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What's the obsession with muscle pump

T

TakeItAll

Bluelighter
Joined
Jul 1, 2006
Messages
180
Heaps of articles and forums I've read have had people talking about getting a "good pump" from lifting weights.

I suspect they enjoy it since their muscles look larger in the short term however one person who's exercise knowledge I generally respect said that a pump also stretches the fascia surrounding a muscle allowing it to grow.

He couldn't back that up with anything more solid than having heard it from other people. But perhaps someone here can confirm/deny a few things for me:

1. Does a pump indicate that a muscle has been worked sufficiently
2. Does it lead to more rapid gains in size and/or strength
3. It appears very easy to get a pump in smaller muscles than larger for me which I assume is normal. This makes me think that getting a pump really doesn't matter since my larger muscles also respond to resistance training.
4. I've heard that doing more reps per set of a lighter weight is more likely to promote hypertrophy than low reps of a heavier weight. I'm not 100% sure of this but is this then linked to the thought that getting a pump is linked to faster growth since 3 sets of 10 reps is more likely promote growth and result in pumped muscles than 6 sets of 5 reps.
 
Whats in your blood? Why would you want a lot of your blood in a muscle you have just annihilated strength training?

Figure out those two questions and you will understand.
 
it does feels pretty good to see the blood veins pop out over your biceps and torso and chest as you pose abs with arms up over head :D
 
I think it's become apparent that my training goals are a little different to the norm. I actually find pumped muscles somewhat annoying, since I have really good flexability and mobility and they just don't feel right to me. Almost like my balance and timing is put out.

Thanks for the answers although I did already understand that blood has nutrients for muscle damage repair in it. I don't however believe that a pump will substantially increase the delivery of those nutrients to the muscles. Obviously the intramuscular blood pressure is increased for a short period of time however this would also be inhibiting newer blood from entering the muscle. Plus the pump is really a short term thing compared to the time it will take for muscle to recover.

I could be wrong but I am pretty sure that the increased pressure wouldn't help move nutrients across cell walls. Happy to be told I'm wrong by someone in the know however.
 
^ if its time with creatine, glutamine, Luecine, insulin (with consumption of simple sugar or exogenous injections), and other amino acids, then it can have an incredible effect on nutrient uptake.

check out german volume training if you want a nightmare program (for your goals).

If pumped muscles are knocking off your balance first thing that comes to mind is that you have a muscular imbalance.
 
Thanks dude. Pretty sure that I don't have any kind of muscular imbalance. I have always been pretty careful about that kind of thing since I'm looking for performance/power not size.

I've never looked into the German Volume Training in great detail. So I'll check it out. My training buddy really wants to get stuck into a hypertrophy cluster training protocol sometime soon so it might have to wait.

Only problem is I'm growing out of my clothes. I'm not sure if I want/can afford to get any bigger, especially in the legs.
 
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