Last Update On December 27, 2011
The Truth About Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy
by Vladi
The first time I've heard about sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar hypertrophy was in Pavel Tsatsouline's book Power To The People!. According to the experts sarcoplasmic hypertrophy refers to non-functional hypertrophy or simply an increase of capillaries or blood vessels in general and increased glycogen storage capacity. Many people believe that by performing 15-25 reps per set you will only acquire sarcoplasmic or fake muscles. Of course all of this is not true. There is not such thing as sarcoplasmic hypertrophy or non-functional hypertrophy. Let's see why.
Hypertophy or in simple words muscular growth is an increase of the muscle fiber cells. At the same time sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is presented as a augmentation of blood vessels that artificially make your muscle look larger. However I don't see the logic in it. First each cell system requires a certain number of blood vessels in order to function properly. Think of the muscle fiber cells as a garden while the blood vessels and the glycogen storage are the water supply. The number of water supplying units for every garden is dependent on its size. In other words a small garden in front of a house does not need as developed water supply system a farm will need. The same applies to the musculature - at some point the number of blood vessels cannot increase unless the cells become bigger and increase their number. In other words - increase of sarcoplasma and muscle fibers comes hand in hand and are highly dependent on each other. You can't have one without the other. You buy a bigger garden - it needs more water. Any questions?
"Hmmm...I don't get it. There are people that are way weaker than they look? Especially bodybuilders."
Strength is measured by the lifted weight, right? Bodybuilders are not good at performing low reps - below 6. Most of them train in the so called hypertrophy rep-range - 6-12 or so. That's why you don't see them lift as heavy as powerlifters do. Their CNS system is not used to low rep work. The opposite is also try - powerlifters are not as good at performing higher reps. Their conditioning is not the best.
The reason why we see so many people that look weaker for their size is quite often the use of drugs. Also there are a lot of people just built for certain lifts. Let's say that you are skinny but you have long arms - you will deadlift a lot of weight. At the same time the bench press will be harder and you may appear weaker because of it. On top of that some people are just genetically predisposed at having more muscle mass. I've heard Lee Haney himself saying that he has never done more than a 225 Romanian deadlift. He didn't need to. Of course he used to do them after leg curls but please.....225 pounds by IFBB pro. It's not even funny. I can lift almost double the weight but don't have his hamstrings of course. Some people just have genetically gifted bodypart that grows from nothing. But just to be on the safe side perform Romanian deadlifts with more than 225 because chances are this will be a baby weight for most people.
However one thing is sure - you will always look as strong as you are unless you take steroids.
"Ok. But than why so many people complain about about performing a lot of reps?"
To trick you into listening to the skinny guy advice. Of course you won't grow from sets of 50. That's cardio. However the muscle built from 10-15 reps per set is not just blood vessels although it's impossible to have bigger cells and the same capillaries. The body doesn't function this way. You get bigger - everything grows. At the same time nobody grows from lifting baby weight unless he/she is on steroids. It just doesn't happen.
Conclusion: Myofobrillar and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy come together. You can't have one without the other. If you believe that after performing more than 5 reps the body goes like this:
"Hey!!!It's time to go into non-functional mode and become non-function bodybuilder."
You better upgrade.
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