Non Uniform Muscle Hypertrophy
The latest suggestion hitting the muscle building industry is that there is such a thing as “Non Uniform Muscle Hypertrophy”.
Recent research reviewed using new measurement techniques has found regional differences in muscle activation depending on the exercise of choice. Something that bodybuilders have claimed for a long time is that you can train the inner-chest or even develop a bicep ‘peak’. If this research is accurate then it leads to the following thought that to get optimal muscular development it is necessary to work the muscle from as many angles as possible. It may also mean that using 1 or 2 exercises for years and years may lead to less-than-optimal muscle growth… and maybe overuse injuries.
So let’s recap these thoughts…
- muscles grow in a non-uniform way
- work your muscles in as many ways as possible
- weight training can affect different parts of a muscle in different ways
From what they are finding the differences seem to be along the ‘length’ of a muscle. So, sometimes the effect can be around the end of a muscle where it connects to the joints or sometimes it’s more in the middle of the muscle belly.
We already know that it is unaccustomed stress that stimulates a muscle to grow, but these new findings also suggest another, very interesting point to consider:
That just changing exercises can cause muscle growth.
Just the act of changing to a new exercise or movement can stimulate the new growth. So this provides more evidence to the idea of keeping your workouts fresh, new and challenging – especially if different exercises end up working different parts of a muscle.
Variety is the friend of muscle building.
So, the suggestion is to work your muscles in as many ways as possible and look for slight ways to change your workouts from week to week.
