“The Pump”: let’s be clear

What do booty-band-gymshark girls and stringer-wearing, “chest everyday” boys have in common? An over reliance on a pump.

It is commonly known that the size of your muscles increase when subjected to a training regimen, this increase is called hypertrophy and is typically displayed in athletes in strength sports and bodybuilding. Hypertrophy is caused by either an increase in muscle fibers (hyperplasia) or an increase in the cross sectional size of the fibers, (fiber hypertrophy). Studies show that while possible, muscle fiber hyperplasia contributes very little to muscle growth. Muscle size increase is therefore mainly caused by individual muscle fiber size increase rather than the splitting of muscle fibers causing an increase in overall number of fibers. People who genetically have a larger number of fibers will consequently (and annoyingly) have more potential for bodybuilding and weightlifting success.

Having established that fiber hypertrophy is the most common means of building muscle let’s now look at the two forms of hypertrophy that exist:

• Myofibrillar hypertrophy (lifting heavy weights).

• Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (concentrating effort on muscle contraction or in other words, chasing the “pump”).

So what is a “pump”? The pump is essentially a prolonged, increased blood flow to a particular muscle which leads to a warm and often pleasant feeling of fullness while training. So what you are actually feeling is sarcoplasmic hypertrophy; an increase in sarcoplasmic fluid (a semifluid interfibrillar substance). This however comes with LITTLE TO NO accompanying increase in muscular strength. Myofibrillar hypertrophy, on the other hand, is an enlargement of the muscle fibre as it gains more myofibrils and correspondingly increases the number of actin and myosin filaments (contractile proteins) which enables you to build strength AS WELL AS muscle.

I explained in my last post how progressive overload is of utmost importance for improving your physique and strength and that progressive overload should be the main format in which you train. Many gym-goers (either because they saw a bodybuilder doing it on Instagram or because their buddy at the gym told them to do so) utilise a pump as THE primary indicator of a successful workout. The problem with this way of training is that there is no real sense of progression (only how hard the workout was and how good the pump was). This can quickly lead to being disenchanted by training as there is no tangible sense of progress unless you are seeing sizeable changes in musculature - which is highly unlikely unless you are a complete beginner - but in that case almost anything will make you grow as your body has never had any form of training (what we call “newbie gains”).

Having said that, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy/pump does have a place within your training, despite some strength coaches dismissing it as “bodybuilder nonsense”. Pump style training can and should be used, I believe, later in the session as a means to improve neuromuscular connection (to keep all your hypertrophy bases covered).

Neuromuscular connection is essentially your ability to connect to and feel your muscle, the “mind muscle connection”. If you can feel your muscle while you’re training you will more successfully be able to use that muscle and have control of it. Not to mention this style of training is less strenuous to your central nervous system (CNS). In order to allow the CNS to recover from however many months of myofibrillar hypertrophy I have subjected it to, I use a deload and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy (pump) more often.

The two training styles are not mutually exclusive and ideally you should be using myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.

EXAMPLE: bench/push workout using both methods:

1. 3x5 bench press

2. 3x8 incline bench

3. 3x10 dips

4. THEN implement a pump technique: 3x15-30 cable flys (focusing on contraction and stretch of the muscle).

Another way in which a pump can be implemented is to “pre-fatigue” the muscle that you’re intending to use in the workout to improve neuromuscular connection before working with a heavier weight.

For example: on a posterior chain, hamstring-focused session, you could implement a glute kickback or donkey kick to warm up and connect better, before going on to a hip thrust (I find this technique useful with a client who struggles with neuromuscular connection).

I would just add, for less experienced lifters this style of training is helpful to improve your neuromuscular connection and “feel the muscle”. But, for more experienced lifters, getting a pump should not be your priority in training. You should treat it rather as a byproduct of your lifting. Some pump sets can be added at the end of your workout, but once you’ve got a pump and have stimulated the muscle, then you can either finish your session or shift to the next body part.

Stimulate, don’t annihilate.