Got a great question this morning from one of my clients regarding “The Pump” and its importance to muscle growth.
His question was essentially –
“I’m not feeling much of a pump when doing some of my accessory hypertrophy movements. Despite training them in the 8-12 rep range and despite taking them to failure. The muscles do feel tired and worked, just not pumped. Am I missing something?”
So here is my current thoughts on the pump……
It’s a great indicator of effective technique and perhaps adequate doses of stress….but not in-and-of-itself causative to muscle growth. (Perhaps some swelling of the cell due to fluid retention but not actual hypertrophy of the sarcomere).
For one, we know that progressively heavier lower rep strength training IS an effective stimulus for hypertrophy and yet produces very little pump in most people.
However, higher rep sets of 8-20 pushed to failure are also effective for hypertrophy and will create an INSANE pump in most people.
The common demoninator in those two scenarios however is not the pump – it’s TENSION.
Tension on the muscle fibers is present when volitional contraction speed is SLOW. Not slow because you are intentionally pushing it slow – but slow because it’s either (1) very heavy (2) or you are approaching failure with a submaximal weight.
So again, both of these scenarios potentially create a stimulus for growth, both create high levels of tension on the muscle fibers, but only one will result in a massive pump.
So should you ignore the pump?
No, I don’t think so.
As I stated earlier, I think it’s a great indicator of effective technique. And the more of a pump you can generate on a movement, the more effective the movement is likely to be.
Anecdotally, almost every bodybuilder in the world (natural or enhanced) chases the pump to a certain degree.
But I would balance that out with other, and perhaps more important factors such as:
- Are you using the right technique to load the muscle optimally? (some knowledge of basic anatomy and biomechanics is helpful here)
- Are you taking the muscle through the fullest effective range of motion possible?
- Are you bringing the muscle to, or right up to, technical failure?
- Are you progressively overloading the muscle over time within a given rep range?
If you are doing those 4, then the lack of a pump is probably not ideal, but not overly concerning either.
And it will likely improve with time and more experience with this type of training.
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Looking for a solid routine for Muscle Growth? I have 4 really good ones to choose from!
The KSC Method for Power-Building
The 4-Day Upper/Lower Hypertrophy Split
The Baker Barbell Arm Specialization Routine
The Baker Barbell Shoulder Specialization Routine
