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cultures to stimulate muscle growth. Studies using animal models have shown ingesting caffeine and lactate compounds also increase muscle mass via many mechanisms including increased muscle myonu- clei and decreasing myostatin levels** Using high repetitions to aim for the lactate burn and cause these metabolic conditions inside the muscle is crucial. So here we may lower the weight to enable a large amount of lactate to accumulate and engorge the muscle with blood and nutrients causing cell expansion or the “PUMP”. One way to achieve high levels of lactate in the muscle is to work to momentary muscular failure, where you can no longer lift the weight. This does increase lactate but if this is done on your first set of an exercise it causes high levels of central nervous system fatigue and this limits the ability for muscle fibre recruitment. This will affect subse- quent sets, reducing your ability to produce force and lower the volume of work done. So, to achieve maximal growth stimulus, aim to reach muscular failure on last set of a given exercise and volume will not be affected. Lactate and its waste product lactic acid, as mentioned previously, is viewed by the muscle cell as a threat and in response to that threat 52 FLEX | MARCH 2018 LACTIC ACID the muscle cell grows. Similarly, cell expansion which gives an increase of blood and nutrients to the muscle results in engorgement, the cell perceives this swelling, the pump, as a threat and responds by growing larger. Thus, high rep sets with little rest, taking the last set to failure will accomplish this. Additionally, lactic acid causes an increase in localised muscle growth hormone. 4 Intra-set Stretching This technique is performed by loading a muscle and allowing it to reach its resting length, mostly described as a stretch. To explain this, we are looking to bring the origin of the muscle in question as far away from its insertion point. Once at the resting length the loaded stretch is held for a pre- scribed number of seconds with LACTATE a set. For example, ten repetitions of a chest press, with a 10-20 second stretch, once the second have passed, reps begin again and the set continues until 3 stretches of 10-20 seconds have been performed, the numbers or reps achieved will diminish as the set continues, but the set must finish with a contraction. Once again, the stretch causes increased time under tension, increase in lactic acid and also increase in mechanical damage leading to an increase in mechano-growth factors. This technique is applied to isolation type movements. Once you have applied these stimulus types to your training, your genetically predisposed ability to maximally gain muscle size will have been activated. Now all you need to do is recover and grow! *Skeletal Muscle Remodelling in Response t o Eccentric vs. Concentric Loading: Morphological, Molecular, and Metabolic Adaptations Martino V. Franchi, Neil D. Reeves, Marco V. Narici Front Physiol. 2017; 8: 447. Published 2017 Jul 4. doi: 10.3389/ fphys.2017.00447 **J Appl Physiol (1985). 2015 Mar 15;118(6):742-9. doi: 10.1152/ japplphysiol.00054.2014. Epub 2015 Jan 8. Mixed lactate and caffeine compound increases satellite cell activity and anabolic signals for muscle hypertrophy. Oishi Y1, Tsukamoto H1, Yokokawa T2, Hirotsu K3, Shimazu M3, Uchida K3, Tomi H3, Higashida K4, Iwanaka N5, Hashimoto T6.