We love finding intriguing studies considering hypertrophy and muscle growth. Several recent studies have surfaced examining the benefits of training arms immediately following legs versus just training arms alone.
When training arms alone, the testosterone response remains flat when comparing testosterone levels pre and post workout. This means that the arm workout alone is not doing anything to initiate a testosterone response. Why is this important? More testosterone in response to exercise creates an increase in levels of growth hormones, ultimately leading to more lean muscle mass, strength, and size.
Training legs before arms created a significant change in testosterone levels. When the scientists found this, they wanted to determine if this response led to more strength in the trained individual. Surprisingly, it did. Training arms after legs led to a significant change in 1RM bicep curls.
Like most people, I dread leg days . . . I go in and destroy myself to the point I fear walking to the car. So, how am I supposed to conduct arm training immediately following? If you are going to give this a try, I would recommend limiting your leg exercises to Squats and leg curls to attack both the major muscle groups. You will need enough juice in the tank to attack arms following. Remember this is just an interesting study we found and felt like it was amazing information to share.
Rønnestad BR, Nygaard H, Raastad T. Physiological elevation of endogenous hormones results in superior strength training adaptation. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2011 Sep;111(9):2249-59. doi: 10.1007/s00421-011-1860-0. Epub 2011 Feb 16. PMID: 21327794.
Dr. Jacob Wilson [@themusclephd]. (4/11/2022). The Muscle PHD Academy Hypertrophy. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/CcQH6i8llVU/
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