Learn how a power lifter gets so strong and why a body builder is so big.
Basically an increase in strength and muscle size is a physiological adaptation to stress. This physiological adaptation to weight lifting and various resistance training has two causes:
1 – neurological
2 – muscle fiber hypertrophy
For those just embarking on a weight training regime strength gains in the first 4 – 6 weeks is largely a result of an increase in the number of muscle fibers being stimulated or recruited. During this phase of weight training a new bodybuilder is not expect to see any gains in size due to this increased fiber stimulation.
When the muscle does begin to grow it is due to the fact that the muscle fiber has been overloaded and this has stimulated protein synthesis. Muscle fibers are comprised of smaller fibers called myofibrils, which consist of even smaller fibers called myofilaments. An increase in the number of myofilaments account for the increase in muscle size.
A muscle is 70% water. To look even larger and allow your muscles to work more proper hydration is essential. The fastest way to lose strength is to become dehydrated.
Muscular hypertrophy is an increase in muscle mass and cross-sectional area. The increase in dimension is due to an increase in the size, not length of individual muscle fibers. Skeletal muscle has two basic functions:
1 – contracting to cause body movement
2 - provide stability
Each skeletal muscle has the ability to contract with different levels of tension to perform these two functions. Though the muscle has the ability to contract with different levels of tension the individual fibers of the muscle do not, they either contract or do not. Progressive overload is a means of applying varying and intermittent levels of stress to skeletal muscle, making it adapt by generating comparable amounts of tension. The muscle is able to adapt by increasing the size and amount of contractile proteins, which comprise the myofibrils within each muscle fiber, leading to an increase in the size of the individual muscle fibers and their consequent force production.
- Myofibrils: Smallest functional unit of the muscle fiber. Many myofibrils compose a muscle fiber.
- Myofibrils:
Increase in number = increase in myofibrils
Increase in myofibrils = increase size of muscle fiber
Increase in size of muscle fiber size = muscle hypertrophy
Hypertrophy results primarily from the growth of each muscle cell, rather than an increase in the number of cells.
All the best in your weight training, powerlifting, and bodybuilding programs.
Jason
grab a free eBook -- http://www.mensfitnessandmore.com/must-read-books/free-ebooks/
No comments:
Post a Comment