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Hey Doc and Todd--Lactic Acid, Growth Hormone, Muscle Fibers?

Sat, 01/21/2012 - 5:10am — T-Dog

Hey Gentlemen,

Just when I think I know everything (ha ha), it turns out I learn something new. This may be old to you and perhaps it's even here in the forum archives but I recently learned about the connection between lactic acid training and growth hormone. Basically, create a lot of lactic acid and produce a lot of growth hormone and in turn burn fat and create lean muscle mass.

John Romaniello (Final Phase Fat Loss) and Charles Poliquin (German Body Comp Training) and many others it seems have utilized this knowledge to manipulate hormones through training. It seems that circuits and/or complexes are often advised--sometimes using whole body workouts and others using body part splits per week. Some workouts seem to have higher reps than others. Some seem to focus on working one muscle a lot (e.g. 3 delt movements back to back) and then another as opposed to back and forth between two movements (e.g. supersetting squats and military presses).

I've read also that lactic acid training can be good for say grapplers because sprinting alone will not develop lactate clearing efficiency in the upper body for instance.

I read that Tudor Bompa advocates circuit training early in a periodization cycle for anatomical adaption.

So...

Will circuits like GBC or others increase capillarization, improve lactae threshold, increase GH, build muscle, and yet not somehow hurt your fast-twitch fibers and your strength, speed, and explosiveness?

I've seen other trainers make lactic acid sound like it's the worst thing for one's fast-twitch fibers. Yet, a wrestler needs to train his glycolytic (lactic acid) system seeing as he uses it the most.

I guess if a wrestler/grappler did it early in the off-season and didn't overdo it it should be okay.

I'm not sure I made sense.

Any thoughts on utilizing this type of training for a wrestler/grappler?

Thanks.

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Tue, 01/24/2012 - 1:16pm — Todd Wilson
Todd Wilson's picture

Well, it works.... The

Well, it works.... The question as to how it works for athletes is multi-faceted. Maintaining/increasing speed and power production is always a priority for an athlete and traditionally higher reps aren't effective at this. However.... Being fat isn't condusive to being explosive either. Hence, my philosophy has steadfastly been, get leaner! Lean guys have better relative strength and relative strength is the foundation of being explosive.

You can't flex fat.

Now saying that, when applying these methods to an athlete, one needs to use different methods than merely higher reps and lower rest intervals. There has to be some alterations of both exercise selections, pairings, sets, reps, tempo, and rest intervals etc. Also, the periodization of such cycles within one's training can play an important part in maintaining or increasing explosiveness, on the mat or court or field.