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hypertrophy or hyperplasia?

blue

blue

New member
So ive been reading about these.

From wikipedia:
Hypertrophy is the increase in the volume of an organ or tissue due to the enlargement of its component cells
Hyperplasia is where cells remain approximately the same size but increase in number.

It says bodybuilders use hypertrophy to get bigger muscles. but i was thinking ;)
what if you did some sort of training to induce hyperplasia, making more muscle cells for a period of time. then you changed to regular bodybuilding excercises and all those EXTRA cells also increased in volume. and then you have epic awesome muscles.

Whats the go? is this possible/ practical?
 
Hyperplasia after adolescence requires exogenous growth hormone.

That is, you gotta take drugs to make it happen. Which leads to all sorts of bad things in the long run.

Hypertrophy still means you get bigger and stronger. What more do you want? Bigger than bigger and stronger than stronger? Ah, the impatience of youth...

There ain't no shortcut past Hard Work Rd, sorry.
 
How does one obtain Hypertrophy? Is this to do with the number of reps you do in an exercise?
 
LJ, in theory, 1-6 reps build strength without size (hypertrophy), 8-12 reps is hypertrophic, and 13+ reps builds muscular endurance. 7 is the orphaned rep number no-one claims.

However, powerlifters and Olympic-style weightlifters do mostly low reps and they are often quite large. Rippetoe's Starting Strength programme is based entirely on 5-rep work sets, and he claims gains of around 30lbs (14kg) of lean mass (mostly muscle, some bone) in the first 3 months as "rather common" for young adult males.

I know of no-one who used only 13+ reps and got big from it. So probably a better rule of thumb is that under a dozen reps makes you stronger, and over a dozen makes you fitter... and whether you get bigger or smaller depends on your diet.

Or as Markos likes to say, strength and fitness under the iron, size at the dinner table. For hypertrophy, lift heavy and eat heavier.
 
blue said:
So ive been reading about these.

From wikipedia:
Hypertrophy is the increase in the volume of an organ or tissue due to the enlargement of its component cells
Hyperplasia is where cells remain approximately the same size but increase in number.

It says bodybuilders use hypertrophy to get bigger muscles. but i was thinking ;)
what if you did some sort of training to induce hyperplasia, making more muscle cells for a period of time. then you changed to regular bodybuilding excercises and all those EXTRA cells also increased in volume. and then you have epic awesome muscles.

Whats the go? is this possible/ practical?
Click to expand...

It is generally thought that muscle fibres increase in size but not in number.
Except for rare circumstances in which a muscle fibre splits into two.
 
blue said:
So ive been reading about these.

From wikipedia:
Hypertrophy is the increase in the volume of an organ or tissue due to the enlargement of its component cells
Hyperplasia is where cells remain approximately the same size but increase in number.

It says bodybuilders use hypertrophy to get bigger muscles. but i was thinking ;)
what if you did some sort of training to induce hyperplasia, making more muscle cells for a period of time. then you changed to regular bodybuilding excercises and all those EXTRA cells also increased in volume. and then you have epic awesome muscles.

Whats the go? is this possible/ practical?
Click to expand...

The only way is with HGH. Probably not something to be messing with unless you have a shot at the Olympia.

Kyle Aaron said:
LJ, in theory, 1-6 reps build strength without size (hypertrophy), 8-12 reps is hypertrophic, and 13+ reps builds muscular endurance. 7 is the orphaned rep number no-one claims.

However, powerlifters and Olympic-style weightlifters do mostly low reps and they are often quite large. Rippetoe's Starting Strength programme is based entirely on 5-rep work sets, and he claims gains of around 30lbs (14kg) of lean mass (mostly muscle, some bone) in the first 3 months as "rather common" for young adult males.

I know of no-one who used only 13+ reps and got big from it. So probably a better rule of thumb is that under a dozen reps makes you stronger, and over a dozen makes you fitter... and whether you get bigger or smaller depends on your diet.

Or as Markos likes to say, strength and fitness under the iron, size at the dinner table. For hypertrophy, lift heavy and eat heavier.
Click to expand...

The last part is accurate. Strength in the gym, size at the dinner table.

But the bit about 13+ reps not being good for size is way off the mark. The most effective mass adding program I know of is base around 20 rep squats. I've gone from 78kg to 108 in just over 2 years, so I'm not a novice. But using that program (and milk) I could still, even now put on over 1kg a week without a doubt.

That rep range theory is total crap. Put in the effort you will get the strength, eat the food you will get the size.
 
NPR said:
That rep range theory is total crap. Put in the effort you will get the strength, eat the food you will get the size.
Click to expand...

Thank you.Hearing it from someone with experience and the physique to back it up helps me get my head around it.
It just never sounded right to me,that theory.I`m doing 5-6 reps,5-6 sets @ 100kg right now.If I could do 20 reps at 100kg and beyond there is no way I could not get big and strong.
 
NPR said:
But the bit about 13+ reps not being good for size is way off the mark. The most effective mass adding program I know of is base around 20 rep squats.
Click to expand...
Yes, but you didn't only do 20 reps for squats, yeah?

I was unclear: the rep theory range stuff is based on the idea that if you only do that many reps, you will only get those particular results.

I believe that in the long-term, just as a combination of different exercises works best, so too with a combination of rep ranges.

NPR said:
That rep range theory is total crap. Put in the effort you will get the strength, eat the food you will get the size.
Click to expand...
I definitely believe that the rep range is nowhere near as important as is made out in the literature.
 
Some people will eat to get bigger muscles but just end up getting fat? It seems the best reps for muscle growth is around 10.
 
The best rep range is a proggressive one, even better? Double proggression.
Most make the mistake of adding exercises rather than weight to the bar.
Hmmm, simple really, hard to do though.
 
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