An always hot and controversial topic is protein synthesis and its functionality around hypertrophy, do you want to debate with them?
Muscle growth combining several things with resistance training and intake of nutrients such as protein; muscle protein synthesis provides us with the means to evaluate the effectiveness with which these interventions work
protein synthesis is, ultimately, a physiological process whereby gains are related to better muscle growth, although actual gains may vary from person to person.
From this point of view, our experts and professional bodybuilders Rober Castellano and Raúl Carrasco began to analyze how it impacts hypertrophy, taking into account that you should focus on this factor before planning your workouts and your diet.
Introduction
According to Raúl Carrasco, one of the things that everyone knows is that it is based on science (a little bit on biology) and believes that it is the closest way of approaching today.
In other words, when it comes to theory and practice, they are two different worlds, so from the point of view of practice, it is clear that studies tell us that after having muscle contractions, the muscle increases the protein synthesis , that is, the muscle fiber.
The three important points for hypertrophy occur which are:
- Time under tension,
- Metabolic stress due to short rest times and,
- Muscle laceration.
These factors are relevant to carry out muscle hypertrophy.
The brain understands that, to recover and to bring that muscle to a higher adaptation, it increases protein synthesis . This process of increase occurs from the end of the training and up to 6 hours later, creating a high peak at 72, 36, 48 hours (it is an average, a study) and it decreases until 5, 6 and 7 days later, In other words, protein synthesis never stops.
How the process occurs
When it comes to having a sensation, honestly, you are not able to notice in your body 6 hours later it is absorbing more protein and 72 hours later this process is gone … well, this is not possible …
In this topic of protein synthesis we are guided a bit by theory, by science, by medicine, whatever we want to call it. For Raúl, to be honest, training a muscle every 10 days seems like an aberration, it seems like an excess of rest.
First, as he has said without defending anything and starting from the principle of individuality:
- To create muscle mass, to create sarcomeric hypertrophy, to create a new muscle fiber, he believes that the most important thing is rest.
- But, to create muscle detail, Raúl thinks a muscle needs too much frequency.
In all his seminars and he is heavy with this, he has always put the same examples in a basic and plain way.
Compare the body’s adaptations in how the skin defends itself when one goes to sunbathe at the beach: (1) UV rays damage the skin, (2) the foot defends itself by secreting melanin to adapt to that injury and, (3) the skin becomes brown and pretty, but …
How do we know at what time of day the sun is going to give us a good tan? At what time of day? How long should one be in the sun? …
So, it is somewhat comparable to:
- How long to spend in the gym?
- How long to rest ?,
Because if it is true that if you go to the beach, the sun hits you and you get like a shrimp and after time it goes by and you realize how the skin is darkening, taking that handsome brunette and some skin and others don’t … this is for individuality! …
Synthesize your proteins using the correct nutrients
The base is in equilibrium
Raúl is one of those who thinks that if you go to the beach at an hour where the sun does not press so hard as to cause a strong injury to your skin and you spend a little time taking that color and three days later you go and , you will follow or get that handsome brunette you want.
In the context of training, where is the problem today?
- That people go to failure in everything and create an incredible neural failure,
- That is where the neuronal overtraining occurs, which is what leaves you fried, and the day comes when you can no longer go to the gym.
That is where Heavy Duty emphasizes, on neuronal overtraining (not muscular), although it also exists to a lesser degree because the muscle fiber is very moldable and highly recoverable. Well, there and that’s when you think that long breaks are necessary.
Our experts agree that the sports career of a beginner, of a person who starts with irons, has to be preceded by weights or Heavy Duty with a head, with a head also to use protein synthesis in favor .
And from there, as time passes or is added to your sports career and you need a little more quality; as much as possible without having muscle injuries.
The professionals who are on the circuit nowadays you don’t see them doing super stupid things, and if we see it it’s in a video that you know they’re recording you.
Pro’s like Kai Greene, Jay Cutler or the current Mr. Olympia Brandon Curry for example, we don’t see them pick up extremely heavy weights, but rather we see them doing a lot of muscle work, many sets and a lot of time under tension.
Theory vs practice
Then what happens? Many professionals like Raúl or Rober stay with practice, because although the theory of s protein synthesis is there, there is no machine that says: “look, here it started to go down ”.
In addition Raúl thinks that scientific studies go a bit to the minimum, because a study can be based on a person who has gone to the gym and has handled a dumbbell for 3 seconds … but, protein synthesis can last longer …
He also does not defend that you have to train the frequency every third day, since there are times that he uses a frequency every second day or every third day and, like all high-performance athletes, he has also overtrained.
If he has to stay with a frequency, it would be the first frequency Coleman chose, which was every fourth or fifth day, that is, he repeated a muscle Monday or Thursday, or Tuesday and Saturday … Raúl Carrasco would stay with that frequency …
In contrast, Rober Castellano develops the optimal frequency when he can; is to divide the body into 4 days of training and to train, it is one and a half times. At a certain point, do frequency 2, but why? Because when competing they ask you to be super hyper mega dry, without any fat, etc. and that forces to squeeze too much, especially amateurs.
The shoelaces and protein synthesis
Rober explains that if the stiffness lasts for up to 7 days of inflammation among other things, which can last perfectly, it is clear that protein synthesis is going to last much longer in time, because recovery has not occurred in 10 days yet.
In face to face, Rober also consults Raúl as in his videos he talked about protein synthesis lasting 72 hours, to which Raúl replied that, if he has to take a base, an average, since it is clear that if the shoelaces are given in a longer time, Rober agrees that it is very difficult to last that time.
In his answer, Raúl repeats that the three important points of hypertrophy are:
- Time under tension; how long you have a barbell or dumbbell in tension.
- Metabolic stress; that are not given for breaks of 5 minutes between sets but for breaks of 1 minute, 45 or 30 seconds.
- Muscle laceration; According to Raúl, he believes it was based on the stiffness, the lacerated, micro-lacerated muscle fiber, which is a muscle tear, an injury.
Then Raúl Carrasco thought or had as a theoretical basis that the more muscle breakage, the more stiffness and this was more synonymous with growth.
Over time, when he had the opportunity to have Milos in Spain, he gave seminars with him, in addition to sharing various things, making him believe or try to see that having excessive soreness is a sign that you had passed and not growth.
- But, Raúl said to Milos: “And how do you show that?
- Milos replied: “What is the muscle part that takes the most pain?
- Raúl answers: “the breastplate”,
- Milos asks him: “And the muscle with the least stiffness?”,
- Raúl replies: “Well, in my life, I know I have not caught in the back”, and I practically said: “the pectoral is my muscle failure, the back is a good muscle”.
Then it became clear that realities must be defended
Protein synthesis : “Realities”
So when you want to regulate protein synthesis , many times if you want to measure it in blood, you should look at the level of creatine kinase, CPK, the level of muscle breakdown in blood (you will see that without having stiffness and pain) the CPK is very high because there is muscle breakage.
That does not mean having a little pain, but that excessive pain of not being able to move how much you have passed would occur in other circumstances.
- Raúl says that having a frequency of even 7 days is excessive, because it can have a frequency of up to 2 weeks because you have gone, you have gone from having a shoelace, a muscle laceration, to having an average injury.
- Rober says that many times people don’t understand the sore process as such, which has to do with stored arachidonic acid and the release and creation of prostaglandins.
So what happens?
That when you train a muscle a lot, you don’t give it time to replace a lot of arachidonic acid … there may be breaks but there is no such outlet for arachidonic acid, therefore, there is no feeling of soreness …
For Rober it is curious that weak muscles and back muscles are the ones that come out the most stiff, those that are injured the most and those that take the longest to recover.
But of course, people always identify stiffness with muscle breakage, with muscle growth, and they don’t have to think that way, because you can do a stretching session where there are muscle breaks and stiffness but there won’t be any growth.
To finish on this topic of protein synthesis, many people do not analyze that the release of certain cytokines, such as IGF-1, is through certain body stresses and that in certain activities such as stretching, although breaks and stiffness occur, hypermobility and no muscle growth occurs .