The pump is arguably one of the top sensations most gym goers aim to attain with each trip to the gym, as a matter of fact, I’m willing to bet its right up there with crushing P.R.’s on certain lifts. To dispel any preconceived notions, this is a not an in depth physiological look at how the pump increases and causes muscular hypertrophy. Wait, what? The pump can cause muscle growth? It’s not just a vanity thing? Yes, for those unaware the pump can in fact stimulate muscular hypertrophy through a number of means including:
Increased cellular hydration (i.e. Cellular swelling)
Greater release and interaction of anabolic hormones (i.e. Hypoxic environment created via training stimulus)
Greater glycogen storage (Compensatory effect)
Increased growth factor production
Possible increase in satellite cell fusion
Increase in protein synthesis and decrease in protein breakdown—Both which of which are indirect results of cellular swelling (remember a hydrated cell is an anabolic cell)
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s can focus on what the meat and potatoes of this article really is about: maximizing the pump. So if the pump builds muscle, is there anything we can do with our nutrition or training to maximize growth from the pump? The answer is YES!
Here’s what you need to do to maximize your pumps in the gym:
Water
Seems almost like a no brainer, right? But believe it or not too, many people fall under the recommended daily intake for water consumption. We all know of the negative effects a dehydrated state can have on our overall health, but what is the importance to an exercising individual. First off your hydration status affects endurance performance, strength, power and high intensity endurance. In excess of 2% dehydration, your rate of perceived exertion for tasks increases, which basically means that tasks and functions well within in your capacity to tolerate will seem as though they require more effort to perform. Ever wonder why somedays your warm up weights for lifting seem harder than others? Maybe you are slightly dehydrated that day, or your caffeine intake was higher which increases diuresis to eliminate more water from your body. The point is that it has a rather dramatic effect on both our health and exercise performance. So if water has such a dramatic effect on exercise performance, wouldn’t it stand to reason that it would affect your pumps during that respective workout? Water intake along with sodium (to be discussed next) regulate blood volume levels. Lower ingestion of water will result in lower blood volume levels, which will make for a rather weak pump, not mention the fact that it will increase your blood pressure levels and reduce vascularity levels in the body. Another important factor here is that without sufficient water intake our muscles cannot properly store carbohydrates as glycogen, as this process is highly dependent upon being in a properly hydrated state. Failure to do so may lead to excess carbohydrates being stored as adipose tissue rather than muscle glycogen. Intense gym goers should actively pre-hydrate prior to working out and continue to sip on fluids during their workouts to replenish fluid loss and electrolytes lost in our sweat. There are a few things you can do to ensure that you are properly hydrated, which include monitoring changes in scale weight before and after your workouts and also looking at the color of your urine. Note to those of you who are unaware, you should not have kryptonite colored pee, ideally you should have minimal to no color in it. Monitoring water intake by thirst is okay, but by the time you experience the symptom of thirstiness, you basically lost an excess of water already and are in a dehydrated state. Don’t allow this to persist because the symptoms that follow—discomfort, dizziness, vomiting, shortness of breath—are signs that heat illness is setting in, so just take a preventative measure and properly hydrate yourself. Just don’t overdo it because that can be toxic as well. An easy solution to achieve greater pumps is to start by gradually increasing your water intake daily.
Carbohydrates
Carbs are our body’s main source of energy during intense activity and is extremely vital for proper exercise performance, as it prevents blood glucose levels from plummeting during activity to allow us to sustain a certain level of intensity. We have all had one experience or another where maybe we didn’t eat enough prior to working out and experienced a dip in blood glucose levels. Not the best feeling in the world. But what do carbohydrates have to do with maximizing your pump? Carbohydrate consumption is one of the driving factors for cellular swelling. Carbohydrates are stored in the liver and muscle cells in the form of glycogen, which due to its hydrophilic nature, will subsequently draw water into the cell, thus increasing cellular hydration. Each gram of glycogen stored in our muscles pulls approximately 3 grams of water in with it, keeping your muscles full and allowing for the proper amount of hydration needed to experience a pump. When you look at the grand scheme of things this proper level of hydration will also help to regulate protein synthesis levels within our muscle cells and reduce protein breakdown. But wait, what if I am dieting and in a calorie deficit and my carbs are super low? What I would in this case recommend doing is donating the bulk of your carbohydrate macronutrient numbers (if you count numbers- which you probably should be doing) to your pre/intra and post workout nutrition. Carb consumption at this time not only helps to spare muscle protein breakdown and keep our cells properly hydrated, but will also ensure that exercise intensity levels can remain high. They will also help reduce stress hormones and reduce excess stress on immune function indicators (for more information on depressed immune system function and exercise click on this article link).
Sodium
Sodium is another important, but often overlooked, facet of increasing your pumps in the gym. The sodium scare perpetuated by the media has added salt to the list of public enemies, when in fact, sodium is required for normal physiological function. An important element to those exercising intensely to achieve a pump, remain hydrated. Having an excess of sodium will prevent disruptions in sodium potassium levels, which will ultimately cause fluids to be stored in surrounding tissues, something we don’t want. This is referred to as the sodium–potassium pump and is one of our body’s regulatory mechanisms for blood volume.Just as discussed above, sodium along with water will help to regulate your blood volume levels which will facilitate normal blood pressure and will work in tandem with water to also help load carbohydrates into your muscles.I typically recommend that my clients consume additional intake of sodium throughout the day within a specific range I provide. I personally aim for 2.5-4g minimum per day of supplementary sea salt (which provides not only sodium but other necessary trace minerals) consumed, which I add to my gallon jugs of water for the day. Many times the sodium content of my foods will vary from day to day, so this ensures that I am hitting a consistent amount for the most part with this scheduled daily intake. Also, my intraworkout dose of Active Amino supplies me with an electrolyte blend to help replenish those lost in my sweat during workouts.
Train with higher repetitions
Ever try doing compound movements in the 15 – 30 rep range? It’s no cake walk. By the 30th repetition your muscles are burning to an extent which you have never really experienced before, you are breathing heavy and limbs are so pumped that you temporarily loss ROM around specific joints your pumps are so insane. Let’s examine what has happened here. First off training with higher repetitions yields more time under tension with a given muscle group. Time under tension can be defined as the amount of duress or strain placed on a muscle group, throughout a range of motion, as the muscle attempts to resist and overcome the resistance. Research shows that prolonged tension within an exercised muscle group can essentially create a hypoxic environment. This is caused by the compression of blood vessels within the muscle group being trained. Sound familiar? This is the basis for blood flow occlusion training. (For more on blood flow occlusion, check out my article on the guiding training principles 101.) It is this hypoxic environment which maximizes the anabolic response to training in the form of both increased metabolic stress and cellular swelling. In Laymen’s terms, it maximizes the pump, which again is a valuable contributor to muscular hypertrophy. Training with higher reps will create a glycogen super compensation effect in the form of greater glycogen storage capacity within the cell. In the long term this will allow your cells to be able to hold more glycogen, and thus more water, resulting in a greater cellular swelling effect.
Limit rest between sets
Much like training with higher repetitions, taking shorter rest periods ensures that the increased blood volume in the targeted muscles stays there and you continue to create hypertrophic adaptations. For more on this check out the guiding training principles 101, section on reducing rest between sets.
Supplements
And finally we come to supplements, which are the icing on the cake for enhancing your pump in the gym. There are countless formulas on the market which purport to maximize the pump and cause skin bursting pumps. There are tons of different ingredients out there, some more effective than others, some cheaper or more expensive than others and finally some with more research than others. For the most bang for your buck and most reliable I recommend looking into the following—just make sure that they are properly dosed. Look for my next article on supplement stacking at the most optimal doses.
Betaine Anhydrous
Agmatine
Arginine AKG
Citrulline Malate
Nitrates
Disclaimer
All programs and articles provided are intellectual property of James Shmagranoff. No copies or redistribution of these is allowed without express permission from James Shmagranoff. James Shmagranoff is not a doctor and nothing contained within this article is to be taken as medical advice. The information given is for entertainment purposes only. All statements are 100% dependent upon proper diet and exercise. Always follow the directions of your medical practitioner.
Sources:
Brad J. Schoenfeld. October 2010. The Mechanisms of Muscle Hypertrophy and Their Application To Resistance Training. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 24,10;ProQuest Health and Medical Complete pg.2857
Dunfold M. Sports Nutrition: A Practice Manual for Professionals., 4th ed. SCAN dietetic practice group, American Dietetic Association, 2006.
Gibney, M., J., Introduction to Human Nutrition, 2009, 45 p.
Churchly EG, Coffey VG, Pedersen DJ, et al. Influence of preexercise muscle glycogen content on transcriptional activity of metabolic and myogenic genes in well-trained humans. J Appl Physiol 2007;102:1604-611.
Judelson DA, Maresh CM, Anderson JM et al. Hydration and muscular performance. Does fluid balance affect strength, power and high-intensity endurance? Sports med 2007;37(10):907-21.
McGuire, M., Beerman, K., A., Nutritional Sciences: From Fundamentals to Food, 2009, 552 p.
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