We have seen a lot of craze and interest in the people for fitness and exercise especially after the coronavirus pandemic. People are looking for efficient ways to keep themselves fit which is a good thing. But there are also some mistakes people make while trying to achieve their fitness goals. Just hitting the gym doesn’t mean you are exercising. Knowing what you want from your body is the most important thing before lifting the weights. In this article, we will discuss the comparison of Strength vs Hypertrophy training and conclude which one do we need according to our fitness goals.
Strength vs Hypertrophy Training
Before starting the exercise, it is important to decide what your fitness goals are. It is important to understand the differences between Strength vs Hypertrophy because it’s going to decide the kinds of exercises and protocols you do in the gym. The decision between hypertrophy training and strength training depends on your objectives for weight training. In a nutshell:
- If you want to increase the size of your muscles, you have to go for hypertrophy training.
- If you want to increase the strength of your muscles, strength training is for you.
What is Strength Training?
As the name suggests, strength training is a fitness program that aims to increase your strength or the amount of force your muscles can produce. It is primarily different from the workout practices that are designed essentially to add muscle mass, strength training concentrates on enhancing your power to push, pull, squeeze, lift, squat, and jump among other basic movements of the body.
To build muscle strength, you have to practice exercises that break down your body temporarily so that more muscle fibers can be added to the “damaged” area during rest periods. Since this plan allows you to hit more muscle groups at once, people focusing on gaining strength generally make a program of compound lifts. Strength training often includes barbells or dumbbells and includes exercises like:
- Bench press
- Deadlift
- Squat
- Lunges
- Pushups
What is Hypertrophy Training?
Hypertrophy is the physiological method of growing the size of muscle fibers, generally in diameter, through resistance training. The objective of hypertrophy training is slightly different. When your objective is to build the muscle tissue to be as large as possible, you’ll go for a higher repetition range with lighter weights. Furthermore, hypertrophy training relies on isolation exercises that use only one or two muscles at a time.
Hypertrophy-style training is prevalent in the bodybuilding society, where there is frequently a demand to concentrate on muscle growth in very distinctive areas to ensure the physique as a whole. Or you can say, hypertrophy training is more concentrated on body aesthetics.
Some common types of exercises you would see on a program focused on hypertrophy include:
- Bicep curls
- Quadriceps extensions
- Dumbbell flyes
There are two primary types of muscle hypertrophy: sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and myofibril hypertrophy.
- Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is related to the physical increase of the muscle.
- Myofibril hypertrophy is when a muscle becomes more dense and tight.
Which training is right for you?
To be honest, though these two training methods are primarily different, you can’t say one is better than the other. Because both of them have their own goals. Many athletes combine both methods at different stages, as their objectives may change throughout the year.
Here is a thumb rule for deciding whether your training should be primarily based on gaining strength or building muscle:
If you’re participating in athletic contests, you may need to concentrate on a specific type of strength training. For instance, soccer players might need to create a weightlifting plan that enables them to get stronger in their lower body.
If you want to give your appearance a bodybuilder look or want to concentrate on getting bigger in a distinct area of your body, such as your biceps, shoulders, or chest, you might need to create a lifting plan that enables you to add skeletal muscle mass in these areas through hypertrophy.