Avoiding hypertrophy

C

cannavaro

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I am looking to improve maximal strength, strength endurance and maybe my explosivity as well. How can I go about doing this without gaining any significant muscle mass (a little bit of size gain is fine)?

Say I do pull ups. Doing pullups with a 5-5 count I can only manage 3 or 4 reps (max strength) but if I manage to get that to 16+ reps (endurance) I will have to pass through the stage of 8-12 reps (hypertrophy).
 
While there are the general set ups for inducing certain responses (hypertrophy, endurance), not a lot happens if you're not eating enough to let hypertrophy happen. Keep in mind that nothing happens over night, so it's not like 6 weeks down the road you're going to be "cursed" with tons of muscle. Another point is, even if you are passing through the 8-12 rep range, the load is not heavy enough to cause any adaptations in muscle size.

Explosive-plyometrics, olympic lifts, fast concentric movements, use 50-60% of your 1RM and move the bar as fast as possible for speed training

absolute strength-work in the 85%+ of 1 rep max (you won't be getting a lot of reps at this percentage)

Endurance-tons of reps

I wouldn't worry about TUT or tempo or counting your reps, the slow method is meant to maximize hypertrophy, not strength.
 
Thanks for that Evo.

I have also been looking at how you actually use your muscles. For example, it makes sense to do squats for endurance and strength bcos you are constantly using the squat action in everyday life.

However, your E.Spinae and deep postural muscles of the back are used for posture and being upright so it makes sense to train these statically for endurance (bridge, prone skydive) rather than doing back crunches and supermans.

Does this make sense to you?
 
To keep yourself from hurting yourself and experiencing more muscle soreness than usual, if you haven't exercised before, you probably will not want to do the strength/power phase right away. So you might want to follow something like this, but maybe stay 2-3 weeks only in the Prep and Hypertrophy phase, and then spend more time in the Basic Strength/Power phase as long as you don't plataeu..

Preparatory (Neuromuscular Adaptation, Corrective Exercise, Stabilization):
† Establish foundation, get body ready for program
† Includes foundational cardiovascular, flexibility, and strength
† Weight Training Frequency: 2-3 x’s/Week
† 1-4 Weeks
† Sets 1-3, Reps 8-15, Volume: High, Intensity: VLow (50-60%), Rest: 30 sec – 1 min

Hypertrophy (Toning, Muscular Endurance, Functional-Integrated Stabilization):
† Increase Lean Body Mass (LBM), Decrease Body Fat
† Weight Training Frequency: 4 x’s/Week
† 2-8 Weeks
† Sets 2-4, Reps 8-15, Volume: High, Intensity: Low (60-75%), Rest: 30 sec – 3 mins

Basic Strength (Relative Strength, Absolute Strength, Functional Strength):
† Focus on increasing strength to build more LBM.
† Knowledge that there will be sacrifice of the focus of decrease body fat so that the added LBM can be better utilized during the hypertrophy and metabolic protocols to reach goal.
† Weight Training Frequency: 4 x’s/Week
† 2-8 Weeks
† Sets 2-5, Reps 4-8, Volume – High, Intensity – Med/High (80-90%), Rest: 3-5 mins

Metabolic (Power, High Intensity):
† High caloric expenditure and functional. Very little focus on developing strength except for any testing for upcoming protocol.
† Opportunity to capitalize of increase muscle mass and strength from basic strength phase
† Weight Training Frequency: 2-3 x’s/Week
† 1-2 Weeks
† Sets 3-5, Reps 3-5, Volume: Low, Intensity: High (90-100+%), Rest: 5-10 mins

Active Rest (Recovery):
† No goal in mind, maintaining active lifestyle without the commitment to structured regimen (off-season). Remember you can’t run full-speed up hill all the time, you need to plan time off.
† 1-2 Weeks
 
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