How Do Muscles Grow?
Many people ask how do muscles grow? This is important for people to understand especially when their main goal is to burn fat and lose weight! So many people are concerned about lifting weights because they have the mistaken belief that if they lift weights they will 'bulk up' and ultimately gain weight, which is often the exact opposite of what they are trying to do! Unfortunately most people don't know the benefits of lifting weights. and especially don't know how do muscles grow. Once you clearly understand how muscles grow as well as all the benefits free weight training for women offers, you will be far more inclined to ensure you include this essential component in your weight loss program. For most people building muscle is a slow, deliberate process that the body fights all the way. This is understandable since our body has been designed to survive a famine. This means it is in our body’s best interest to limit the amount of muscle we put on because muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in our body and therefore burns up the most energy.
Furthermore, our body will do it’s very best to maximise the amount of fat we store because fat is a concentrated source of energy that it can draw from if it ever is faced with a famine. As a result, every time we make an effort to change our body composition to one with more muscle and less fat, our body fights this process every step of the way. Add to this the fact that if someone want to lose weight they tend to avoid weight training as much as possible because they believe that it will actually make them put on weight. Accordingly, here we will cover how do muscles grow so you can understand the process and apply the necessary strategies to help you lose weight rather than put it on! Building muscle requires three basic steps; a stimulus, adequate nutrition and recovery. If even one of these three steps is missing then muscle growth will be impaired. Before we examine these three steps we need to firstly understand the physiology of how do muscles grow. Once this is clarified we can then structure a plan that ensures we maintain our muscle mass while simultaneously losing body fat. A muscle grows in 3 ways: • Cell Volumisation Cell volumisationCell volumisation results from an increase in the volume of a muscle cell (fibre). Since muscle is approximately 70% water, using nutrients that increase the water stored in the muscle is obviously going to contribute to it's size. Whilst this is beneficial in helping you boost your metabolism and preserve your muscle mass as you lose weight, it is important to control your intake of these nutrients.Plus, cell volumisation also promotes protein synthesis, which leads to greater filament thickening. We will examine filament thickening in a moment. Theoretically, if you can force the muscles to store more nutrients within each muscle cell, through osmosis more water will be drawn into the cells also. Four nutrients that are very effective at drawing water into the muscle cells are:
carbohydrate,
creatine,
potassium and the amino acid,
L-glutamine. Filament thickeningThe next factor that is a part of how do muscles grow is filament thickening. This is where the contractile elements within the muscle cells, actin and myosin, become thicker and stronger as a result of an adaptive mechanism.The contractile filaments make up around 22% of a muscle cell (as mentioned previously, muscle is approximately 70% water) and the remainder is made up of connective tissue, blood vessels, salts and high energy phosphates. Every time a muscle cell or fibre contracts, the filaments start breaking down. If the muscle contractions during a workout are beyond the muscle’s normal capacities, the body will take steps to adapt to this stress by making the filaments thicker and stronger. Of course, protein from the diet is used for this purpose. CapillarisationThe final factor that is a part of how do muscles grow is capillarisation. This is where the blood vessels surrounding each muscle fibre (cell) increase in number. It results from performing high reps during your workout as well as aerobic exercise.It has an almost negligible contribution towards increasing muscular size but it does have one major advantage. Capillarisation may assist with the recovery process of the muscles because greater blood flow to the muscles means more oxygen and nutrients can travel to the muscles, therefore enhancing recovery after each exercise session. Since the weight training or resistance training is such an essential part of your weight loss program, all you need to do to ensure you don't put on weight by doing it is simply the following: • Control your food intake Click here to go to the Please Add Your Comments Here!
|
For taking the time to give me your feedback I am pleased to send you a complimentary copy of my 52-page e-book, 'How to Lose All the Weight You Want in the Next 90 Days!' (Valued at $17).