There are over 650 skeletal muscles in the human body which contracts once they receive signals from the motor neurons. Most of us aim for muscle growth, building a leaner, more toned physique. It is important to know
After a workout, the body repairs the damaged muscles fibres. It fuses muscle fibres together to form new muscle protein strands. These repair processes increases the thickness and the number of myofibrils activating, hypertrophy (muscle growth). The muscle growth occurs once the rate of the muscle protein synthesis is greater than the rate of muscle protein breakdown.
Stress is critical for muscle growth. Your muscles need to experience muscle tension, muscle damage and metabolic stress for its growth. Muscle tension changes the chemistry of the muscles, allowing growth factors such as mTOR and satellite cells to activate. Feeling sore after a workout is due to the local muscle damage. This process allows the release of the inflammatory molecules and immune cells to activate satellite cells (SC). SC’s are muscle stem cells responsible for longitudinal and cross-sectional growth and repair. These lay the first muscle fibres during the initial cell formation. The body experiences metabolic stress once you’ve felt that ‘burn’, the ‘pump’ at the gym. Metabolic stress causes swelling around the muscle, contributing to muscle growth. Cell swelling increases protein synthesis and reduces protein breakdown. This mechanism promotes muscles growth via increasing the hydration of the muscle fibres. It has been well studied that mechanical tension as well as resistance exercise promotes hypertrophic gains
Remember muscles don’t grow during your workout. They are only damaged. The growth occurs once they are repaired, with necessary nutritional building blocks. Training can result in loss of electrolytes – salt, magnesium, potassium. Avoid overtraining can causes excessive inflammation resulting in muscle fatigue, loss of muscle protein, loss of muscle mass and reduced muscle function. So push yourself, however be smart!!