Muscle matters

Just like running, building muscle requires thought and planning combined with a structured training program. Sgt Rob Orr looks at applying metabolic training principles to working with weights.

Training choices

Strength and power

Consider the profile of heavy strength training and power training.

The energy system would need to become active quickly and yield the highest productivity.

Furthermore, heavy lifts and maximal power activities seldom last for much longer than 15-20 seconds (strength endurance is discussed further on).

This profile well suits the parameters of the ATP-PCR system.

This would then mean that your rest period would need to be at least two to three minutes long in order to allow the system to recover optimally for the next lift.

It should also be noted here that heavy strength and power work places a high demand on the nervous system, which in turn requires three to six minutes to recover.

This means that when training for strength or power and lifting heavy or explosively, a rest of between two and six minutes between sets is required.

Endurance

For muscular endurance training, the aim is to improve the use of the lactic acid (anaerobic glycolytic) system.


This is achieved via two pathways:

• Increasing the ability of the cells to activate and use the lactic acid system.

Providing a means of “buffering” the effects of an incomplete breakdown of glucose/glycogen.

This means that the aim would be to activate the lactic acid system and then work within its parameters.

A rest of between 30 seconds and two minutes would allow a small metabolic recovery and a decrease in muscle tension.

But, more importantly, the ATP-PCR system will not fully recover and the lactic system will therefore be required earlier in the set.

This additional workload within the lactic acid parameters will create a metabolic adaptation that well suits the above two aims.

This means that when training for local muscle endurance activities (like push ups) a rest between sets of no more than two minutes is desired.

When size matters

Difficulty arises when training for hypertrophy (muscle size), which is one of the reasons why gaining muscle size is so hard. To develop muscle size, two parameters are required:

• Maximal muscle fibre activation (preferably the last to activate fast twitch muscles).

Placing these activated fibres under tension for a sustained duration.

In order to facilitate these requirements, a plethora of different training systems are used, some of which include pyramiding the weight (in conjunction with rest), “forced” repetitions (lifting heavy while increasing repetitions), and “rail-roading.”

Strength endurance

Strength endurance follows both training protocols for strength and power and those for endurance.

This means that a carefully periodised training program is required – strength training for two to three months followed by an endurance adaptation of this strength for about two months.

A matter of time

Would you consider 25 repetitions to be working in the realm of muscle endurance?

What if, as is common, the 25 repetitions are completed in between 20 to 25 seconds?

What energy system are they using? Not the lactic acid system, not until several sets have been completed.

In light of this, the speed of each repetition and overall duration of the set also needs to be considered when determining which energy system you want to train.

If you wish to complete a set number of repetitions quicker, then you need to follow the longer ATP-PCR recovery protocol. But if you wish to improve your local muscle endurance (for a BFA, for example) you need ensure your training matches the metabolic profile needed for the event. Some training examples of how this can be achieved include:

• Slowing down your repetitions (for example, three seconds per push up).
• Increasing the number of repetitions performed, for example, incline push ups, or push ups on the knees.
• Decreasing the amount of rest between each set.

In conclusion

For strength and power-based training, the set should not last for more than 20 seconds with a rest of about three minutes between sets.

In muscular endurance training, the set should last for significantly longer than 20 seconds, with a rest between sets of between 30 seconds and two minutes.

Strength endurance requires a careful and planned manipulation of both parameters, with a set timeframe given to strength and then to endurance.

For hypertrophy training, try to incorporate both parameters as much as possible while still maintaining the correct metabolic profile. So to do heavy lifts, allow longer rest periods, to increase time under tension allow shorter rest periods.

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