Kinda late to the party here, but to kinda answer your wrist weight experiment question... back in school I used to carry my heavy backpacks on one shoulder (switching shoulders every day or so) for about 6 years. I would notice the strain on my traps, but never thought much about it. Fast forward 7 years, now I'm a national level classic physique bodybuilder and I have not needed to directly train traps for 5 years. I always get asked how I train them, but believe their permanent size has to do with the increase in muscle fibers when I was younger.
Hyperplasia would offer an explanation to why my chest exploded when I started training my back better, especially back shoulders and thoracic area (that had been notably weak to the point of terrible posture). I had been training the chest in a similar way for a longer time and pecs were rather small bumps on the lower part of the chest, but when I started focusing on the back and the shoulders pulled back, it felt like my chest was under constant tension and pump all day long and suddenly I was surprised by the revelation that the pecs extend all the way to shoulder and clavicles, my pecs started reminding me of the full-bodied even plates that you see on trained people. Now it could be that something changed in sleep, nutrition and training that caused that, but it was such a notable change in a short time and timing and the feel of it aligned with the improved back training and postural change, that it's hard not to give any thought to that. I also actually lowered the volumes even, because I was getting such good results and pumps. But to criticise that idea, perhaps the back training and shoulders pulling back offered bigger range of motion for chest training and stimulated the chest better? Which wouldn't be hyperplasia, but still caused by back training if I understand correctly. Is there a more recent episode talking about updated findings on hyperplasia in humans?
Just speculating here, but it would seem like the strength and muscle built by people who have physical jobs where they are not ever lifting anything heavy but just consistently over hours, weeks and years, could be partially accounted for by hyperplasia. I had an uncle who used to tell me I was wasting my time in lifting in high school. He would show me is enormous forearms and say "I got these one shovel full at a time."
I would love to hear a conversation between you and layne norton on an interesting topic. great video btw, I love the whole science aspect to lifting as opposed to I lift things up and put them down
I would be up for experimenting with wearing weights all day, any recommended brands. I train calisthenics everyday so would greatly notice any significant changes over a 60 day trial. Also subscribed now!
Killing humans is one issue, BUT mainly it would just be absurdly tedious so let's stick with the indirect evidence :) - really like this video, thanks for sharing. Blessings
+Garrett Blevins haha I mean, even if you COULD get clearance and had no ethical qualms with it, it takes about 70 hours to count to a million (assuming you never lost count, and could count to 1,000,000 at the same pace you could count to 100), so it would be at least 35 hours to count to half a million. If you just want to compare 10 controls to 10 lifters, then you'd be counting to half a million, 20 times. That would be 700 man hours, at minimum. So you COULD do it if you got 20 people to devote an entire work week to it. But at the end of the day, it's just not a pressing enough issue to get the type of funding necessary to justify it. Not to mention the fact that you'd need to find subject that were willing to get their biceps cut off, and to find an ethics board that would allow it.
+Strengtheory It seems to me that counting muscle fibers is a tractable image processing problem. If the fibers are visible to a human eye and relatively consistent in shape and/or color and they could be recorded in sufficient detail, I could think of some image processing algorithms that should be able to identify them. In other words, if I was a grad student who was told to count the fibers, I'd spend my week writing this algorithm instead of actually counting them.
This bird experiment reminds me of an episode of Dragonball Z where Goku reveals that he trains with 5000 kg (or some ridiculous weight like that) boots and wrist wraps / weights! You can no doubt build muscle strength by wearing wrist and leg weights throughout the day or through training. Martial artists often do it.
I think I recall Glenn Pendlay talking about having someone wear a weighted vest all day for a couple weeks, resulting in a lot of rapid size gains. Probably in the Weightlifting Scoop podcast, one of the “train like an animal” episodes.
@@wdadwawdadawdwdwa4133 I would assume the vest was in addition to training, not a replacement for training. The podcast is still out there; it looks like I was referring to episodes 3 and 9 from March and April 2013, if you're willing to scroll all the way to the beginning. I will say with 6 years of gained wisdom, this sounds like a fairly insane thing to do, though. Although I have never tried this specific protocol, my experience with high-frequency training has always been that I seem to be getting bigger rapidly, but it's just inflammation and swelling that goes away after a week or two of returning to lower frequency, so certainly no hyperplasia in my case.
Thank you for the video buddy. I really love hearing what you have to say and it seems like you actually do try to interpret the available literature in an unbiased way. Thanks once again my friend. Enjoying a Russian imperial stout in your honor as we speak.
hey man. I love your videos they are informative. You should keep on making them. Dont get stuck on youtube just like you did on your pr's before (yes i watched the video of your journey). Harsh but I know your channel can shine very soon if you dont give up on youtube. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR SHARING ALL THE KNOWLEDGE I LEARNED A LOT FROM IT. ITS GREATLY APPRECIATED. Best wishes mate
I had a crazy thought, to wear and carry around a heavy chainwest during the day. So training or having a heavy Barbell on the back would be easier. I think all the traps would get stronger by this. ^^
I played guitar standing for roughly about 1,5-2years few times a week, but stopped playing standing as my left trap was significantly larger 20-30% bigger. The guitar strap rests on left shoulder/trap.
Muscle cells can’t go through hyperplasia but it’s interesting because some studies showed it happened but we weren’t sure if those body builders already had more muscle fibers
You might be interested in heart regeneration in zebrafish (common model organism for genetics studies). There was a Science paper that showed zebrafish could regenerate their heart after removal of 20% of one of the ventricles. The researchers then knocked out a gene in the zebrafish that is involved in cell division and did the ventricular removal again. This time the zebrafish didn't regenerate their heart. Granted this is cardiac muscle (and a fish) but still, it kind of hints at the idea that skeletal muscle cells contains the capacity to divide as well.
+Strengtheory Oh yea, I definitely agree with you. I was just suggesting that since cardiac satellite cells can make new tissue, so can skeletal satellite cells.
So what could be suggested by this video is that high intensity 1-3 hour resistance training causes muscle damage and repair (hypertrophic) and prolonged less intense demands such as an extra 1-20 pounds of resistance throughout daily life causes hyperplasia since the muscle tissue is not bieng damaged but is going to adapt by making more muscle fibers instead of increasing the size of existing fibers. Interesting I may have wear a weighted vest for a few weeks and see the difference in my calves.
sure. I practice Hyperplasia myself and my clients im 52 and gained 25 pounds muscle last 2 years drug free supplement free naturally...DO NOT DO WEIGHTED STRETCHING ...YOU MUST DESTROY YOUR MUSCLE FIBERS ABSOLUTELY KILL THEM AN REST 5 TO 7 DAYS BETWEEN WORKOUTS. Remember this is not hypertrophy pump training this is new muscle fiber creation. Hope this is helping a little Rocco nnyc
Greg, with hyperplasia in humans. If that occurs and once you have "new muscle fibers" just having them will make a muscle "larger and/or more potential for strength"... But will those new fibers be utilized and be able to grow and hypertrophy like your original fibers?
Hey Greg! First of all thanks for the informative videos! I would also suggest a video about creatin and beta alanin (short/ long term effects, cycle, recommended age), because i already read lots of different papers about them but didnt come yet to an decision if i should take it. Do you use it? Keep the videos up! Cheers!
have you read the examine.com pages on them? if not, I'd strongly recommend them. tl;dr, creatine is great, and very effective. beta alanine increases anaerobic endurance by roughly 2-3% (based on a meta-analysis that came out last year), but doesn't seem to impact exercise that lasts less than 30 seconds.
my theory is that hyperplasia is the consequence after a muscle hypertrophied to the maximal fiber size and gets stressed further more frequently. If that happend the fiber has no other choise but to Split up in two and satellite cells become myonuclei for the new formed fiber. One big hypertrophied fiber becomes two normal sized fibers, which have again the ability to hypertrophy further to meet the demand of adaption. The thing is that if you train to hard and cause to much muscle damage before the muscle is hypertrophied to it's max, then the satelitecells constribute to multiple myonuclei within the musclefiber, which means the muscle also can hypertrophy further because of more myonuclei but without the splitting ever happening. I believe, hyperplasia is the more natural way our body adapts to muscular stress, and leads to the so called 'muscle maturity' with highly striated muscles. Hypertrophy is in both cases the primary mechanism to gain larger muscle, there are simply two ways to make further hypertrophy possible in the long run. Hyperplasia(Fibersplitting) or more myonuclei per fiber.
What about muscle biopsy as a technique of gaining some direct evidence? Less fibres in the biopsy would imply hyper trophy and more may imply hyperplasia? Get a pre-training biopsy and then 6 months later a post-training biopsy?
+SlipperyGypsy104 That would still be indirect, though. You could see average CSA per fiber relative to the total CSA of the muscle, and then see if that relationship still held after several months of training. But other issues (connective tissue content, hydration status, the fact that fibers aren't perfectly homogeneously dispersed, etc.) would still preclude you from knowing whether hyperplasia was for sure happening.
My question, is the structure of these animal myofibers similar to that of humans (multinucleated, fasicles, myofibrils, etc)? Just a question. I've read these studies as well. It's refreshing to see someone actually talk about the information we actually have instead of claiming things that cannot really be studied or supported by current literature are true or false. Merry Christmas to you, Greg!
+Askow Athletics Merry Christmas to you too man! Yep, they're pretty similar. Especially mice and cats. The gross anatomical features of birds' muscles are similar as well, but there are some energetic differences (WAY higher mitochondrial density to be able to produce enough energy to fly).
***** I don't know why I never thought to look into that myself. I have always leaned towards the idea that hyperplasia can occur but who knows? Haha. Do you have a degree in ESS or are you just a well-read genius? (not saying everyone needs a formal education, just curious)
I disagree about the last part- fiber hyperplasia means a lot to an athlete trying to change their slow to fast twitch ratio to be able to have a higher force output at a lower bodyweight.
+Strengtheory Just about to look at it - I was very aware of the split fiber theory, but I was under the impression that these daughter cells were not considered to be technically new fibers - thus not technically supporting hyperplasia in humans. I am looking forward to the read and hopefully a new perspective too!
+Justin Bland It would somewhat depend on where the biopsy was taken. If you took a cross-section above where a fiber split, it would look like two fibers, and if you took it below where the fiber split, it would just look like one fiber. You wouldn't know it was split unless you took the cross-section right at the split, or unless you looked at it longitudinally.
Wanna know what worked for me? Strength 5x5. Then, lower to a weight you can do for 5 sets of 10 reps for hypertrophy. You gain strength and then add hypertrophy at the end. In essence you get stronger and induce hypertrophy to grow the muscle belly. Bigger belly = more space to store dense muscle = easier hypertrophy -> repeat.
Ive been into bodybuilding my whole life. Ive always heard that taking hgh will induce hyperplasia. Its also a known thing that the more you train you gain new muscle fibers as well as increasing the size of existing fibers. We say that is how muscle memory is explained. Because once youve gained the size it comes back easier since it is easier to increase size through hypertrophy than hyperplasia. Once you have the extra fibers they dont go away.
Are the new muscle fibers, which were created via hyperplasia, permanent? For instance, in reference to the avian stretch studies, did they examine rather or not some of the birds who had endured the stretch "training" lost their new muscle fibers when the weight had been removed for several months. I realize the birds had to be harvested to count muscle fibers, but I was wondering if they kept multiple subjects trained in the same way so as to have remaining subjects on which to test permanence.
+KongLuvs That's a good question. I'm not aware of anything that indicates those muscle fibers are lost any easier than other muscle fibers (you do lose some muscle fibers when you get old, but until you're 65 or so, unless you have some sort of really serious issue (nerve damage, paraplegia, etc.) you don't lose any appreciable amount of muscle fibers.
***** I'm not sure if it would interest you, but I've actually experienced a large muscle adaptation that definitely wasn't the result of my weight training. It wasn't from prolonged stretch, but actually from prolonged contraction. For a period of about 1.5 years, I had been working from a stool where I had my right calf muscle flexed for extended periods of time, holding the weight of my right leg, for upwards of 8+ hours a day with little or no relaxation while sitting. (With the height of the stool, it just felt more comfortable to have my leg flexed like that, and the leg rarely felt very fatigued in that position.) I'm not sure how far into that 1.5 years it happened, but my right calf muscle is now 1.5" bigger than my left calf muscle, measuring 20". My left calf is still only 18.5". I knew the measurements of both my calves prior to this happening because I've always kept measurements periodically over my decades of training, and the right calf was only 1/8" larger prior to the adaptation. It's been almost 4 years now, since sitting in a flexed position like that, and the right calf has remained the same size. It is moderately stronger than the left calf in absolute strength tests, but it has considerably higher endurance levels when doing high reps with any given weight. At the point in my training when this happened, I was on maintenance training only for my lower body, as it was already as big as I wanted, so I never added weight to my calf exercise during that time. A sizeable adaptation like that couldn't have occurred without ever adding weight to my calf exercises, and I certainly didn't suddenly alter my training form, after 20+ years of training, in a way that would asymmetrically load the right calf to stimulate growth like that. I don't know how it would have any practical application for muscle growth, but the adaptation would almost certainly happen much faster in an athlete using drugs, especially if a moderate amount of weight were added progressively over time instead of just relying on bodyweight as I did. Sorry for such a long explanation, but I thought it might be of interest to you. I'm endlessly curious about anything strength related, probably to a fault. haha ;-)
Eric I actually have trouble not holding my right leg in a flexed position like that, especially when using a stool (about the height of a bar stool), or even just an office chair. My leg just wants to do it, and I have to consciously think about putting my heel on the floor and relaxing the calf. I worry it might eventually lead to arthritis in my toes or ankle because of the continuous strain on them over time.
hey Greg quick question that if you have the time to answere it would be great ! im swapping out regular bench to close grip as my triceps are weak, what percentage of a regular bench 1rm should a close grip 1rm be ? thanks so much for your videos aswell super useful ! :) keep up the good work !
To check for hyperplasia, you need to do a muscle biopsy and look at the fibers under a microscope to analyze with the sample before hyperplasia occurred.
I found one 20 lb "ankle weight" to buy on amazon. I wonder how long it would take before you get used to that extra weight (go Goku.. Lee). Then how do you count that into your workout numbers, Like will it effect bench press, how about deadlift? I was running 5 miles with 5lbs weight in each arm and it wore me out a lot. But I'd totally Be interested in attempting this for at least a couple of weeks:) hahaha!
but Greg what about intraset stretching? people have had great results from that since it works under the same stretch principle as the bird study (albeit on a smaller scale)
Is there any sort of medical imaging that can take care of this sort of problem? That coupled with image recognition software could result in a true study of this being possible in the future.
+Tomtom Henriquez the loaded stretching that's actually been shown to make a difference is REALLY long-term loaded stretching (weeks or months). I'm pretty skeptical of stretching on the order of seconds or minutes doing too much to promote hypertrophy.
+jordan king generally they either train one side and not the other, and compare in the same animal across the body, or the train one group of animals, and compare their fiber number to a control group
Hey Greg, just a quick thought on the limitations of how we are able to study hyperplasia in humans, could it be possible to grow human muscle in labs and then place grown muscle under conditions which we are likely to see hyperplasia in said muscle?
+Strengtheory Granted that the fact there would be still serious limitations to this kind of testing, however wouldn't this kind of testing (growing muscle in a lab) shed light on direct evidence rather than merely basing opinions on indirect evidence mentioned in the video?
Andrew Mayes but if 1) the characteristics of the muscle weren't identical to the characteristics of the muscle in vivo and 2) the stimulus applied and the response to it (including the body's own endocrine/paracrine signaling processes) weren't identical to how they'd be in the body Then it would still just be indirect evidence.
Hey, completely unrelated questions to the video but I figured you'd be most likely to reply on here: 1: After reading one of your comments on your article on overhead pressing, I read you thought Push Presses and Landmine Presses were the most effective exercises for translating over to sports. Why is that? Do you think it is also the case for basketball? if it isn't, I'd appreciate it if you told me which exercises are. 2: By landmine press, do you mean the standing variation, kneeled variation, single arm? Landmine press is kinda underground so I'm having trouble finding the right version for basketball. Thanks a lot, I read all of your articles, and bought the Art and Science book!
McTimurw Okay 1) I think they're the most effective because they require force transfer through or across your torso, which is generally involved in most sports movements. That would include basketball. 2) standing with free movement of the hips, one arm
I'm not aware of any research on that, but it's PLAUSIBLE. A lot of muscle regeneration seems to be due to local IGF-1 levels (and its splice variants), and GH increases IGF-1 release both systemically and locally.
I thought that wearing any weights for extending periods of time can cause muscle imbalances through the body and possibly throw your spine out of wack. Just dumb broscience or any evidence backing it up?
I've been thinking about buying a weighted vest and having 35-45 lbs on me all day, only removing it when showering and during workouts. Would be cool to see results after 1 month. I'm currently on a deficit and I wonder how much my BMR/TDEE would go up, would it be the same as having 35-45 lbs of fat on my body? It would be more interesting doing it in a surplus to see maximum muscle gains though.
+Obvious Lee It wouldn't be exactly the same as having 35-45 pounds of extra fat (since fat independently burns roughly 1-2calories per pound per day) but probably pretty similar. I'd assume TDEE would go up a bit.
couldnt you just use muscle biopsy? Nevermind, i was thinking about his studie ua-cam.com/video/ZEIBLOdLkrQ/v-deo.html But it was done on muscle satelite cores.
i think u have a Swedish doppelganger. just saying... i think i saw someone walking around with your face just the other day. sorry it's completely random, but dang..
***** That's only because concensus takes so long to achieve after the fact, and scientists are extra careful about saying something is "true" or "fact". Nothing has changed.
Kinda late to the party here, but to kinda answer your wrist weight experiment question... back in school I used to carry my heavy backpacks on one shoulder (switching shoulders every day or so) for about 6 years. I would notice the strain on my traps, but never thought much about it.
Fast forward 7 years, now I'm a national level classic physique bodybuilder and I have not needed to directly train traps for 5 years. I always get asked how I train them, but believe their permanent size has to do with the increase in muscle fibers when I was younger.
Hyperplasia would offer an explanation to why my chest exploded when I started training my back better, especially back shoulders and thoracic area (that had been notably weak to the point of terrible posture). I had been training the chest in a similar way for a longer time and pecs were rather small bumps on the lower part of the chest, but when I started focusing on the back and the shoulders pulled back, it felt like my chest was under constant tension and pump all day long and suddenly I was surprised by the revelation that the pecs extend all the way to shoulder and clavicles, my pecs started reminding me of the full-bodied even plates that you see on trained people. Now it could be that something changed in sleep, nutrition and training that caused that, but it was such a notable change in a short time and timing and the feel of it aligned with the improved back training and postural change, that it's hard not to give any thought to that. I also actually lowered the volumes even, because I was getting such good results and pumps.
But to criticise that idea, perhaps the back training and shoulders pulling back offered bigger range of motion for chest training and stimulated the chest better? Which wouldn't be hyperplasia, but still caused by back training if I understand correctly.
Is there a more recent episode talking about updated findings on hyperplasia in humans?
Just speculating here, but it would seem like the strength and muscle built by people who have physical jobs where they are not ever lifting anything heavy but just consistently over hours, weeks and years, could be partially accounted for by hyperplasia.
I had an uncle who used to tell me I was wasting my time in lifting in high school. He would show me is enormous forearms and say "I got these one shovel full at a time."
He got them from genetics
Ever considered doing your own podcast? It would be most fantastic
+Otto Kalliomäki working on setting it up
This is outstanding news! Glad to hear it and may the force be with you!
+Strengtheory fantastic
+Strengtheory i like more in video version but you could add a podcast of all your videos tho
+stronger by science sounds like he knows a lot I wonder what his podcast would be like /s
I would love to hear a conversation between you and layne norton on an interesting topic. great video btw, I love the whole science aspect to lifting as opposed to I lift things up and put them down
I would be up for experimenting with wearing weights all day, any recommended brands. I train calisthenics everyday so would greatly notice any significant changes over a 60 day trial. Also subscribed now!
Slowly turning into my favorite UA-cam channel. It's already one of the channels I recommend to people asking for the best fitness related channels.
Killing humans is one issue, BUT mainly it would just be absurdly tedious so let's stick with the indirect evidence :) - really like this video, thanks for sharing.
Blessings
+Garrett Blevins haha I mean, even if you COULD get clearance and had no ethical qualms with it, it takes about 70 hours to count to a million (assuming you never lost count, and could count to 1,000,000 at the same pace you could count to 100), so it would be at least 35 hours to count to half a million. If you just want to compare 10 controls to 10 lifters, then you'd be counting to half a million, 20 times. That would be 700 man hours, at minimum. So you COULD do it if you got 20 people to devote an entire work week to it.
But at the end of the day, it's just not a pressing enough issue to get the type of funding necessary to justify it. Not to mention the fact that you'd need to find subject that were willing to get their biceps cut off, and to find an ethics board that would allow it.
+Strengtheory It seems to me that counting muscle fibers is a tractable image processing problem. If the fibers are visible to a human eye and relatively consistent in shape and/or color and they could be recorded in sufficient detail, I could think of some image processing algorithms that should be able to identify them.
In other words, if I was a grad student who was told to count the fibers, I'd spend my week writing this algorithm instead of actually counting them.
+timsvlad my thoughts exactly!
This bird experiment reminds me of an episode of Dragonball Z where Goku reveals that he trains with 5000 kg (or some ridiculous weight like that) boots and wrist wraps / weights!
You can no doubt build muscle strength by wearing wrist and leg weights throughout the day or through training. Martial artists often do it.
I am DEFINITELY going to try this during my winter break (for about 3 weeks) using 2 kg wrist weights
sooooooo did it work?
Did it works
Great video!
This is 5 years after this video was published still relevant and important today!
What? 3 videos in a row, within a week???
I think I recall Glenn Pendlay talking about having someone wear a weighted vest all day for a couple weeks, resulting in a lot of rapid size gains. Probably in the Weightlifting Scoop podcast, one of the “train like an animal” episodes.
Did the subject train on top or was it solely the vest?
@@wdadwawdadawdwdwa4133 I would assume the vest was in addition to training, not a replacement for training. The podcast is still out there; it looks like I was referring to episodes 3 and 9 from March and April 2013, if you're willing to scroll all the way to the beginning. I will say with 6 years of gained wisdom, this sounds like a fairly insane thing to do, though. Although I have never tried this specific protocol, my experience with high-frequency training has always been that I seem to be getting bigger rapidly, but it's just inflammation and swelling that goes away after a week or two of returning to lower frequency, so certainly no hyperplasia in my case.
Really liking the recent content! Love you Gregy
Should i do 100 reps cuz the birds were doing alot of reps so high reps are good for hyperplasia?
3rd video in a few days, loving the frequency!
So basically you'd have to induce fiber splitting as much as possible.
Brb strapping weights to wrist.
Thank you for the video buddy. I really love hearing what you have to say and it seems like you actually do try to interpret the available literature in an unbiased way. Thanks once again my friend. Enjoying a Russian imperial stout in your honor as we speak.
Love the frequency and quality Greg!
hey man. I love your videos they are informative. You should keep on making them. Dont get stuck on youtube just like you did on your pr's before (yes i watched the video of your journey). Harsh but I know your channel can shine very soon if you dont give up on youtube. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR SHARING ALL THE KNOWLEDGE I LEARNED A LOT FROM IT. ITS GREATLY APPRECIATED. Best wishes mate
I had a crazy thought, to wear and carry around a heavy chainwest during the day. So training or having a heavy Barbell on the back would be easier. I think all the traps would get stronger by this. ^^
I played guitar standing for roughly about 1,5-2years few times a week, but stopped playing standing as my left trap was significantly larger 20-30% bigger. The guitar strap rests on left shoulder/trap.
Iamsambu it's obviously works look at chest flys
Muscle cells can’t go through hyperplasia but it’s interesting because some studies showed it happened but we weren’t sure if those body builders already had more muscle fibers
It might show the importance of time under tension....
you are back after a few month long hiatus from the tunes ! Yes ⭐️
*tubes
You might be interested in heart regeneration in zebrafish (common model organism for genetics studies). There was a Science paper that showed zebrafish could regenerate their heart after removal of 20% of one of the ventricles. The researchers then knocked out a gene in the zebrafish that is involved in cell division and did the ventricular removal again. This time the zebrafish didn't regenerate their heart. Granted this is cardiac muscle (and a fish) but still, it kind of hints at the idea that skeletal muscle cells contains the capacity to divide as well.
+Andrew Ruba unfortunately, there are a LOT of differences between cardiac and skeletal muscle. Hyperplasia in cardiac muscle is really common.
+Strengtheory Oh yea, I definitely agree with you. I was just suggesting that since cardiac satellite cells can make new tissue, so can skeletal satellite cells.
Good work buddy, you just got yourself a new subscriber!
So what could be suggested by this video is that high intensity 1-3 hour resistance training causes muscle damage and repair (hypertrophic) and prolonged less intense demands such as an extra 1-20 pounds of resistance throughout daily life causes hyperplasia since the muscle tissue is not bieng damaged but is going to adapt by making more muscle fibers instead of increasing the size of existing fibers. Interesting I may have wear a weighted vest for a few weeks and see the difference in my calves.
+Brandon Johnson worth a shot!
Greg uploaded a vid today..... i am going to learn something today....
These videos have been awesome Greg!
Do you think in your opinion Blood Flow Restriction, Loaded/Weighted stretching, Myo-Reps may have a better potential.
But how can you do this in practical?? Can i have A basic program?
sure. I practice Hyperplasia myself and my clients im 52 and gained 25 pounds muscle last 2 years drug free supplement free naturally...DO NOT DO WEIGHTED STRETCHING ...YOU MUST DESTROY YOUR MUSCLE FIBERS ABSOLUTELY KILL THEM AN REST 5 TO 7 DAYS BETWEEN WORKOUTS. Remember this is not hypertrophy pump training this is new muscle fiber creation. Hope this is helping a little
Rocco nnyc
love these vids Greg,so informative.
Greg, with hyperplasia in humans. If that occurs and once you have "new muscle fibers" just having them will make a muscle "larger and/or more potential for strength"... But will those new fibers be utilized and be able to grow and hypertrophy like your original fibers?
+Sam Adams yep, they should behave jus like any other fiber
Hey Greg!
First of all thanks for the informative videos!
I would also suggest a video about creatin and beta alanin (short/ long term effects, cycle, recommended age), because i already read lots of different papers about them but didnt come yet to an decision if i should take it.
Do you use it?
Keep the videos up!
Cheers!
have you read the examine.com pages on them? if not, I'd strongly recommend them.
tl;dr, creatine is great, and very effective. beta alanine increases anaerobic endurance by roughly 2-3% (based on a meta-analysis that came out last year), but doesn't seem to impact exercise that lasts less than 30 seconds.
***** no but thank you very much!
have a nice day :D
i'm sure some algorithm for image processing can be used to count muscle fibers.... although imaging is another expense
If hyperplasia does occur, where would the new fibers attach?
2 ways....to an existing fiber...or the new cells can fuse which each other to form a new fiber
my theory is that hyperplasia is the consequence after a muscle hypertrophied to the maximal fiber size and gets stressed further more frequently. If that happend the fiber has no other choise but to Split up in two and satellite cells become myonuclei for the new formed fiber. One big hypertrophied fiber becomes two normal sized fibers, which have again the ability to hypertrophy further to meet the demand of adaption. The thing is that if you train to hard and cause to much muscle damage before the muscle is hypertrophied to it's max, then the satelitecells constribute to multiple myonuclei within the musclefiber, which means the muscle also can hypertrophy further because of more myonuclei but without the splitting ever happening. I believe, hyperplasia is the more natural way our body adapts to muscular stress, and leads to the so called 'muscle maturity' with highly striated muscles. Hypertrophy is in both cases the primary mechanism to gain larger muscle, there are simply two ways to make further hypertrophy possible in the long run. Hyperplasia(Fibersplitting) or more myonuclei per fiber.
No 🤦♂️
Is Strength Theory offline?
Actually thier is a way to count the fibers or at least mesure them because they found power lifters with hyperplasia
So does that mean when people talk about sarcoplasmic vs myofibrillar hypertrophy, they actually mean hypertrophy vs hyperplasia?
+Anthony Tran (Anthony's Training Vlogs) nope, that's another discussion entirely. That's the article I'm currently working on, actually.
What about muscle biopsy as a technique of gaining some direct evidence? Less fibres in the biopsy would imply hyper trophy and more may imply hyperplasia? Get a pre-training biopsy and then 6 months later a post-training biopsy?
+SlipperyGypsy104 That would still be indirect, though. You could see average CSA per fiber relative to the total CSA of the muscle, and then see if that relationship still held after several months of training. But other issues (connective tissue content, hydration status, the fact that fibers aren't perfectly homogeneously dispersed, etc.) would still preclude you from knowing whether hyperplasia was for sure happening.
I wasn't aware of this at all. Cool.
My question, is the structure of these animal myofibers similar to that of humans (multinucleated, fasicles, myofibrils, etc)? Just a question. I've read these studies as well. It's refreshing to see someone actually talk about the information we actually have instead of claiming things that cannot really be studied or supported by current literature are true or false. Merry Christmas to you, Greg!
+Askow Athletics Merry Christmas to you too man!
Yep, they're pretty similar. Especially mice and cats. The gross anatomical features of birds' muscles are similar as well, but there are some energetic differences (WAY higher mitochondrial density to be able to produce enough energy to fly).
***** I don't know why I never thought to look into that myself. I have always leaned towards the idea that hyperplasia can occur but who knows? Haha. Do you have a degree in ESS or are you just a well-read genius? (not saying everyone needs a formal education, just curious)
Askow Athletics yep, I have an exercise science degree
+Strengtheory sick man. Keep posting. Love it
umm i grew back muscle without weight just force or tension of muscle ligaments stretching like an arm circle forwards working its way to the back
Idiot
I disagree about the last part- fiber hyperplasia means a lot to an athlete trying to change their slow to fast twitch ratio to be able to have a higher force output at a lower bodyweight.
Thanks Greg - I really appreciate this! I am passing it on!
+Justin Bland Thanks Dr. Bland! Make sure to read Dr. Antonio's article (linked in the description) if you haven't already. It's super interesting.
+Strengtheory Just about to look at it - I was very aware of the split fiber theory, but I was under the impression that these daughter cells were not considered to be technically new fibers - thus not technically supporting hyperplasia in humans. I am looking forward to the read and hopefully a new perspective too!
+Justin Bland It would somewhat depend on where the biopsy was taken. If you took a cross-section above where a fiber split, it would look like two fibers, and if you took it below where the fiber split, it would just look like one fiber. You wouldn't know it was split unless you took the cross-section right at the split, or unless you looked at it longitudinally.
is there have anything to count fiber number without cutting？
An hyperplastia can make you grow?
What diet/training program would you recommend for gaining/maintaining strength?
Also, what do you think of the Hepburn method?
Wanna know what worked for me? Strength 5x5. Then, lower to a weight you can do for 5 sets of 10 reps for hypertrophy. You gain strength and then add hypertrophy at the end. In essence you get stronger and induce hypertrophy to grow the muscle belly. Bigger belly = more space to store dense muscle = easier hypertrophy -> repeat.
Ive been into bodybuilding my whole life. Ive always heard that taking hgh will induce hyperplasia. Its also a known thing that the more you train you gain new muscle fibers as well as increasing the size of existing fibers. We say that is how muscle memory is explained. Because once youve gained the size it comes back easier since it is easier to increase size through hypertrophy than hyperplasia. Once you have the extra fibers they dont go away.
Vincent Gibson actually more nuclei cells
Are the new muscle fibers, which were created via hyperplasia, permanent? For instance, in reference to the avian stretch studies, did they examine rather or not some of the birds who had endured the stretch "training" lost their new muscle fibers when the weight had been removed for several months. I realize the birds had to be harvested to count muscle fibers, but I was wondering if they kept multiple subjects trained in the same way so as to have remaining subjects on which to test permanence.
+KongLuvs That's a good question. I'm not aware of anything that indicates those muscle fibers are lost any easier than other muscle fibers (you do lose some muscle fibers when you get old, but until you're 65 or so, unless you have some sort of really serious issue (nerve damage, paraplegia, etc.) you don't lose any appreciable amount of muscle fibers.
*****
I'm not sure if it would interest you, but I've actually experienced a large muscle adaptation that definitely wasn't the result of my weight training. It wasn't from prolonged stretch, but actually from prolonged contraction. For a period of about 1.5 years, I had been working from a stool where I had my right calf muscle flexed for extended periods of time, holding the weight of my right leg, for upwards of 8+ hours a day with little or no relaxation while sitting. (With the height of the stool, it just felt more comfortable to have my leg flexed like that, and the leg rarely felt very fatigued in that position.) I'm not sure how far into that 1.5 years it happened, but my right calf muscle is now 1.5" bigger than my left calf muscle, measuring 20". My left calf is still only 18.5". I knew the measurements of both my calves prior to this happening because I've always kept measurements periodically over my decades of training, and the right calf was only 1/8" larger prior to the adaptation.
It's been almost 4 years now, since sitting in a flexed position like that, and the right calf has remained the same size. It is moderately stronger than the left calf in absolute strength tests, but it has considerably higher endurance levels when doing high reps with any given weight.
At the point in my training when this happened, I was on maintenance training only for my lower body, as it was already as big as I wanted, so I never added weight to my calf exercise during that time. A sizeable adaptation like that couldn't have occurred without ever adding weight to my calf exercises, and I certainly didn't suddenly alter my training form, after 20+ years of training, in a way that would asymmetrically load the right calf to stimulate growth like that.
I don't know how it would have any practical application for muscle growth, but the adaptation would almost certainly happen much faster in an athlete using drugs, especially if a moderate amount of weight were added progressively over time instead of just relying on bodyweight as I did.
Sorry for such a long explanation, but I thought it might be of interest to you. I'm endlessly curious about anything strength related, probably to a fault. haha ;-)
that is very interesting. Was this position not uncomfortable after holding it for so many hours?
Eric
I actually have trouble not holding my right leg in a flexed position like that, especially when using a stool (about the height of a bar stool), or even just an office chair. My leg just wants to do it, and I have to consciously think about putting my heel on the floor and relaxing the calf. I worry it might eventually lead to arthritis in my toes or ankle because of the continuous strain on them over time.
Is either hyperplasia or hypertrophy the preferable route of muscle growth from a strength or power perspective?
Or maybe even the amount of testosterone needed to maintain the muscle size (allowing you to hold on to more size naturally)?
+John Doe Shouldn't be much of a difference.
Do you think it might be why big guys/fat guys have HUGE calves?
+Chee Yuan Ng potentially, but that could still be explained by plain old hypertrophy.
Very informative, thanks
hey Greg quick question that if you have the time to answere it would be great ! im swapping out regular bench to close grip as my triceps are weak, what percentage of a regular bench 1rm should a close grip 1rm be ? thanks so much for your videos aswell super useful ! :) keep up the good work !
+Thefatfrenchboy1 aim for about 90-95%.
+Strengtheory thanks man !
To check for hyperplasia, you need to do a muscle biopsy and look at the fibers under a microscope to analyze with the sample before hyperplasia occurred.
Great video! Thanks a lottt
I found one 20 lb "ankle weight" to buy on amazon. I wonder how long it would take before you get used to that extra weight (go Goku.. Lee). Then how do you count that into your workout numbers, Like will it effect bench press, how about deadlift?
I was running 5 miles with 5lbs weight in each arm and it wore me out a lot. But I'd totally Be interested in attempting this for at least a couple of weeks:) hahaha!
but Greg what about intraset stretching? people have had great results from that since it works under the same stretch principle as the bird study (albeit on a smaller scale)
No evidence for that whatsoever
great videos Greg :)
i dig into them
Great job on the recent videos. keep them coming senpai!
I'm a simple man, I see Greg I press like
Is there any sort of medical imaging that can take care of this sort of problem? That coupled with image recognition software could result in a true study of this being possible in the future.
+adam sanche At this point, I don't think so.
This rings a lot on "Load Stretching", would that make any sense +Strengtheory?
+Tomtom Henriquez the loaded stretching that's actually been shown to make a difference is REALLY long-term loaded stretching (weeks or months). I'm pretty skeptical of stretching on the order of seconds or minutes doing too much to promote hypertrophy.
So how is the muscle fiber counted before the intervention as a comparison to after?
+jordan king generally they either train one side and not the other, and compare in the same animal across the body, or the train one group of animals, and compare their fiber number to a control group
***** Ah okay, thanks. Awesome video
Hey Greg, just a quick thought on the limitations of how we are able to study hyperplasia in humans, could it be possible to grow human muscle in labs and then place grown muscle under conditions which we are likely to see hyperplasia in said muscle?
+Andrew Mayes growing muscle in a lab is the first hurdle. It's possible, but it's not cheap, and it doesn't perfectly mimic actual muscle.
+Strengtheory Granted that the fact there would be still serious limitations to this kind of testing, however wouldn't this kind of testing (growing muscle in a lab) shed light on direct evidence rather than merely basing opinions on indirect evidence mentioned in the video?
Andrew Mayes but if
1) the characteristics of the muscle weren't identical to the characteristics of the muscle in vivo and
2) the stimulus applied and the response to it (including the body's own endocrine/paracrine signaling processes) weren't identical to how they'd be in the body
Then it would still just be indirect evidence.
+Strengtheory All great points Greg, cheers for the insight
Hey, completely unrelated questions to the video but I figured you'd be most likely to reply on here:
1: After reading one of your comments on your article on overhead pressing, I read you thought Push Presses and Landmine Presses were the most effective exercises for translating over to sports. Why is that? Do you think it is also the case for basketball? if it isn't, I'd appreciate it if you told me which exercises are.
2: By landmine press, do you mean the standing variation, kneeled variation, single arm? Landmine press is kinda underground so I'm having trouble finding the right version for basketball.
Thanks a lot, I read all of your articles, and bought the Art and Science book!
+McTimurw I'm 99% sure I responded to this question either via FB message or email. If I didn't let me know.
+Strengtheory I checked both, and I'm afraid I got in neither. Thanks a lot for answering though!
McTimurw Okay
1) I think they're the most effective because they require force transfer through or across your torso, which is generally involved in most sports movements. That would include basketball.
2) standing with free movement of the hips, one arm
Than you are his really helped me
This
thanks!
Does HGH cause hyperplasia?
Hyperplasia does occur in humans. To what extent, we still did not know.
Can human growth hormone cause Hyperplasia?
I'm not aware of any research on that, but it's PLAUSIBLE. A lot of muscle regeneration seems to be due to local IGF-1 levels (and its splice variants), and GH increases IGF-1 release both systemically and locally.
+Strengtheory great channel btw
I thought that wearing any weights for extending periods of time can cause muscle imbalances through the body and possibly throw your spine out of wack. Just dumb broscience or any evidence backing it up?
+Aaron Pufahl Not aware of any evidence backing it up.
I've been thinking about buying a weighted vest and having 35-45 lbs on me all day, only removing it when showering and during workouts. Would be cool to see results after 1 month.
I'm currently on a deficit and I wonder how much my BMR/TDEE would go up, would it be the same as having 35-45 lbs of fat on my body? It would be more interesting doing it in a surplus to see maximum muscle gains though.
+Obvious Lee It wouldn't be exactly the same as having 35-45 pounds of extra fat (since fat independently burns roughly 1-2calories per pound per day) but probably pretty similar. I'd assume TDEE would go up a bit.
so many videos
couldnt you just use muscle biopsy?
Nevermind, i was thinking about his studie ua-cam.com/video/ZEIBLOdLkrQ/v-deo.html
But it was done on muscle satelite cores.
Keep up the videos :)
i think u have a Swedish doppelganger. just saying... i think i saw someone walking around with your face just the other day. sorry it's completely random, but dang..
great vid btw.
1st
Damn...you're almost to smart for my little Bro mind to handle...lmao Subbed!
Lol. This counts as news? I feel like I'm in the 70s.
It's still a topic with no scientific concensus
***** That's only because concensus takes so long to achieve after the fact, and scientists are extra careful about saying something is "true" or "fact". Nothing has changed.
sounds like vegan gains