Hypertrophy
Hypertrophy is the increase in muscle fibre size in response to sustained resistance training. It happens when muscle protein synthesis repeatedly outpaces breakdown, which loaded training close to failure stimulates and which rest and eating allow. It is a structural adaptation, distinct from strength gain, which is in large part neural.
Hypertrophy is the increase in muscle fibre size in response to sustained resistance training. It happens when muscle protein synthesis repeatedly outpaces breakdown, which loaded training close to failure stimulates and which rest and eating allow. It is a structural adaptation, distinct from strength gain, which is in large part neural.
Also written as: muscle hypertrophy · muscle growth
In practice
A client who gains strength fast in the first weeks has almost never gained muscle yet: they learned to produce force with what they already had. Confusing the two makes a coach change the programme exactly when it was working.
The common mistake
Chasing it with one specific rep range. Weekly volume near failure explains far more than whether sets were 8 or 15, and chasing the range means abandoning the thing that actually decides it.
