Hypertrophy Clusters for Athletes
How to build muscle mass while still enhancing explosiveness
First things first; what is hypertrophy?
Hy-PER-truh-PHEE not hyper-trophy
The dictionary defines hypertrophy as “the enlargement of an organ or tissue from the increase in size of its cells.” In this case, I’m referring specifically to increasing the size of the athlete’s muscle fibers.
Why would increasing muscle size be important for athletes? By increasing the size of the muscle, you increase the muscle’s capacity to perform work. With this increased work capacity, you will be able to produce more power and sustain it for a longer period.
Not all hypertrophy training regimes are created equal though. Without getting too much into muscle fiber type, most people know that we have fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibers. People are born with varying amounts of each, however, we also have fibers that can be converted one way or another depending on how they are trained. If you train them to fire fast and recruit large, powerful motor units through exercises like sprinting, jumping, and heavy resistance training, those fibers will convert to fast-twitch fibers. Alternatively, if you train them to fire slowly by performing long, slow jogging or lots of high-rep, low-weight exercises, those will convert to slow-twitch fibers.
Now there’s nothing wrong with training slow-twitch fibers for athletes. It’s very necessary and will lead to great overall athletic improvements when implemented correctly. We just don’t want that to be a main focus for our athletes throughout the year because most sports require them to be fast and explosive to be successful.
Training Parameters for Hypertrophy
There are many ways to train and increase muscle size and there’s no one perfect way. The traditional method of training 6–12 reps over 3–6 sets has and will continue to produce great results for many athletes. Overall training volume will ultimately be the main determining factor in what outcome we are looking for. Below is a very basic chart that people use depending on their overall training goal.
If we take this chart at face value then performing 5 reps or less or 12 reps or more would mean that we are no longer working on hypertrophy but rather on strength or endurance. This can be misleading and is why we focus on overall volume rather than just the rep count. If we look at the volume range from this chart, the hypertrophy range would be 18–74 reps. That is a wide range! This just means there are a lot of ways to achieve the goal of hypertrophy.
Traditional hypertrophy training typically looks something like 3–4 sets of 8, 10, or 12 reps and this is where you can feel the “pump.” But what if we switched up the sets and reps? Instead of 4 sets of 8, what if we did 8 sets of 4? The total volume is still 32 reps but now we can train with a heavier weight because we are using lower reps per set. The heavier weight recruits the more powerful muscle fibers that help our athletes run faster, jump higher, and be more explosive on the field or court.
Chris Beardsley, Director of Strength and Conditioning Research LLC, articulates this point in his article on hypertrophy training. “When the total number of sets with a given weight is matched (such that using intra-set rest periods involves training with less fatigue and therefore further from failure), the literature has shown that training with intra-set rest periods allows similar gains in maximum strength but greater gains in the various measures that underpin speed, such as power output, high-velocity strength, rate of force development, and maximum theoretical velocity on the force-velocity profile.”
Traditional hypertrophy training and hypertrophy cluster training produce similar max strength gains but cluster training increases your explosiveness even more.
What is cluster training?
While there are many different variations of cluster training, my favorite protocol is what I was referring to above. Just cut the reps in half, double the sets, and cluster them together through short rest periods. Instead of resting 2–3 minutes between sets, only rest for 20–30 seconds. This uses the principle of accumulated fatigue and is the best method for improving neurological efficiency. Your first set of 4 reps at 75% won't be too tough, but after only 30 seconds between each set, those last few sets will be a grind.
In programming cluster sets, I prefer 2–3 week microcycles. The load will depend on the athlete but a good place to start would be as follows:
Week 1–3: 8x5@70–80%
Week 4–6: 10x4@75–85%
Week 7–9: 12x3@80–90%
More seasoned lifters will be able to push to the top-end percentages while younger, inexperienced lifters should stay towards the lower percentages. As a note, this protocol is typically used for your major strength movements such as the squat, deadlift, overhead press, and bench press but can also be used for major assisted lifts such as pull-ups, rows, and lunges as well.
Younger athletes will especially benefit from this type of training because it takes the fatigue factor of high rep sets out of the equation. Sets of 8, 10, or 12 reps typically lead to technique breakdown because of the high reps sets and mental or physical fatigue that can put on the athlete. Performing lower reps sets, allows the athlete to focus on fewer reps at a time and helps to reduce the likelihood that they will just go through the motions during the set.
Whether you are a young athlete just getting started working out or you’re a seasoned vet, hypertrophy clusters provide a unique approach to training that everyone can benefit from. Give them a try and get ready to take your training to a whole new level!
