When I was 13 years old, I picked up my first Muscle and Fitness magazine and thought one thing: how do I get jacked like these guys? That initial innocent thought has turned into a statement that haunts me in my professional life: “Yo coach, I wanna get swole!” Is the mantra for probably 90 percent of the male athletes I have worked with in my 11 years as a strength coach. Whether or not getting bigger will even help these athletes, it’s something that they desire and it’s relatively easy to do. Put 10 pounds on an athlete in the first eight weeks you work with them and they will do whatever you say for four years. The fact that the 10 pounds came from hydrating properly and saturating their glucose stores is irrelevant. They got bigger, their muscles feel fuller and they feel like the work they are putting in is showing immediate dividends. Now the real work can begin to get them better on the court or field. But what if you goal isn’t to get better at sports. What if you just want to get bigger muscles and look better naked? If so, then this article is a good place to start.

There are thousands of ways to train for hypertrophy. What I am presenting are ways that you can incorporate more advanced hypertrophy techniques into your pre-existing program. I hate when I read a hypertrophy article and then a few sentences in realize that what they are preaching is a complete overhaul of the training program you’re currently on. Want to get bigger? You need German Volume Training. Uh, sorry, no I don’t. I can keep rolling with my program, make some minor tweaks and still get the results I want.

Before we get into the specifics of how to get bigger, let’s talk about the two types of hypertrophy and how they differ. I know you don’t care, but let’s do it anyway. It’ll be quick and painless. The first type is called myofibrillar. Think power lifters. In this type of hypertrophy, the area density of the myofibrils increases and there is a significantly greater ability to exert muscular strength. However, the resultant increase in muscle size is not as great as it would be from sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is an increase in the volume of the non-contractile muscle cell fluid, sarcoplasm. This fluid accounts for 25 to 30 percent of the muscle’s size. Although the cross-sectional area of the muscle increases, the density of muscle fibers per unit area decreases, and there is no increase in muscular strength. It’s why a 200 lb. powerlifter will be shit tons stronger than a 200 lb. bodybuilder, even though the bodybuilder will look more muscular. Myofibrillar hypertrophy occurs with low reps and high weights. It’s our Max Effort training. Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy is our Repetitive Effort Training. It occurs with higher reps, more moderate weights and an increase in training volume (sets X reps X weight).
But let’s not get lost in the science. All we care about is adding muscle mass--not mass, but muscle mass--and these are tried and true ways to do it, while still staying true to the programming you enjoy.

1. Rest/ Pause
For Rest/Pause training, you will pick a weight and a set number of sets and reps. Let’s say you decide to perform the DB Fly (because you want your chest to be HUGE!) for a set of 15 reps. After performing your set of 15 reps, instead of setting the weight down, you will sit up and rest for ten to 15 seconds. After resting for ten to 15 seconds, you will start performing the exercise again until you cannot perform any more reps. Instead of just damaging the muscle for the given number of reps, you jump back in there and crush it some more. Typically, I will perform my Rest/ Pause set only for the last set of an exercise. So if I was going to do 4 X 15 of dumbbell flys, only the fourth set would be rest pause. This allows me to get a good amount of volume in the muscle prior to really finishing it off with that last set.

2. Drop Sets
I love drop sets because I can train heavy and then just finish off the exercise by dropping the weight down and tearing up some fibers. I will use drop sets after my max effort lifts. I’ll perform a 5X5 squat and then, after the fifth set of five reps, I’ll drop the weight down to an amount I can usually get 15 reps with and then jump right back in there until the ‘ole legs are screaming. If you are looking for percentage to go with this, 65 percent of your 1RM is a good place to start.

3. Pre-Fatigue
Pre-fatigue refers to performing a single joint exercise immediately followed by a multi-joint exercise for the same body part. For the chest, it might be Incline dumbbell flys immediately followed by Incline barbell bench press. By performing the single joint exercise first, you destroy the muscle to the point where it can’t work by itself anymore. It’s at that point you switch to the multi-joint exercise. In this case, the triceps and shoulder aspect of the Incline barbell bench press will help the already fatigued chest to get blown up even more. Gettin’ jacked, baby!

4. Post Fatigue
Similar to the pre-fatigue method, only in this case you perform the multi-joint exercise first, followed by the single-joint exercise. Because the multi-joint work is performed first, this is just a little added finisher for the main muscle group you are working.

5. Compound Sets
A compound set involves movements, either single or multi-joint, for the same body part performed back to back. Lat pull-down followed by dumbbell rows is a good example, or barbell curls followed by dumbbell curls. This method also works great for bodyweight exercises. Pushups followed by dips are a great way to stimulate hypertrophy without any external load. And, with a little thought, you can punch these compound bodyweight sets into most metcons.

6. Assisted Eccentric
When you just can’t do any more reps, have a training partner help you through the concentric portion of the lift, only to leave you on your own during the eccentric phase. This type of training works well on machines, so it’s great when you are on the road traveling and only have access to what’s in the hotel weight room. Perform your set and then find a way, any way, to get the machine back into the concentric phase while you lower through the eccentric. A few of these reps always leaves you feeling like a champ the next day.

7. Super Slow Training
Painfully boring, yet effective. When we are training for hypertrophy the time the muscle is under tension is the most important thing. It doesn’t matter how the muscle gets its tension, so long as it’s there. Performing each rep for 20 seconds (ten second concentric, ten second eccentric) will get you there. You will only need to do six-ish reps, but that’ll keep that muscle under constant tension for well over a minute. This is also great for a sport like wrestling or BJJ where you may have to have your muscles contracted for longer periods of time. Just keep in mind that because wrestling is a weight class sport, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy may not be what you are looking for.

8. Momentary Muscular Failure (MMF)
Taking the muscle to MMF is the ultimate in hypertrophy training. This is the point where a repetition fails because there is nothing left in the muscle. It’s completely cooked. Another rep cannot be completed with good technique. Remember, the muscle doesn’t know sets and reps. It knows trauma. Trauma that destroys the muscle fibers and causes them to come back stronger. Performing reps until there’s nothing left ensures that you have caused enough damage in the muscles to give them a reason to grow.

Are these techniques right for you? Ask yourself these simple questions. If the answer is yes to any of them, start experimenting.

1. Why are you performing this given exercise? If it’s a main exercise to get stronger, then focus on technique and rest times. If it’s an accessory exercise, than this might be a good time to experiment with some advanced hypertrophy techniques.

2. Am I bored with my training? If so, these techniques may spice it up.

3. Am I getting older? If you are getting older and looking for ways to keep your exercise intensity up, these might be for you. Since we are looking to keep the muscle under tension and for longer periods of time, these reps are performed under control with more moderate weights. That makes them perfect for the aging lifter. That’s actually why I started to incorporate them.

4. Would I look better with some more muscle? How could this answer be anything but yes? Start getting after it!
If you begin experimenting with this type of training, remember two things: Eat and Sleep. With hypertrophy training, you are doing severe damage to the muscle fibers and they will need longer to recover and more nutrients to enhance recovery. You need to feed the beast. Increasing your protein intake will be necessary to help rebuild your muscles. You should be looking somewhere in the neighborhood of 2g of protein per pound of muscle. Also, you will need to give your body more time off before you trash them again. You will probably need between five and eight days between hitting the same muscle group. Program smart, train hard, and you will reap the benefits of incorporating these techniques into your training.

1. Siff, Mel C. and Yuri V. Verkhoshansky. Supertraining. Colorado: Denver, 1999.