Hypertrophy-specific Training

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Hypertrophy-Specific Training (HST) is a method of strength training intended to induce muscle growth, or hypertrophy, in its practitioners. The method was popularized following an October 2000 ThinkMuscle newsletter article by fitness writer Bryan Haycock, which discussed methods he and his clients had been using for several years. Haycock says that the training method arose out of "physiological principles of hypertrophy discovered in the laboratory," and that these principles were then organized into a weight training method meant to induce hypertrophy.[1]

[edit] Principles of HST

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  1. Mechanical Load: Exercise stimuli causes muscle hypertrophy.[2]
  2. Chronic Stimulation: These stimuli must be applied with sufficient frequency. Acute responses to training return to normal in about 36 hours. Recovery can take place unabated even if a the muscle is loaded again in 48 hours.[3]
  3. Progressive Load: Over time, the tissue adapts and becomes resistant to the damaging effects of mechanical load.
  4. Strategic Deconditioning: To continue hypertrophy, the load must be temporarily eliminated, to allow the muscle to "Decondition" and allow hypertrophic response to training once again. This process happens after the end of a 6-8 week "cycle" and can last from 9-14 days preceding a new "cycle".
  5. Utilizing lactic acid as a stimulus for tendon repair/health: Higher reps produce lactic acid which prepares the muscles and tendons for future heavy loads. Compound exercises are used to maximize the effects.
  6. Progressively Adjusting reps to accommodate Progressive Load: HST suggests that you change how many exercise repetitions you perform every 2 weeks, to accommodate the ever increasing load. Most "HST" programs start with a 15 rep, 2 week "semi-cycle" that is performed over six workouts with the sixth workout being at the exercisers maximum weight. The next semi-cycle, reps are reduced to 10, then 5, finally ending with a repeat of the 5 rep cycle, or eccentric repetitions. Each semi-cycle adds to equal one full 8 week cycle.
  7. Low volume per exercise (average volume per week): HST suggests that you limit the number of sets per exercise per workout to 1 or 2, based on evidence that sets beyond the first set do not contribute to hypertrophy.[citation needed] Instead of doing 6 sets of a bench press in one workout, those sets are spread over the course of a week.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Haycock, Bryan (2002). HSN: About Us. Official Website of HST. Hypertrophy-Specific Nutrition. Retrieved on 2008-02-13.
  2. ^ Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy. Muscle Physiology. University of California, San Diego (2000). Retrieved on 2006-11-02.
  3. ^ Nosaka, K. and Newton, M. (2002-16-02). "Repeated eccentric exercise bouts do not exacerbate muscle damage and repair". . Exercise and Sports Science Retrieved on 2008-02-13.
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