Do you need a PUMP to grow muscle

[conan1071]

:head: Hello all,

I have been lifting for over 15 years and am a male 35 years of age. My lifting consists of 3-4 weeks of heavy pyramiding(sets of 10,8,6,4-6 reps) with compound movements and about 3 exercises/bodypart. The next phase is volume training(sets of 8-12 reps, same weight) usually about 3-4 exercises/bodypart. I can easily get pumps in my chest, biceps and triceps. However I rarely get pumps in my delts or back. Is the PUMp required for muscle growth??????/

Thanks for your replies

:bruce3: :hammer: :woohoo: :icon_lol: :duel: :food:

 

[mfbb]

i have a similar situation but I personally don't believe a pump equates to muscle growth. The only exception i feel is delts need a pump. My delts never grew untill I started w lighter weight and trained w more strict form.

check out ast-ss.com and the max-ot section...Jeff Willet and Skip LaCour both natural beasts train very heavy and don't focus on the pump and seem to be quite educated in terms of muscle hypertrophy.

 

[ITHURTZ]

Little shy of 5 years lifting, and I can honestly say Iv never really gotten a mind blowing pump for my bi's, but I have put over 4" on my arms since I started. BUT I dont lift in the 10 rep range either. Im sure someone will chime in and say, if the weight keeps piling on, who cares!

 

[SteelEntity]

When you get a pump it simply means you have blood flowing to that particular area, which in turns will make a better work out because you are nicely warmed up and your joints are more loose, allowing greater range of motion without injury. Additionally, having high blood flow is an area promotes healing. But acheiving just a pump does not mean muscle growth. I can get a pump from curling 10lb DBs 50 times... and that will certainly not make my biceps bigger.

As well, if you are doing the same routines for over 3 months then its effectiveness is going to be horrible. Your body will become immune to it, resulting in no growth and usually a state of overworking. Keeping the muscles guessing is essential. Remember your body does not want to put on slabs of muscle... they require more calories and are an annoyance to maintain so your body is always fighting growth. Now it takes some time for your body to realize this. So switching training methods will keep your body confused, not giving it a chance to become immune, and thus promoting maximum growth. You should also takes 1-2 weeks off every couple months to allow your body to recouperate fully and give the nerves a rest. Not everyone needs to do this but for most ppl it is a smart idea.

 

[jminis]

When you get a pump it simply means you have blood flowing to that particular area, which in turns will make a better work out because you are nicely warmed up and your joints are more loose, allowing greater range of motion without injury. Additionally, having high blood flow is an area promotes healing. But acheiving just a pump does not mean muscle growth. I can get a pump from curling 10lb DBs 50 times... and that will certainly not make my biceps bigger.

As well, if you are doing the same routines for over 3 months then its effectiveness is going to be horrible. Your body will become immune to it, resulting in no growth and usually a state of overworking. Keeping the muscles guessing is essential. Remember your body does not want to put on slabs of muscle... they require more calories and are an annoyance to maintain so your body is always fighting growth. Now it takes some time for your body to realize this. So switching training methods will keep your body confused, not giving it a chance to become immune, and thus promoting maximum growth. You should also takes 1-2 weeks off every couple months to allow your body to recouperate fully and give the nerves a rest. Not everyone needs to do this but for most ppl it is a smart idea.

NIce post here.

 

[conan1071]

I understand all this and thanks for the replies. Does anyone remember Arnold in pumping Iron talking about the pump? I once did Mike Mentzer style training and in the book he talks about the pump being fictious

 

[TripDog]

When you get a pump it simply means you have blood flowing to that particular area, which in turns will make a better work out because you are nicely warmed up and your joints are more loose, allowing greater range of motion without injury. Additionally, having high blood flow is an area promotes healing. But acheiving just a pump does not mean muscle growth. I can get a pump from curling 10lb DBs 50 times... and that will certainly not make my biceps bigger.

As well, if you are doing the same routines for over 3 months then its effectiveness is going to be horrible. Your body will become immune to it, resulting in no growth and usually a state of overworking. Keeping the muscles guessing is essential. Remember your body does not want to put on slabs of muscle... they require more calories and are an annoyance to maintain so your body is always fighting growth. Now it takes some time for your body to realize this. So switching training methods will keep your body confused, not giving it a chance to become immune, and thus promoting maximum growth. You should also takes 1-2 weeks off every couple months to allow your body to recouperate fully and give the nerves a rest. Not everyone needs to do this but for most ppl it is a smart idea.

your muscle needs to reach the point of positive muscular failure to stimulate growth.It has nothing to do with "tricking your body"

 

[thesinner]

Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[supersoldier]

Like a Swedish made penis enlarger?:lol:

 

[ItsHectic]

Argh this thread has principles from the other side of the fence.
Muscle confusion and failure vs frequency and progressive load(HST). I am for the 2nd.

 

[SteelEntity]

your muscle needs to reach the point of positive muscular failure to stimulate growth.It has nothing to do with "tricking your body"

what I was getting at was the fact of the body's fast ability to adapt, adaptation results in little or no growth so mixing up you're training.. whether its adding weight, reps or lifting technique(rest-pause, negatives etc) will keep you fresh and out of that dreaded state.

 

[ITHURTZ]

You know in my opinion, if your not constantly adding weight in the gym, you need to find something else to do. Arnt you IN the gym to consistantly put more and more weight on?

I know these people who are ALWAYS saying oh you cant do flat bench 4weeks in a row, your body will adapt to it and not grow. ****ing idiots, PUT THE DAM WEIGHT ON AND YOU WILL. You CANNOT progress in a excercise when you dont stay with it.

EAT, SLEEP, Lift heavy weights YOU WILL GROW, dont need fancy ****!

BTW, I'v been doing just about the same workout plan since Jan 2003, why am I bigger than you? They response "steroids":icon_lol:

 

[SteelEntity]

.. whether its adding weight, reps or lifting technique(rest-pause, negatives etc) will keep you fresh and out of that dreaded state.

yeah you just helped get my point across lol

 

[TripDog]

dude you just quoted yourself.............:toofunny:

 

[ITHURTZ]

hahaha

 

[Leggo my Ego]

That was hillarious!!

Exactly!

 

[SteelEntity]

LOL i was referring to ITHURTZ' post... but yeah that did look dumb.

 

[thesinner]

Argh this thread has principles from the other side of the fence.
Muscle confusion and failure vs frequency and progressive load(HST). I am for the 2nd.

Muscular hypertrophy/hyperplasia from strength training is a sign of adaptation to a new 'environment'. The whole idea behind inducing muscle growth via resistance training is to push your body out of it's 'comfort zone'. Whether it comes from doing a new exercise/training technique or from simply doing the same exercise with increased resistance or intensity, the bottom line is that you are pushing your body into doing something it is not used to doing. This is the only way you will see results. (Please note that the word "PUMP" is not found anywhere in this expalanation.)

 

[ThisGuy02]

I am by no means suggesting that you do, in fact, need the pump to grow. I don't think you do.

That said, a pump means more blood to the muscle, which in turn means more nutrients to the muscle, no? when you walk out of the gym skin stretched from the pump and go scarf down food, wouldn't this better aid absorbtion of those nutrients?

 

[Leggo my Ego]

I don't know about any one else here but I always seem to get a wicked pump when I work out, regardless of whether I am training with low repetitions or high repititions. I think the "Pump" comes from focusing on the muscle working and the deliberation of the contraction and realxation of the muscle throughout the working set.... Just my perspective.

 

[thesinner]

I am by no means suggesting that you do, in fact, need the pump to grow. I don't think you do.

That said, a pump means more blood to the muscle, which in turn means more nutrients to the muscle, no? when you walk out of the gym skin stretched from the pump and go scarf down food, wouldn't this better aid absorbtion of those nutrients?

This is the theory behind it (the pump for building muslce), unfortunately there's not a lot of science to it.....at all.

The issue, however, is that getting nutrients to the muscle is less than even half the battle: after that they need to go through a number of various biochemical reactions to lead to the final product: more muscle mass.

Let's use an asinine anaolgy to better illustrate my point:

I will throw pennies at you. We'll say these pennies are the 'nutrients'. Every penny you pick up, you will recite the pledge of allegiance and put the penny in the jar (this serve as when the nutrients are processed into muscle growth). Because receptor proteins limit how many nutrients a cell takes in at once, you can only pick up a maximum of 3 pennies at a time.

If I throw 100 pennies at a time at your or 50 at a time, is it going to make it that much faster to make a dollar?

 

[ThisGuy02]

This is the theory behind it (the pump for building muslce), unfortunately there's not a lot of science to it.....at all.

The issue, however, is that getting nutrients to the muscle is less than even half the battle: after that they need to go through a number of various biochemical reactions to lead to the final product: more muscle mass.

Let's use an asinine anaolgy to better illustrate my point:

I will throw pennies at you. We'll say these pennies are the 'nutrients'. Every penny you pick up, you will recite the pledge of allegiance and put the penny in the jar (this serve as when the nutrients are processed into muscle growth). Because receptor proteins limit how many nutrients a cell takes in at once, you can only pick up a maximum of 3 pennies at a time.

If I throw 100 pennies at a time at your or 50 at a time, is it going to make it that much faster to make a dollar?

actually that wasn't asinine at all. it was pretty well put, as a matter of fact.