Question regarding what is happening to muscle when it's being trained?

[Cheeky Monkey]

Hello,

I have a question regarding muscle physiology. Check out a little bit of what I did today:

BB Military Press
1 x 20 with 100 lbs (~50% of my 1 rep max....stop laughing!!!!!)

then I took a rest for 1 minute (timed)

1 x 20 with 105 lbs (failure...delts burning like hell)

then I took a rest for 1 minute 30 seconds (timed)

1 x12 with 110 lbs (failure....but it wasn't muscle burning type failure...on the 12th rep I was still feeling alright but when I tried to get 13th rep, I just couldn't move my arms...they were just paralyzed and I had to stop the set).


Can someone explain what exactly happened here in terms of muscle biology? Did I use up all my deltoid glycogen? Did Type 1 muscle fibers tire out and type 2 were taking over? Did my CNS get overloaded? Did I burn up all my shoulder ATP??


By the way, in case you're wondering, I'm experimenting with low 1 RM maxes (30-50%) and doing sets to failure because I read in an article that you still get muscle hypertrophy whether you use 30% or 80% as long as you do more reps (~30 reps) with the lower 1-rm max.

Thanks!

 

[BennyMagoo79]

Hello,

I have a question regarding muscle physiology. Check out a little bit of what I did today:

BB Military Press
1 x 20 with 100 lbs (~50% of my 1 rep max....stop laughing!!!!!)

then I took a rest for 1 minute (timed)

1 x 20 with 105 lbs (failure...delts burning like hell)

then I took a rest for 1 minute 30 seconds (timed)

1 x12 with 110 lbs (failure....but it wasn't muscle burning type failure...on the 12th rep I was still feeling alright but when I tried to get 13th rep, I just couldn't move my arms...they were just paralyzed and I had to stop the set).


Can someone explain what exactly happened here in terms of muscle biology? Did I use up all my deltoid glycogen? Did Type 1 muscle fibers tire out and type 2 were taking over? Did my CNS get overloaded? Did I burn up all my shoulder ATP??


By the way, in case you're wondering, I'm experimenting with low 1 RM maxes (30-50%) and doing sets to failure because I read in an article that you still get muscle hypertrophy whether you use 30% or 80% as long as you do more reps (~30 reps) with the lower 1-rm max.

Thanks!

No you aren't immediately exhausting muscle glycogen by taking one set to failure, and you aren't even really exhausting intramuscular creatine and ATP (adenosine triphosphate, which is the chemical oxidized by muscle cells) stores. In the short term you will metabolically fatigue fast twitch fibres such that they may be inhibited by reversal of ion channels through lactic acid production, but these recover quickly via "lactic shuttle" ATP production whereby more ATP is produced locally from byproducts of oxidation, although this process is not 100% efficient.

When you perform you shoulder press sets to failure, temporary paralysis is caused by:
1.) Afore mentioned inhibition via ion channel reversal from LA buildup which is then compounded by:
2.) Circulatory restriction - heart must pump blood up to delts, which are swollen from release of NO and H20 further restricting IM bloodflow

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

No you aren't immediately exhausting muscle glycogen by taking one set to failure, and you aren't even really exhausting intramuscular creatine and ATP (adenosine triphosphate, which is the chemical oxidized by muscle cells) stores. In the short term you will metabolically fatigue fast twitch fibres such that they may be inhibited by reversal of ion channels through lactic acid production, but these recover quickly via "lactic shuttle" ATP production whereby more ATP is produced locally from byproducts of oxidation, although this process is not 100% efficient.

When you perform you shoulder press sets to failure, temporary paralysis is caused by:
1.) Afore mentioned inhibition via ion channel reversal from LA buildup which is then compounded by:
2.) Circulatory restriction - heart must pump blood up to delts, which are swollen from release of NO and H20 further restricting IM bloodflow

Thanks for responding bro. I was wondering if by doing light weight burn out sets in the beginning would exhaust type 1 muscle fibers and then I could do a standard pyramid training to target the type 2 muscle fibers.

 

[BennyMagoo79]

Thanks for responding bro. I was wondering if by doing light weight burn out sets in the beginning would exhaust type 1 muscle fibers and then I could do a standard pyramid training to target the type 2 muscle fibers.

For metabolic purposes, dropsets are probably the most effective method for burning out both oxidative and glycolytic fibres.

 

[John Smeton]

Question regarding what is happening to muscle when it's being trained?

Real simple. Muscle is torn.