The Future of Hypertrophy Training [Advanced Training Technique]

"Straight sets" are the most common way to train - you do some reps, rest a few minutes, and repeat. But what if there's a better way? Well, new technologies now allow for novel approaches, and we explore the potential effectiveness below.

Chapters

​00:00​ Advanced Training Techniques
​00:54​ Burnout Mode
​02:10​ Effective Reps
​03:10​ Slow Reps
​04:25​ Research
​06:17​ Overall Model
​07:30​ Takeaway

Transcript

Advanced training techniques - things like drop sets, forced reps, and rest pause training - are often used with the claim of getting a greater training stimulus and thus more hypertrophy.

These effectiveness of these advanced strategies is often over-stated, but today, we’re going to discuss a specific advanced training technique I bet you’ve never heard of. After we investigate this training technique, you’ll also have a framework for hypertrophy training that you can use for all of your training.

What’s going on, my name is Josh Pelland. I’m a strength coach and exercise scientist. I’m also a co-owner at Data Driven Strength, and if you’re new here, we help lifters maximize strength and hypertrophy by integrating research into practice. With that, let’s jump right into the advanced training technique you’ve probably never heard of.

What we see here is called “Burnout Mode” on a Tonal device. Tonal doesn’t use traditional weights and instead uses electromagnetic resistance. The feel for the lifter is similar to a traditional cable machine, but the device allows for automated and rapid load adjustments.

So, when using Burnout Mode, the device recognizes when you cannot produce enough force to overcome the resistance and automatically reduces the load. In this set here, the device detected that I could no longer produce the force required to complete the 8th rep. In other words, I may have failed around the 8th rep with normal resistance.

This process is repeated until only 5 pounds is all that is remaining. In this set, I was able to get 16 total reps, but the load decreased from 33 pounds per arm in rep 8 to 5 pounds throughout reps 8 through 16.

Now, to my knowledge, the hypertrophic effects of this method have not been directly investigated. However, we can draw on other research to hypothesize how effective it is.

A term that gets discussed a lot is that of “effective reps” for hypertrophy. People use this term a lot of different ways, but drawing on the longitudinal hypertrophy research, it generally seems that reps closer to failure are more effective than those farther from failure. A recent pre-printed meta-regression provides a visual of this.

However, it’s important to note that A) reps quite far from failure are likely still at least somewhat effective and B) we don’t know exactly how much more effective those reps closer to failure are.

But caveats aside, we can use this rough effective reps concept to think about the Burnout Mode and how effective it is for hypertrophy.

So, we know that reps closer to failure are generally more effective for hypertrophy than those farther from failure. We also know that even as you push as hard as you can, repetition velocity decreases as you get closer to failure; thus, we can use slow repetition velocities as a rough indicator of the effectiveness of a repetition.

So, at this point, you may be thinking that the Burnout Mode is the holy grail of hypertrophy training because you accumulate many more slow reps than you would in any condition with free weights.

However, to bring us back to earth, we need to zoom out and realize that not all reps are created equal due to fatigue. In other words, if I achieve a very slow rep, let’s set 0.15 meters per second velocity either from scenario A: a set I went into low fatigue, such as the first set of a session versus scenario B: a set I went into with very high fatigue, similar in concept to the very end of a protocol using the Burnout Mode, I wouldn't expect these to be the same hypertrophic stimulus.

This comes from our reading of the literature in a two areas.

The first is the rest period research, which compares muscle growth between protocols with shorter vs. longer rest between sets. What we generally see is that longer rest periods lead to more muscle growth.

The second is the drop set research, which compares traditional straight sets to a protocol that does a normal set, but then immediately does one or multiple drops and performs more reps. This may look like a set to failure with 30 pound dumbbells, an immediate drop and set to failure with 20 pound dumbbells, followed by another drop and set to failure with 10 pounds. The most recent meta-analysis in the area comes from Coleman and colleagues, and they found comparable hypertrophy between traditional and drop set protocols.

However, if we count all sets, including the lower load sets in the drop set groups, those drop set groups performed 32% more total sets. In conditions with “equalized fatigue”, I’d expect 32% more volume to show up as more hypertrophy in a meta-analysis; thus, it may be the fatigue going into the drop sets that slightly diminishes the stimulus.

So, put simply, slow reps are probably more effective for hypertrophy than faster reps, but a slow rep achieved with high fatigue going into the set is likely less effective than a slow rep achieved with low fatigue going into the set.

So, on one hand, Burnout Mode allows for very efficient accumulation of a lot of slow reps. However, the high fatigue that contributes to the reps being slow, especially near the end of a Burnout Mode protocol, likely attenuates the hypertrophic stimulus.

This means that you’re probably not just stacking a ton of maximally effective reps using something like Burnout Mode. However, you are able to stack a lot of pretty effective reps with an approach like this, which is quite an efficient way to train. Personally, when I’m time restricted, my go-to is to do 1-2 all-out sets using Burnout Mode.

Now, you may not have access to something like Burnout Mode, but you can achieve a pretty similar effect using drop sets or rest-pause training. I don’t like to program these sorts of methods for the bulk of a training program, but they can be an enjoyable way to finish a training session or an efficient and effective way to accumulate a lot of decently effective reps when crunched for time.

Hopefully this video helped you conceptualize what makes a rep effective and gives you a framework for your own program design. Now, this is a very nuanced topic, and there’s a lot more to talk about here, so be sure you’re subscribed to our podcast, which is linked in the description, as we’ll be dropping an episode soon discussing some of the finer details. In the meantime, you check out our video on powerbuilding to better understand other training variables that are important for hypertrophy training.