Building muscles, in both strength and size, is critical to not only in esthetic perspective but also in health perspective as well. When training muscles through resistance training, we are applying both chemical and physical stress to the muscles. By adapting to those stresses our muscles get stronger and larger in size along with our skeletal structures.
When adaptation does not happen due to too much stress or frequent stress the body will become fatigue and may lead to injury and decline in immune system. When stress is less or body is already adapted to the stress then the body may not need to adapt anymore to the stress that body is going through.
To build muscle for size and strength it is the balance between the progressive stress and recovery that creates results.
Two Types of Muscular Stress
When using a lighter weight and go through series of exercise, although we are applying resistance but to the muscles it may not be heavy enough to get inflame. However, with higher repetitions or longer duration of muscle tension you may feel muscle fatiguing due to depletion of amino acids and glycogen or muscle pump due to chemical accumulation in blood stream such as lactic acids. This form of stress is called chemical stress. One of the examples is using 60% of your maximum effort in seated cable row and perform 10-15 repetitions. In this scenario, you may feel that first 8-12 repetitions may feel doable and as approaching the end of set, the muscles may feel warm or feeling the pump due to restriction of the blood flow. The muscle stress was caused because of accumulation of chemical within our body
When you apply resistance to the muscle that is heavier than what they are used to, exercise may create inflammation or minor damage to the muscles. This form of stress is called physical stress. This could be using 85-100% of your maximum effort in deadlift for 1-6 repetitions. In order for our body to improve strength, it is important to gradually increase the load over period of time. However, too much loading too early or too frequent may cause muscle overwork and may lead to injuries.
In building muscle size and strength both physical and chemical stress are important. We can stress muscles in several ways. First way is increase the load. Lets say you are working on squat and able to do 135lb for 5 repetitions. Next squat sessions you can perform 140lb squat for 5 repetitions. Second way is increasing the volume of exercise. With same example, instead of performing 135lb squat for 5 repetitions you can do 8 repetitions or increase the number of sets. Third way is increasing the time under tension. This means during 135lb squat, you can squat down in 3 seconds and hold at bottom position for 2 seconds then come back up in 1 seconds. In 1 repetition you have spent 6 seconds which total up to 30 seconds when performed for 5 repetitions. Forth way is varying the way you perform squat. Instead of back squat, you can do front squats, overhead squats, split squats and so on.
By using variations, the body will go through adjustment to allow the body to handle different form of stress. It is more than just a 3 sets of 10 repetitions.
Catabolism and Anabolism of Muscle
Muscle goes through two processes changes, catabolism, and anabolism. Simple definition will be catabolism is breaking down and anabolism is construction or synthesis. When building muscles we want them to go through anabolic process. When we are wanting to lose fat, we want the fat to go through catabolic process.
Through resistance training muscle does go through catabolism and with proper recovery through resting and nutrition the muscles will start anabolic process to make the muscles stronger and larger in size.
When catabolic process is frequent, and anabolic process is less, then the muscle may not get stronger or bigger because of under-recovery. This will eventually lead to muscle fatigue and possible injury and decline in immune system. This scenario is somewhat common due to people believe in "eat less move more", which forcing the body to be in catabolic state all the time, which causing the muscle loss and decrease in metabolism.
Nutrition and Muscle Building
To promote anabolic state of muscles, on top of properly planned training, it is essential to have a planned diet. One of the common struggle that I see is people are having difficulty meeting a protein requirement. Protein is made of 20 different amino acids, 9 are essential and 11 are non-essential. One of the amino acids called leucine is strong activator of muscle protein synthesis. Therefore, if you are not getting adequate amount of protein, you may have difficult time building muscles even when you are exercising on regular basis.
If you are actively involved in resistance training, it is recommended to have at least 1g of protein per lb. of the ideal bodyweight. You may feel like this is a lot but think of how much protein is used to make your body that goes through both catabolism and anabolism. Adequate amount of protein intake is like your doing remodeling of bathroom, which you've already started but the shipment of materials are not arrived yet. Think of bathroom remodeling as your training and materials are your protein and other nutrients.
Then you may ask, it is too much calories. Don't be scared. Protein has higher DIT (diet induced thermogenesis), which means we need to use more calorie to digest protein compared with carbohydrate and fat. Some study shows that protein requires about 30% of calories for our body to digest. Which means, when you eat 25g of protein (100 calories), you only be consuming 70 calories. If you are struggling to see muscle or strength growth increase your protein intake.
Carbohydrate is another nutrients that confuses people. Mostly because majority of population need to lose fat and worry about insulin resistance. On the other hand they also want to gain muscles and realize that carbohydrate is somewhat necessary in muscle growth. This is where confusion may start. Carbohydrate is important nutrients especially when you are building strength. Compared to fat, carbohydrate or glucose is a faster in energy conversion. However, when you have insulin resistance the body may not utilize the carbohydrate as well as those who does not have the condition. Therefore, if you have significant amount of fat or weight to lose, most likely you have insulin resistance and need to fix that.
Overall, it is good practice to limit carbohydrate intake for it is easy to overconsume carbohydrate which may leads to decrease in insulin sensitivity. Decrease in insulin sensitivity or having insulin resistance means there are more insulin floating in bloodstream.
It is very important to remember that when insulin is present in bloodstream, the body may not metabolize fat as energy source. Only time stored energy of fat is utilized is when the insulin level is low. Therefore, when insulin level is high in blood stream, the body is set to burn carbohydrate as energy source only. This will ultimately slow down the metabolic rate because energy from carbohydrate or glucose is smaller amount compared with fat. Whenever you feel like the metabolism is low or slow, it is possible that the insulin level is increased in the blood stream. This is not good for those who are working out to build muscle and wanting to burn off because not only you cannot utilize fat as energy source, but you may also not have enough energy to complete the workout which will slow down the muscle building process. However, when you have better insulin sensitivity, insulin will work for you help build muscle and strength more efficiently even with higher carbohydrate diet.
Best timing to consume carbohydrate is immediately after the workout. Biggest reason is to restore glycogen in muscles that has been used during the session and able to utilize protein more efficiently. Although insulin inhibits fat metabolism, insulin can activate protein and glycogen synthesis which are essential for muscle growth. However, these two synthesis processes do not happen without physical activities.
Amount of carbohydrate consumption is different from person to person; however, suggestion is ranging from 50-300g. Amount may vary due to the exercise intensity, duration, body size and metabolic profile. Individual with insulin resistance or diabetes may need to keep the carbohydrate intake lower around 50-150g per day. Prioritize vegetables as your primary carbohydrate then followed by rice, pasta, and bread. Yes, vegetables are carbohydrate family.
In a Nutshell
So here are some key points in building muscle strength and size.
Apply stress that is slightly higher than what you are capable of.
Change the stress factors regularly.
Improve your protein intake to promote anabolic process.
Avoid training with too much load, volume and frequency.
Have a control over your diet
Kota Shimada
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