Why Do Muscles Swell?

Why do volume and pumping programs not work, and after stopping training, the muscles deflate? What training really activates muscle growth?

Why do volume and pumping programs not work, and after stopping training, the muscles deflate? What training really activates muscle growth?

What is pumping?

Volume training ("pumping") is any program that includes a large (from 5 to 20 and higher) number of sets for each part of the body, a high number of repetitions of the exercise (10-15 for each approach) and a small rest interval (30 -60 seconds).

Pumping programs were popular in the steroid-fueled eighties and were covered in sports magazines. Considering that most of the Ukrainian-language materials on the Internet are translations of the same magazines, this explains the popularity of pumping.

How does such training work?

First of all, such training affects the energy depots of muscles and sarcoplasm, washing out most of the glycogen and creatine phosphate reserves. When calories, carbohydrates, and creatine become available again, they accumulate above their previous levels.

The body of an ordinary person cannot at the same time overflow energy depots and start muscle growth mechanisms. Priority is given to increasing the volume of the depot, and visual growth is only due to this.

Muscle growth during pumping

As Ukrhealth has already written, usually 80% of muscle growth is due to the growth of connective tissue, and 20% is due to an increase in the volume of nutrient fluid around the muscle fiber. As is clear from the explanation above, during pumping, the muscle tissue itself practically does not grow.

To support more complex training, the body learns to accumulate more energy by increasing the capillaries in the muscles and the volume of nutrient fluid. But as soon as training stops, the body quickly gets rid of these ridiculous reserves.

Why does such training not work?

Beginners rely too much on the advice of trainers and strange forums on the Internet: wanting to pump up the "trapezius and calves", they combine isolation and basic exercises, and in the pursuit of slimness - strength and cardio training. In the end, they get nothing.

When they get to the gym, many first spend precious energy with a twenty-minute run (calling it a warm-up), then flush out the remaining glycogen by pumping, and finish it all with another twenty-minute run, sincerely believing that this is how they burn fat.

Why do muscles lose volume?

If during constant training for pumping, a person eats heavily, uses sports supplements before and after training, then muscle growth will really occur. But, unfortunately, mostly due to the increase in the volume of energy depots.

It is important to note here that the growth occurred in spite of the mindless training rather than because of it. As soon as the training stops, and the body does not need to keep the energy depots full, it will empty them, and the muscles will literally deflate.

Advantages of the basic program

Being strength training, the core program works differently. Heavy weight, low number of repetitions, small number of sets and long rest intervals do not allow you to empty energy depots, saving energy for muscle fiber growth.

Physical activity provokes the production of enzymes and hormones that activate muscle growth, and the body has enough energy for these muscles to grow. That is why with the basic program, muscles grow not due to the volume of liquid, but due to the muscle fiber.

Is pumping training bad?

In conclusion, it is worth noting that pumping training in itself is not bad - you just need to be able to use it correctly in combination with other types of training, as well as with a full understanding of what you are doing and why you are doing it.

But coming to the gym, performing ten exercises for 4-5 sets of 10-15 repetitions, wanting to increase the blood flow to the muscles and observe a certain progress in volume after training is a fundamentally wrong way of muscle growth. And food will not help here.

The reason why the muscles "blow up" after the cessation of classes is simple: training for pumping does not cause the growth of muscle tissue, and the increase in volume follows a completely different mechanism. Strength training with a low number of repetitions is required for muscle growth.