Hypertrophy for sport and exercise

Strength and conditioning specialist and Masters bodybuilding champion, Paul Ehren, leads this week with his lecture on the principles of training for strength and power, and heath, plus live workshop interaction.

Lecture content

Week 1 begins by exploring the meaning of ‘hypertrophy’ in a sport-by-sport context, and illustrating how training needs vary depending on the type of athletic discipline undertaken. Topics covered include:

• Hypertrophy, strength and power: Hypertrophy training is used in certain sports to grow big muscles; in others ‘strength’, ‘power’ or ‘power-to-weight ratio’ are more important parameters, that require precise methods of training for sporting success.
• Performance, health and longevity: Paul explores the philosophical question around what an athlete is actually training for: some sports people may seriously undermine their long term health aspirations due to their chosen training regimes, whereas others can strike a fine balance, in which health and performance are both achieved.
• Resistance training theories: The training and physiological principles of resistance training for hypertrophy, strength, and power are reviewed, along with stimulators of metabolic tension and stress.
• Hypertrophy for ageing: Paul completes his lecture with a really important longevity discussion. As noted, often the short-term goals of training can be counterproductive when it comes to long-term health, including the process of ageing. But Paul argues that training with balance and positive nutrition patterns can positively impact what he calls ‘healthspan’.

Workshop case study

During the week 1 workshop, you will be engaged in a discussion that asks how we apply these hypertrophy for training considerations to an athlete. In particular, you’ll be introduced to two sporting scenarios:

• A powerlifter, aiming to lift more weight.
• A sprinter looking for more speed.
• After discussion with your peers, you’ll make recommendations for the training methodologies required for these two athletes.

Sport and exercise nutritionist. Simone do Carmo, leads this week with her lecture on the theories and practicalities of nutrition support for hypertrophy.

Lecture content

Alongside appropriate, or ‘functional’ training for a particular athlete, or sporting goal, sufficient quantities of food must be consumed, along with nutrition quality.

Topics include:

• mTOR: Recognised as a key regulator of muscular growth, the various physiological mechanisms that stimulate mTOR and produce hypertrophic adaptations are explored.
• Nutritional requirements for hypertrophy: The energetic needs, plus active protein requirements of the athlete are appraised, alongside ‘protein timing’ and other important considerations for a strength or power athlete. Micronutrients that have been shown to support anabolic pathways, including vitamin D, are also reviewed.
• Lifestyle and health: You are then taken through a journey of lifestyle factors that may either help or hinder hypertrophy and exercise recovery. As such, scientists are now aware of the positive effect that good gastrointestinal health has on musculoskeletal integrity; this is now being called the ‘gut-muscle axis’.

Workshop case study

During the week 2 workshop, you will be engaged in a discussion that asks the question: how do we support muscular hypertrophy via nutrition strategies? In particular, you’ll be introduced to a female gym-goer, Gemma, looking to gain muscular weight:

• She consumes a mostly plant-based diet, trains with weights four times per week, and jogs three times per week.
• She’s experiencing problems with her digestion and skin health, plus is feeling low in energy.
• After discussion with your peers, you’ll take part in supporting Gemma’s hypertrophy goals with appropriate dietary advice.

Specialist performance nutritionist and ergogenics expert, Matt Lovell, leads this week with his lecture on specialist nutrition strategies to support hypertrophy, plus live workshop interaction.

Lecture content

After an excellent base knowledge of training and nutrition principles for hypertrophy in sport, this specialty lecture is intended to make you think well outside of the metaphorical box.

• Anabolic/catabolic seesaw: Matt starts his lecture with this very important concept of balance (between anabolic activities and stimulators, and the catabolic counterparts). It leads him to discuss the relationship between anabolic hormones, including testosterone, and catholic hormones, including cortisol.
• Physiological drivers of hypertrophy: Rather than simply taking a supplement that is thought to promote muscle growth, if we understand the underlining mechanisms of action, it helps us to make personalised recommendations to our clients. Matt reviews physiological considerations such as blood volume, insulin sensitisation, neurotransmitter muscular drivers, and acid-alkaline metabolic balance.
• Ergogenic aids: Certain nutrition supplements have so much scientific evidence to support their use as a hypertrophy aid, that they work to some degree for most people – these are considered. Other supplements might ‘conditionally’ support hypertrophy, depending on whether our client actually needs the nutritional support – vitamin D might be such an example.

Workshop case study

Topic coming soon. 

Your learning is now flipped from a state of expert-led presentation to participant-led discussion, where you will tap into your prior life learning and experiences, along with that of your peers, to move towards ‘action’ steps of professional development before departing from this module. 

• You will firstly be asked to reflect on what you already knew about hypertrophy before the beginning of this module. I.e. what did you already bring into the classroom?
• As a team, you’ll then be asked to question what aspects of your thinking were potentially challenged and modified by your recent study of hypertrophy.
• Finally, you’ll be asked to consider how you might now think and act differently as you carry your collective knowledge forwards with you towards the action steps of working with a hypertrophy-focussed client.
• Done well, this kind of workshop amasses the knowledge and experience of the whole group in addition to what has already been learned from the lecturers.

Module assignment

In a concise 1000 words, you will be asked to write a flowing essay on a case study of an athlete, or active individual, who has a goal of attaining functional hypertrophy. Honouring the professional practice style of your base career, you’ll look to incorporate learnings from this module in your case description and intervention strategies.