Hypertrophy is most commonly associated with bodybuilders, while performance is not, however hypertrophy still plays a pertinent role in all sports performance. For instance an undersized linebacker in football hitting the weights to try to add some size in the off season, or a forward in basketball who needs to put a little meat on their bones. The examples could go on but I'm sure by now your catching the drift. Of course there is those who have pretty much tapped out their genetic potential and need to gain weight in order to gain strength, in the barbell sports and such.
Lets look at the different kinds of hypertrophy. In Supertraining Dr. siff talks about sarcoplasmic and sarcomere hypertrophy however most refer to the latter as myofibrillar hypertrophy.
Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is all about fluid. In sarcoplasimic hypertrophy the "non-contractile protein and semi fluid plasma" as Siff says says or sarcoplasmic fluid for us normal folk increases between the the muscle fibers. "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" (Siff p 66) Basically sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is associated with the high ( bodybuilding) repetition ranges.
Myofibrillar hypertrophy is a gain in size of the actual muscle fibers, as the myofibrils increase in number. This results in a "significantly greater ability to exert muscular strength" (Siff 66) which by the way seems to pay off in every sport! In his article "Why All Muscle Was Not Created Equal" while referring to the explosive nature of most sports Joe Defranco states "This is why it is imperative for athletes to incorporate maximal strength training methods (1-5 reps), which train the part of the muscle responsible for these explosive contractions, into their routines." I can't fathom a better way to say it.
It drives me batty how often the fact that sport is explosive is overlooked. In gyms across the nation there is athletes doing bodybuilding type workouts. This problem is not just high school athletes but college athletes also. This is absurd, silly, stupid, idiotic and really chaps my hide. I have named a few examples where hypertrophy should be a focal point of a program but at what costs? Even if hypertrophy becomes the focal point such as a 120 pound tight end however should performance be disregarded? I believe that performance should still be the focus meaning do not just drop maximal strength work and hit the hypertrophy ranges. Furthermore is too much hypertrophy a bad thing in sport? Dr. Siff talks about optimal hypertrophy, which is an awesome topic and if you have time read this article where Siff explains the energy demands of too much hypertrophy do it. http://staff.washington.edu/griffin/hypertrophy.txt.
Now If bodybuilding is your thing then drive on with your bad self, sarcoplsmic hypertrophy is useful for you. Bodybuilding is an endeavor I respect that takes a lot of dedication. However contrary to what the great exercise science master of them all Joe Weider tells you, bodybuilding is not the solution for improving your PERFORMANCE. If your an athlete do yourself a favor and drop the bodybuilding split!
