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.