What is Hyperplasia?

What is hyperplasia?

Quite simply, it's the enlargement of a tissue or organ. In strength training, hyperplasia is the result of muscle fibers splitting causing an increase in muscle fibers. This process is also known as myofibrillar hypertrophy. When you perform hyperplasia training, you are actually causing damage to your muscle fibers. This damage then triggers the body to create new muscle cells to repair the damage. As these new cells grow, they become stronger and bigger than the original cells. This results in an increase in muscle size and strength!

Top 5 Benefits:

1. Increased muscle size and strength: as mentioned above, hyperplasia results in an increase in muscle size and strength.

2. Improved joint health: because hyperplasia training results in the growth of new muscle cells, it also helps to improve joint health.

3.Improved cardiovascular health: another benefit of hyperplasia training is that it can help to improve cardiovascular health. This is because when you split your muscle fibers, you are also increasing the number of capillaries in your muscles. This increased blood flow helps to improve cardiovascular function.

4. Decreased risk of injury: yet another benefit of hyperplasia training is that it can help to decrease the risk of injury. This is because the new muscle cells that are created are stronger and less likely to be injured.

5. Increased metabolic rate: finally, hyperplasia training can also help to increase your metabolic rate. This is because the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate will be.

How Do you Perform Hyperplasia Training?

We will use a leg press exercise as an example here. The goal is to damage the muscle fibers in the muscle's stretched position. This will cause the muscle fibers to split under tension and allow for more growth. 

1. Start by sitting in the leg press machine with your feet flat on the platform.

2. Lower the platform until your legs are at a 90-degree angle. As the muscles are fully stretched here, you will want to pause for 8-12 seconds before exploding back up. 

3. Press the platform back up to the starting position.

4. Repeat for 10-12 reps. 

5. Rest for 2-3 minutes and then repeat the exercise. Finish the last set with a burnout to completely smoke the legs. 

Hyperplasia is different from hypertrophy. Hyperplasia training focuses on increasing the number of muscle fibers in a muscle group. Where as Hypertrophy focuses on increasing muscle fiber size. Hypertrophy is still the main focus of training for many strength and competitive athletes. However, it is always good to incorporate a new training methodology from time to time.