Document Type
Peer-Reviewed Article
Publication Date
2020
Abstract
While strength is indeed a skill, most discussions have primarily considered structural adaptations rather than ultrastructural augmentation to improve performance. Altering the structural component of the muscle is often the aim of hypertrophic training, yet not all hypertrophy is equal; such alterations are dependent upon how the muscle adapts to the training stimuli and overall training stress. When comparing bodybuilders to strength and power athletes such as powerlifters, weightlifters, and throwers, while muscle size may be similar, the ability to produce force and power is often inequivalent. Thus, performance differences go beyond structural changes and may be due to the muscle’s ultrastructural constituents and training induced adaptations. Relative to potentiating strength and power performances, eliciting specific ultrastructural changes should be a variable of interest during hypertrophic training phases. By focusing on task-specific hypertrophy, it may be possible to achieve an optimal amount of hypertrophy while deemphasizing metabolic and aerobic components that are often associated with high-volume training. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to briefly address different types of hypertrophy and provide directions for practitioners who are aiming to achieve optimal rather than maximal hypertrophy, as it relates to altering ultrastructural muscular components, to potentiate strength and power performance.
DOI
10.3390/jfmk5040076
Recommended Citation
Travis, S. K., Ishida, A., Taber, C. B., Fry, A. C., & Stone, M. H. (2020). Emphasizing task-specific hypertrophy to enhance sequential strength and power performance. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, 5(4), 76. Doi: 10.3390/jfmk5040076
Publication
Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology
Volume
5
Issue
4
Publisher
MDPI
Pages
1-25
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Comments
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).