Why effort exertion MATTERS for muscle growth
▪️Effort is a key factor for hypertrophy, and if you try to get away with no-effort based workouts, well… then you’re hindering the efficacy of your training program.
▪️But don’t get me wrong, there are cases in which exerting high levels of effort is unnecessary. For example, beginners who are just starting out with resistance training and learning the movement can get away with putting less effort into their workouts as they gain substantial strength through improvements in coordination.
▪️But past this phase, you need to push yourself progressively, if you want to get results. The reason why effort exertion is essential for muscle growth, is because the perceived level of effort establishes the level of motor unit recruitment to be assessed.
▪️The more of the effort perceived, the higher the level of motor units recruited to perform the task, which creates a greater force to be produced.
▪️When the goal is muscle growth, we need to optimize the level of motor unit recruitment. This way we are able to get access to the fibers controlled by the high-threshold motor units. These are the largest fibers and the ones which grow by lifting weights.
▪️Having slow bar speeds (close or to failure) with high-effort reps will increase the amount of hypertrophy we can create during each set. So if your goal is to build muscle, start putting some more effort into your sets so you can get the best results possible.
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