15 This is one of the reasons to limit the use of extreme stretching to one week.
[Indentation] Another stimulus for remodeling is the breakdown of connective tissue during eccentric training. I recommend your readers review Charles Poliquin's article on this subject in the January 1996 issue of MM2K ( The Science of Eccentric Training) and your article on this topic in the April 1996 issue (A Sure Thing in a World of Confusion).
[Indentation] By the way, to support the formation of new connective tissue after you've damaged it by pumping up and stretching, I would recommend that you take at least one gram of Vitamin C before your workouts and make sure your total daily intake is at least three grams. There is evidence that Vitamin C not only supports hydroxylation in collagen synthesis but also works almost as a growth factor in the synthesis of connective tissue.8
[Indentation] Anyway, through proper eccentric training and stretching while being pumped, you will damage the connective tissue and force it to further remodel into a "larger bag." The stretching of the fiber will stimulate membrane-bound enzyme complexes which will trigger a release of growth factors such as TGF-beta, FGF, and IGF-1 from the muscle.13 These growth factors are all important for remodeling and synthesis of connective tissue. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this interview, IGF-1 and FGF stimulate the development of satellite cells and their fusion with muscle fibers to deliver nuclei, thus, new muscle mass, so long as the inner environment is optimal, which it is during the end of the anabolic phase.
[Indentation] Millward's theory, combined with my Anabolic Burst Cycling theory, beautifully explains what happens during puberty. To start with, there is an increase in testosterone and growth hormone. This, together with intracellular triglycerides, as mentioned earlier, will increase the amount of insulin the body releases. Insulin is the main factor responsible for transporting osmotic substances, such as glucose, amino acids, and creatine, into muscle fibers, which is why people are seeing such great results while taking creatine monohydrate with an insulin-releasing carbohydrate. Hence, the muscle will swell. At the same time, growth hormone is contributing to an increase in bone length; thus, a passive stretch is placed on the muscle with local IGF-1 being released. Since both GH and its insulin levels are elevated, IGF-1 production in the liver is stimulated, which adds further growth to the whole body. Are you beginning to get the picture?
[Indentation] During the anabolic phase of my ABCDE system, we mimic the mechanisms of pubescent metabolism. You may think I'm nagging about puberty, but I cannot emphasize enough the importance of trying to replicate this natural phenomenon. During puberty, you put on muscle, even without training, and on top of that, you keep this muscle for virtually your whole life. That's the type of quality growth that's possible with my new system.
, Großteil ist Genetik.... (und stoff)
