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What is Muscle Hypertrophy?

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Muscle hypertrophy refers to muscular enlargement resulting from resistance training, On the cellular level muscle hypertrophy is increased by the expansion of cross-sectional area of the existing muscle fibers. (Goldburg, 1973) The adaptation of muscle in the world of strength and conditioning can give an athlete the potential to become bigger, faster, and stronger. Since being big, fast, and strong is an advantage in many sports, this means that much of the time that a strength and conditioning coach has revolves around the goal of getting their athletes to see muscle hypertrophy. On just one level this desire is a driving force behind the large amount of research and competiveness in the industry to produce extremely high level college and professional sport athletes. Exercise physiologists conduct research studies and form experiments so they can test new techniques in exercise so they can better understand and optimize muscular hypertrophy. Traditionally, the American College of Sports Medicine recommends resistance training using intensities 70% of 1-repetition maximum (1RM) because it seems to elicit the greatest increases in skeletal muscle size and strength (ACSM, 2002). More recently, low-intensity resistance training in combination with blood flow restriction (LI-BFR) has been shown to increase muscle size and strength using only 20–30% of an individual’s 1RM (Karabulut, 2010). This type of training method also referred to as the KAATSU training methodology was

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