For those of us who dream of stuffing a little extra muscle, or just sticking to what we have, at the American College of Sports Medicine’s annual conference in San Diego earlier this month. There was intriguing news.
One of the social “paper of the year” selections chosen for its impact and the importance of research is touting a new and unique effective strength training protocol called the 3/7 method. This is the latest in a long line of possible muscle hypertrophy breakthroughs – and the good news is that it works. But a more interesting question is why it works and what it teaches us about the real key to building muscle.
This paper originates from a meeting between a Swiss athletics coach and a Belgian neurophysiologist. Jean-Pierre Egger is a two-time Olympic shot put player and coach of several world champions, including four-time Olympic shot put medalist Valerie Adams. He talked to Jack Du Chateau, a researcher at the Free University of Brussels, about the new approach athletes were using to maximize their strength with less training time and effort.
Duchateau decided to test this new protocol in his lab. The 3/7 method developed by French strength coach Emmanuel Legerard lifts about 70 weights. Percentage of up to one iteration (or equivalent, weight that can be lifted about 12 times before reaching failure). Lift 5 sets by repeating 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 times, and take a 15-second break between each set.
I was interested in Duchatea because the protocol seemed to combine the best of two different ways to build muscle. A relatively heavy weight puts mechanical stress on your muscle fibers, and a very short rest period starves muscle oxygen and imposes metabolic stress. Duchateau believes that each of these factors independently causes muscle growth.
The award-winning paper published by Duchateau and his colleagues in Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews summarizes a series of experiments combining 3/7 methods for various other bench press protocols. In both strength and growth (not explosive), we outperformed 4 sets of 6 repetitions, with a break between sets of 2.5 minutes, with similar results to 8 sets of 6 repetitions of the same weight. Was done.
As both Egger and Duchatea point out, the main advantage is efficiency. One exercise using the 3/7 method takes about 5 minutes. On the other hand, it takes 20 minutes or more to perform 8 sets of 6 repetitions.
But is the 3/7 approach better than the other approaches, or is it just different? If efficiency is required, a Dutch company called fit20 offers a weekly program that includes only one set of 4-6 ultra-slow rep for each exercise. A multi-year analysis of about 15,000 people using this system, published by Solent University researcher James Steele, showed a typical strength improvement of about 30% after a year.
McMaster University researcher Stuart Phillips has made a significant contribution to kinetic science at this month’s annual conference on the supposed magic of combining mechanical and metabolic stress. Was awarded. After all, he points out that track runners induce a lot of metabolic stress while performing interval training, but they do not develop huge leg muscles.
A series of studies by Philips and others over the last decade have shown that many different training routines lead to similar muscle and strength gains. Important commonality: Approaching (not always reaching) a momentary failure at the end of each exercise. Light weights, heavy weights, short breaks, long breaks – you can tweak the variables to your heart’s content as long as you find it difficult to end the set.
The 3/7 approach definitely checks that box. Duchateau says that if you choose the right weights, you will fail in the last two sets. So if you’ve reached a plateau or are looking for some kind of workout, try a new method. Or, if necessary, use the old method. In any case, Philips remains the same true magical ingredient: effort and consistency.
Alex Hutchinson is the author of Endure: Mind, Body, and Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. Follow him on Twitter @sweatscience..
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