[Gulmark]

Hey guys

im a new member, but have been enoying following this forum for a long time. 

Im planning a hypertrophy phase and was wondering if it was possible to train forarm hypertrophy on a campus board?

high intensity campus ladder w. feet  with 1 min reps? other possibilities?

I know repeaters on a hangboard is good tool for hypertrophy, but i also know ill get bored with this compared to done some type of exercises on a campus board. 

[a dense loner]

Erm isn't hypertrophy an increase in muscle size?
Repeaters good for hypertrophy? Not at all

[shark]

Erm isn't hypertrophy an increase in muscle size?
Repeaters good for hypertrophy? Not at all

I dont know but Stu thinks it does

If my understanding is right you want to spend most of your time doing hypertrophy training - larger volumes of less intense work (I.e repeaters) -and then have a phase of recruitment (max hangs) towards the end.
 

[abarro81]

Dunning seemed to advocate 30s hangs for hypertrophy, which would fit with short repeaters e.g. 3 or 4 hangs. On the campus board I would try an an cap style workout - around 15-20 campus moves in a row with rests of maybe 1.30-2min.

[a dense loner]

Now I don't understand at all. I'm obviously taking hypertrophy to mean something completely different or it's a strange alternate universe where stu gives advice on building muscle. This is much worse than listening to Paul B on the subject 

[Paul B]

Bite me baldy.

[Stu Littlefair]

Hypertrophy = muscle building. Requires 6-10 reps of work at around 75% of max for the best efficiency.

What part of that doesn't sound like repeaters?

And dense my muscles are fucking huge. They're just buried under layers of chocolate and mcdonalds.

[Paul B]

The 75% of max bit confuses me here. How are you proposing that you determine the 1RM in this case?

[Stu Littlefair]

I wouldn't bother. It's a rough target, not something to get fussy about. I think research shows that hypertrophy occurs over a wide range of intensities. Above 60% seems to be important.

Basically it means "try really hard, but don't fail"

[a dense loner]

On paper stu yes. I could also stare very hard at this screen for 6-10 secs for a few sets but my eyes aren't going to get any bigger.
Gulmark could be a guinea pig for this, do finger boarding and campussing regularly and see if your forearms pack on muscle as opposed to getting better tone. When the answers no post it up.

[reeve]

On paper stu yes. I could also think very hard for 6-10 secs for a few sets but my head isn't going to get any bigger.

Careful about over-generalising there Dense 

[lagerstarfish]

Basically it means "try really hard, but don't fail"

I heard that Dense never fails when he tries hard

for him, that sentence is meaningless

[tomtom]

Could you simply substitute 'Dense' for 'Chuck Norris' in a multitude of quotes and anecdotes that fly around?

[Probes]

Around 8 moves taking about 15-20secs... on a campus board would be for example 1, 4, 7, 10 share 7, 4, 1 share. About 3 mins rest and about 6 reps of this. This is my interpretation of how you could hypertrophy on a campus board I think?  It is also a recipe for screw elbows especially on the drop downs as you tire 

[Stubbs]

If the drop downs are bad when you get tired wouldn't it make more sense to drop off at 10 and then do another set of  up immediately?

[douglas]

Isometric contractions are not generally recommended for mass gain

[a dense loner]

This is why god made big fucking weights

[shark]

Finger rolls with a barbell are reputedly good for forearm hypertrophy. Whether that transfers usefully to isometric finger strength is another matter.

IIRC correctly Serpico experimented in combining deadhanging with finger rolls in a session with some success though not enough to stop him getting sand kicked in his face at the beach.

[Probes]

ah forearm hypertrophy missed that...  nah campus is not the way, arms yes, fingers no.... what you need is a fingerboard.. 

[Boredboy]

I wonder what 'Big Poppa Pump' suggests for gains in forearm size?

Wrist curls 10 reps at 80% followed by 10 chickens 3 bags of pasta and some anabolic steroids. 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sy-zc6DMWs8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dsy-zc6DMWs8

[Tommy]

What might be interesting for some of those route climbers out there is that hypertrophy of the muscle does not result in:

1. Matching increase in capillarity (i,e. the % capillarity of the muscle bed will decrease)
2. Total volume of mitochondria will not increase and neither will the mitochondrial enzymes.

So therefore, you'll get your gains in anaerobic performance with the hypertrophy, but a significant decrease in aerobic performance as the capacity of the muscle per unit of mass goes down. You might pull harder, but ya can't pull for longer.

[abarro81]

Presumably that can be rectified through aerocap though? Or are you saying I'm only fit 'cos I've got weedy forearms 

[AJM]

So therefore, you'll get your gains in anaerobic performance with the hypertrophy, but a significant decrease in aerobic performance as the capacity of the muscle per unit of mass goes down. You might pull harder, but ya can't pull for longer.

Presumably relative aerobic performance (to the size of the muscle or to the level of anaerobic performance) as opposed to absolute?

Same absolute volume of capillary, same number of mitochondria (they spread out between the old cells and the new?) seems to be what you're saying, in which case the same amount of work can be sustained, and as Barrows says you need to do the aerocap to convince your body to work harder with the extra muscle?

[Tommy]

Well, it's kind of tricky. If you look at a weightlifter who's bulked up massively, they have increased the size of their fast twitch muscle fibres. This isn't great as fast twitch fibres are rubbish at aerobic work. Absolutely rubbish. Metabolically, they work very differently.

You will also get an increased production rate of waste products with more anaerobic work being done and you will need to put in place a system for dealing with that - what you do with the H+ importantly. As Alex points out a good system of aerobic capacity work will go some way towards helping with this.

There is some thought that increased muscle bulk can help with the distribution of waste products through the forearm as muscles don't work isolated in a metabolic sense. As ever with these things, it's hard to know what's what, unless it's pretty basic stuff that's be trialled over many years and experimented with.

 

[AJM]

Makes sense that fast and slow fibres would have different predispositions to aerobic vs anaerobic work, but I didn't realise that hypertrophy stimulated uneven production of them.

The simple model in my head (same work level demands same amount of sugars and oxygen and produces same waste, delivered by same volume of capillaries and metabolised by same amount of mitochondria) doesn't necessarily add up if the metabolic pathway is less efficient (ie on average more anaerobic due to changed muscle makeup).

Interesting stuff, thanks for coming back!

Andy