Capillarity

[Martinelli]

Good evening Mark,
Just out of curiosity, I was wondering if the embedding of additional capillaries among muscle fibers (by undergoing a period of endurance-specific training) would marginally facilitate hypertrophy due to augmented delivery of nutrients to the muscle.

I believe you said that steady-state, long-distance running really has no place in a strength athlete's protocol. However, in the case that capillarity does benefit hypertrophy in the long run, isn't this form of cardio the only way to improve capillarity?

On that same token, is this part of your reasoning for implementing light back-off sets after the heavy sets are done in your training protocol?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Capillarity does in fact contribute to sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, but I'm puzzled about why you think that LSD is necessary to stimulate this adaptation. Do think that distance running requires more blood flow to working muscles than the demands produced by more intense shorter duration work that creates a lactate load to remove and the need for glycolytic substrate replacement?

[Martinelli]

Ah, that's just a result of my unconscious and elementary association of "endurance" with "marathon runner." Although it slipped my mind, I actually do recall reading that lactate threshold training has carryover to endurance, but I was not sure that it had greater efficacy than LSD. Thanks Mark.

[Matt DeMinico]

Martinelli: Though I don't place a whole ton of faith in what lab coat scientists say, there's a coaching program for cyclists where they address these sorts of things, and discuss which types of work intervals produce benefits in which areas. Take a look at the link below, and note that 105 - 115% of your max "sustainable" effort for 3-6 minutes increases muscle capillarizaiton the most:

http://www.fascatcoaching.com/intervaltypes.html

[Mark Rippetoe]

Remind you of anything interesting?