Let's talk ergogenic aids for hypertrophy training.
What are ergogenic aids?
So, it's pretty well known in hypertrophy training that whatever global or systemic warm-up you want to do isn't mandatory - but some people like doing it, and that's fine. Just don't take too long.
Upper body? A few band pull-aparts, some shoulder dislocations, roll the arms forward.
Lower body? Get on the bike for a minute or two, sit into the bottom of a squat for 30-40 seconds, open up the hips.
The goal is simple: get warm, get the muscles pliable, reduce the viscosity of the muscle-tendon unit.
Then let's get into it.
Now we move into our warm-up sets of the exercise we're actually doing - because that is the main warm-up, as it should be.
So let's talk bent rows.
Last week, our working weight was 60 kilos for 12, 10, 8. Perfect. We're all on the same page. This week, we warm up knowing the logbook says 62.5 for 12, 10, 8 - two and a half kilos heavier than last week. Awesome. We've added overload. We're keeping the signal stacked.
We're forcing the physiology to continue to grow muscle. **Now I want to talk about the effects of potentiation.**
Potentiation looks like this: you warm up normally. Light weight - maybe an empty bar for
10-15 reps, depending on the movement. Then a moderate weight - roughly half your working weight - for anywhere from five to ten reps, again depending on the rep range.
Now, most people - if we stay with the bent row example - were at 60 kilos for 12 last week and 62.5 for 12 this week. They might do 50 kilos for five, rack it, rest... then unrack the bar and things feel off.
Why?
Because your physiology - particularly the muscle-tendon units with Golgi tendon organs located within - senses that extra load. And they're not overly fond of it.
The role of the GTO is to prevent excessive force being driven through the muscle-tendon unit. It's a protective mechanism. Essentially, they only want you producing as much force as they've been recently exposed to - one of the main reasons we warm up in the first place.
So even though we've warmed up well, if we unrack a squat or a bent row that's heavier than our last warm-up set, those GTOs go on amber alert. They're not shutting things down completely, but they're sending low-level signals: this is heavy.
That may explain why joints creak, why things feel unstable, why you feel slightly inhibited or "off" in the first set.
Now here's the key point.
If our working weight is 60 kilos on a bent row or a back squat, and we know we're doing higher reps - 10, 12, 15 - why not select a weight at or slightly above our working weight beforehand?
Using the same example:
why not do 65 or 70 kilos for just a handful of reps - anywhere from two to four?
This isn't going to fatigue you, provided you rest normally afterwards. What it will do is prime you for better performance - an ergogenic effect.
Those GTOs have now been exposed to a heavier load. That set might feel a bit cranky - that's fine. It's not a real work set. It's a warm-up. It's a potentiator.
Now, after your two-, three-, or four-minute rest, you unload the bar back to 60 kilos. A few minutes ago, you had 70 kilos in your hands. Now the working weight feels like nothing. It feels like air.
The GTOs are happy.
You're psychologically happy. God, this feels light.
And boom - what happens?
Your first set doesn't feel cranky, weird, or sore. It doesn't feel like shit. It feels like butter, milk, and honey - smooth and controlled.
At worst, the first set feels better on the joints and connective tissue. At best, you get that plus a performance increase - sometimes even an extra rep or two.
So it's pretty simple.
Warm up well.
Make your last warm-up set a potentiation set, at or slightly above your working weight, for just a handful of reps.No fatigue.
Try it.
Come back and thank me later.