[RunnerMan]

RunnerMan on November 3, 2006 at 12:37 pm #12348

i'v searched but can't find anything specific.

How do you avoid hypertrophy whilst partaking in weight training(and base weight training at that eg. leg press, etc.)? But in general, what are the best methods with which to avoid gaining excess weight, because i'm comfortable at 1.79m/71kg and would prefer maybe to weigh a little less. I should add i'm a sprinter/jumper and so I will be doing olympic lifts a little later.

[flow]

flow on November 3, 2006 at 12:51 pm #58431

first of all:  dont leg press : )
in therms off not gaining weight:  if you stay in the 1-6 rep range your main focus is strength,  not hypertrophy.  so first changes here would be neural and hypertrophy would happen as a "side effect"  whenever the trained muscle needs to grow.  if you absolutely dont want to gain any muscles stop eating -.-  but if you want to get really strong there will be hypertrophy involved.

[RunnerMan]

RunnerMan on November 4, 2006 at 1:25 pm #58432

yeh sweet thx for the reply.
I'm not leg-pressing for long but my physio and coach told me to after coming off an 11 week injury break and because I'm focussing on quickly strengthening the quads and hams coz of my saw knees. Whats more iv got piriformis acting up at the moment and i have to let it settle before i can squat or anything that involves a similar function.
(Yeh well, i spose i could stand putting on a few pounds but unlike all my m8s im not trying to become Mr. Buff).
If i'm doing lots of running(or because on my knees at the moment-lots of cycling) will these physical activities prevent me from gaining muscle bulk or does it have little influence at all?

[flow]

flow on November 4, 2006 at 3:18 pm #58433

i cant really tell.  my experience:  at the beginning of gpp ill usually gain some muscle and going into the season im loosing upperbody muscle while maintaining legsize.  however i keep getting stronger.  i dont do weightmanagement or anything,  its just the different emphasis in the training blocks.  so i could imagine that you´d gain some weight now but that you also loose some again when going into regular training.  good luck with getting better.

[RunnerMan]

RunnerMan on November 4, 2006 at 4:51 pm #58434

sweet, thx for the help, much appreciated

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on November 5, 2006 at 5:43 am #58435

Just to add on to what Flow mentioned already, if you don't want hypertrophy keep the reps per set low (1-4 in my opinion works best) even when you are in GPP / training for work capacity, etc. So instead of doing fewer sets of a lower weight for higher reps per set, I'd suggest doing the same or more amount of total reps divided by a greater number of sets. Keep the rest intervals relatively short and you'll get greater metabolic, work capacity and strength gains without the hypertrophy. So for example, I'd suggest the following anti-hypertrophy alternative to the more standard rep routine.

Traditional: 4 x 10 @ 65% max w/ 3' rest
Alternative: 10-12 x 4 @ 65% max w/ 1' rest

ELITETRACK Founder

[RunnerMan]

RunnerMan on November 5, 2006 at 7:16 am #58436

sweet thx. I'v read a lot about hypers on this sight and how they are super good for hamstring strength and what not – should this become a fundamental part of my gym routine and could someone please explain reverse hypers(i'm really not sure coz hypers are on your chest i'd traditionally take that reverse hypers were on your back ie sit ups and i'm dead sure that this isn't correct).

Thanx

[Kebba Tolbert]

Kebba Tolbert on November 5, 2006 at 8:09 am #58437

what Mike said…. keep the reps much lower than what you read in most places.

re: hypers – they're good but not the be all and end all… I'd do them on auxiliary days.

[flash-x]

flash-x on November 12, 2006 at 12:09 am #58438

I was reading this thread and it got me thinking, i will be starting weights within the next 8 days or so and i was wondering how i should get back into it.  A couple weeks ago i started doing some really light weights eg, bp-20lbs, sq-40lbs etc, then i stopped.  Since i came/am coming off an injury i was wondering at what % i should start with in the weight room.  I was thinkin 60% for the first 2 weeks then change it up, any suggestions?

[Mike Young]

Mike Young on November 12, 2006 at 1:23 am #58439

Since i came/am coming off an injury i was wondering at what % i should start with in the weight room.  I was thinkin 60% for the first 2 weeks then change it up, any suggestions?

This depends on your current training state, your training age, and how your injury affected you. Generally, if you're training for strength I wouldn't play around with anything below 75%. If you go lower than that to get any real training effect (other than those of weight lifting circuits) the benefits will primarily be increases in muscular endurance and hypertrophy.

ELITETRACK Founder

[flash-x]

flash-x on November 12, 2006 at 4:37 am #58440

This depends on your current training state, your training age, and how your injury affected you. Generally, if you're training for strength I wouldn't play around with anything below 75%

Thanks for the reply Mike.  As for training state, i have been doing well so far, endurance, speed and strength components are in place in the form of tempo, hills, core and plyos.  Training age; been training for the last 4 years but only started weight training last year(dont know if thats a negative factor).
I will be training for strength, especially what i read about here about starting strength, my start needs to improve.
Should i hit the 75% region as soon as i hit the weight room?Im still unsure in that area, plus I dont want too much hypertrophy.