John travelled the world to learn the best training and nutrition principles and trained alongside top pro bodybuilders at Gold's Gym California. He was a student of Arthur Jones, inventor of Nautilus and Medx Fitness machines, and the pioneer of hi-intensity training. John developed the HIT3 Training System, which transformed his physique to win countless bodybuilding competitions at just 18 years of age! He was also the first bodybuilder to utilize Faradic Electric Muscle Stimulation in his training and intermittent fasting during his competition prep. John’s SHREDDED Nutrition Diet helped him build one of the most shredded physiques of all time. His diet program incorporates fasting and nutrient timing to help athletes build lean muscle while losing body fat.
When an exercise is performed, the blood pushed into the body part being worked is known as the “pump.” One of the biggest misconceptions in the workout world today is that the muscle pump is indicative of muscular growth. It is clearly not. To understand this fully, we have to look at the makeup of a muscle cell, including the veins and capillaries that supply it. We need to understand the following:
- Blood (red and white blood cells) cannot enter a muscle cell.
- Veins and capillaries don’t pass through muscle cells. They’re situated in a web-like formation around muscle cells.
- Capillaries, arteries and arterioles branch out from veins and transport fluid (except blood) with nutrients, oxygen, hormones and enzymes to muscle cells.
- Veins, venules and capillaries move blood back to the heart.
- When excessive amounts of blood are pushed into a body part, the veins within the muscle will vasodilate. Over time and years of training, veins located in major body parts cause widening of the blood vessels. This causes temporary muscle size increase when exercising.
We can look at this from two perspectives:
First, the proof: Training at high repetition ranges (e.g., 15 to 30) that are conducive for creating a pump doesn’t lead to much muscle work (per repetition), which results in little muscle growth. For example, lifting 10 pounds 30 times will eventually lead to a muscle pump, but won’t yield much muscle growth.
However, training in repetition ranges that require considerable muscle work optimizes muscle growth. Lifting 40 pounds 10 times and reaching some level of muscle fatigue does lead to muscle growth. That’s because the pump, although it may lead to some temporary muscle girth increase, isn’t the important driver of muscle growth. The main driver of muscle growth is “adequate” stimulation resulting from high-intensity anaerobic exercise (intensity/load).
Second: The mechanism: The muscle pump is a reaction to the muscle’s need for nutrients and oxygen (as well as the removal of “waste products” such as carbon dioxide). The pump can push more water into the muscle cell, causing a stretch on the muscle cell membrane, which may seem like and be mistaken for muscle growth. The more serious muscle growth driver is the stretch caused by the contractile units (myofibrils containing myosin and actin) as they interact to resist a heavier weight during the performance of high-intensity exercise.
Carbohydrates and Muscle Size
Another illusion of muscle size increase is the effect that carbohydrates have on muscle girth. In our daily diet, ingested carbohydrates are broken down to glucose molecules, which are transported into muscle cells (with the help of insulin) to be used for energy. When excessive amounts of carbohydrates are ingested (carbohydrate loading), the extra glucose that isn’t needed is stored in the cells’ cytosol as a chain of glycogen (for later use). Each glycogen molecule will then attach and hold three molecules of water, causing the muscle cell to expand until the glycogen is used up for energy and the water is released back into the blood system. This is the reason that when people go on a zero-carbohydrate diet, they instantly lose a great deal of weight after the first week. It’s due mostly to water loss.
For more info on John Cardillo, check out his website at johnrobertcardillo.com or right here at Muscle Insider at John Cardillo.
