How Muscle Is Built
A muscle is a band or bundle of tissue capable of contracting and relaxing to produce movement. And when being you just isn’t enough, it’s what you try to make bigger and stronger to make up for your lack of personality.
But how?
How is muscle made bigger and stronger?
By…ummmmmmmm…lifting things up and doing the opposite of lifting to put them down.
DUH!!!
That’s how muscle is built!
There’s more to it than that, of course, but I don’t want to bore you with details.
Oh, you have all the time in the world because there’s nothing else going on in your life?
I figured as much, but I didn’t want to assume anything.
But okay, now that we’ve established that you don’t have much of a social life and a full-depth explanation of the muscle building process might very well be the highlight of your day, let’s get into it!
There are three types of muscle tissue in the body: smooth, cardiac, and skeletal. Skeletal tissue is the only muscle under our voluntary control. Its functions include the maintenance of body posture, soft tissue support, and movement of our bones, among other things. Also, because of its cosmetic role in our appearance, as you’ll soon see, skeletal tissue is what people are referring to when they talk about “muscle”.
There are over 600 skeletal muscles in the body composed of multiple muscle fibers that attach to bones at an origin and insertion point.1The origin is where the muscle attaches to the bone closest to the torso. It remains immobile when the muscle contracts. The insertion attaches to the bone further away and moves during contraction. These muscles and their fibers are controlled by motor neurons located in the nervous system.
As soon as you have the idea to begin lifting something, like a dumbbell for bicep curls, your brain signals for the motor neurons to activate. In turn, the motor neurons send a signal to the muscle fibers, causing you to curl the dumbbell as the biceps muscle contracts by pulling on the origin and insertion point to bend the joint at the elbow.
Now, as you lift the weight up and shorten the muscle during the concentric phase, the muscle fibers get placed under tension. Even more tension gets placed on the muscle when you lengthen it during the eccentric phase as you lower the weight to the starting position. This tension from lifting and lowering over and over again helps create tears, or micro-trauma, in the fibers.
If you’re like most people, you think lifting is what’s responsible for muscle growth. As such, you like everybody else is of the mind that the only thing keeping you away from bigger arms and larger glutes is working them out EVERY…SINGLE…DAY.
And that’s where people go wrong, because lifting is only half the story.
The true muscle building doesn’t happen as you lift. It happens outside of the gym as you rest.
See, when your workout is over and for a few days afterwards, the body launches a response to the micro-tears and accompanying inflammation by activating satellite cells that fuse together with the damaged muscle fibers to repair or replace them.
And then, voilà!
Just like that, your muscles become bigger and stronger, as the fusing together of satellite cells and damaged muscle fibers increases the thickness and number of muscle protein strands to make the muscle more resistant to damage the next time it’s exposed to the same load.2This should explain why it’s counterproductive to work out EVERY…SINGLE…DAY. When you do, the body isn’t given the chance to repair itself. As a result, the muscle you want to make bigger is robbed of the opportunity to do exactly that.
Apart from the importance of rest days, what should also be apparent is the need to challenge the muscles more and more. As stated, muscles become bigger and stronger to manage exposure to the same amount of stress. So past your first few uses of 10 lbs dumbbells, your biceps aren’t going to grow anymore if you always use 10 lbs dumbbells for curls. Instead, you have to change the amount of stress placed on the muscle to overcome adaptations that have made it resistant to damage. One of the most common ways to do what’s known as “progressive overload” is to simply increase the weight.
But that muscle growth only occurs when the rate of muscle protein synthesis is greater than the rate of muscle protein breakdown. That’s why during the time away from the gym, it’s imperative that you provide the body with enough nutrients in the form of carbs and protein so it doesn’t burn muscle tissue for energy.3More specifically, eat at a caloric surplus of 300-500 calories above maintenance levels. And consume at least 0.8 to 1.2 grams of protein per pound of body weight!
Look at you, you’re now an expert on the satellite cell theory of hypertrophy.4Psst…hypertrophy is the fancy pants way of saying “muscle growth”.
And wait, come again.
I thought I misheard you the first time, but did you just pronounce hypertrophy as “hyper-trophy”?
Hyper trophy?!
Hyper trophy, as in an overactive cup or decorative object awarded as a prize for winning?!?!
Because…ummmmmm…that’s what it sounded like you said!
It’s a good thing you’re pretty, though it’s arguable!
Anyyyywayyyy…
The word is HI-PUR-TRUH-FEE!!!
With this newfound knowledge, I bet you’re already thinking of ways you can use it as a conversation starter at the next social event you’re accidentally invited to.5If using what you learned here as part of small talk isn’t a clear indication of someone having zero personality and in desperate need of muscles to make up for it, then I don’t know what is!
But before you add this to your icebreaker repertoire, it might behoove you to find out that going to the gym and lifting any old way isn’t going to make any of your pathetically sized muscles bigger. That’s because you need to train for hypertrophy a certain way, and that’s with moderate weight for three to five sets of 8-12 reps.
And that’s not 8-12 reps of minimal effort. No, you have to push those 8-12 reps to or near failure!
And that’s not three to five sets with an eternity of rest between. No, those three to five sets should take about 33 seconds each, give or take!
That’s how long the average hypertrophy set takes.
That means you have roughly 30 seconds to stretch. Catch your breath. Blow chunks because you mistimed your meal. Lie down on a sofa in the gym lobby and reflect on your poor life decisions. 30 seconds to do whatever you have to do before your training partner finishes their set and you immediately begin yours.6Assuming your loser ass can even find someone willing to work out with you.
30 or so seconds.
Anything more, then you, my friend, should probably look into powerlifting!
Glossary: arms, biceps, calories, dumbbell, glutes, gym, hypertrophy, muscle, reps, rest day, training partner, work out, workout
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