Is Individualized Training Necessary For Optimal Adaptation?
There is a concept called response heterogeneity, defined as ‘important individual differences in the physiological response to the same intervention that cannot be attributed to random within-subject variability.”
Philipe Damas and colleagues' study titled, Individual Muscle Hypertrophy and Strength Responses to High vs. Low Resistance Training Frequencies, demonstrates the concept of response heterogeneity well. In this study, the investigators had a population of participants train one leg with high frequency (5x/week) and the other leg with low frequency (2x/week). In addition, the researchers measured the participant’s muscle cross-sectional area and one repetition maxes before and after an eight week training period, and the results were as follows:
31.6% of participants saw more significant gains in muscle mass in their ‘high frequency’ leg than their leg that they trained with a lower frequency;
36.8% of participants saw more significant gains in their ‘ low-frequency leg’;
The …
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