The Mechanism - What Causes Muscle Growth
Lifting weights is a stress, and to counteract the stress hormones are released. The internal reaction and release of these hormones from the resulting stimulation from weightlifting is what makes weightlifting the ideal method for putting on mass.
During your session, growth hormone, insulin, insulin-like growth factor, testosterone and cortisol are among the key hormones that are released during or after weight training. Cortisol breaks carbohydrates down for fuel. Growth hormone, insulin, and insulin-like growth factor work together to inhibit the breakdown of muscle by increasing nutrient flow into the muscle. Growth hormone is released in greater amounts following exercise and controls the release of insulin-like growth factor, which is the primary anabolic hormone.
Testosterone stimulates the nervous system to send stronger signals and signals the muscle to rebuild. Consequently, growth hormone, insulin, and insulin-like growth factors are now being used as performance enhancers to ramp up the increase muscle mass in addition to the well known use of steroid and testosterone boosters.
What, then causes your muscles grow? Muscle growth occurs primarily through the processes of either hypertrophy or hyperplasia.
Hypertrophy is an increase in the size of the muscle due to an increase in the size of the muscle fibers. This occurs when you overload muscle strands, which causes micro tears. The body then must repair these micro tears, which is where the growth comes in – in order to prevent future tears and to strengthen the fiber, the body rebuilds the torn area even stronger than before.
Hyperplasia is an increase in the number of muscle fibers. Hyperplasia is the splitting of muscle fibers, resulting eventually in a greater number of fibers the same size as the originals. Hypertrophy is a more widely known mechanism for muscle growth due to conflicting research regarding hyperplasia.
Some research has demonstrates that training for hyperplasia is possible, while other scientists and research shows that we are born with a finite amount of muscle cells, and the only increase in the number of cells comes from the splitting of the cells themselves. At any rate, there is not really a way to modify your training to target one or the other, so determining which factor is or isn’t coming into play isn’t as much of a concern as it is to just getting any of these responses from your training.
Note that this is just the need to know information and definitely is not the complete detailed process of muscle contraction and tears. If the cellular process and sliding filament theory is something you are interested in learning about, let me know and I will add information specific to these processes.
During your session, growth hormone, insulin, insulin-like growth factor, testosterone and cortisol are among the key hormones that are released during or after weight training. Cortisol breaks carbohydrates down for fuel. Growth hormone, insulin, and insulin-like growth factor work together to inhibit the breakdown of muscle by increasing nutrient flow into the muscle. Growth hormone is released in greater amounts following exercise and controls the release of insulin-like growth factor, which is the primary anabolic hormone.
Testosterone stimulates the nervous system to send stronger signals and signals the muscle to rebuild. Consequently, growth hormone, insulin, and insulin-like growth factors are now being used as performance enhancers to ramp up the increase muscle mass in addition to the well known use of steroid and testosterone boosters.
What, then causes your muscles grow? Muscle growth occurs primarily through the processes of either hypertrophy or hyperplasia.
Hypertrophy is an increase in the size of the muscle due to an increase in the size of the muscle fibers. This occurs when you overload muscle strands, which causes micro tears. The body then must repair these micro tears, which is where the growth comes in – in order to prevent future tears and to strengthen the fiber, the body rebuilds the torn area even stronger than before.
Hyperplasia is an increase in the number of muscle fibers. Hyperplasia is the splitting of muscle fibers, resulting eventually in a greater number of fibers the same size as the originals. Hypertrophy is a more widely known mechanism for muscle growth due to conflicting research regarding hyperplasia.
Some research has demonstrates that training for hyperplasia is possible, while other scientists and research shows that we are born with a finite amount of muscle cells, and the only increase in the number of cells comes from the splitting of the cells themselves. At any rate, there is not really a way to modify your training to target one or the other, so determining which factor is or isn’t coming into play isn’t as much of a concern as it is to just getting any of these responses from your training.
Note that this is just the need to know information and definitely is not the complete detailed process of muscle contraction and tears. If the cellular process and sliding filament theory is something you are interested in learning about, let me know and I will add information specific to these processes.