|
In order for muscles to grow, three things are required:
1. Stimulus - exercise is needed to make the muscles work, use energy and cause
microscopic damage to the fibers.
2. Nutrition - after intense exercise the muscles need to replenish their stores
of fuel.
3. Rest - it is during the rest or recovery phase that the muscles repair the
microscopic damage and grow.
Muscle size increases due to hypertrophic adaptation and an increase in the
cross section area of individual muscle fibers. Intensive exercise impacts more
on the strength influencing fast twitch type II fibers, therefore the increase
in muscle size is accompanied by greater strength.
This will deplete the muscle's energy stores and cause microscopic damage to the
muscle tissue. During recovery, these stores of glycogen and phosphocreatine
will replenish from carbohydrates and creatine ingested as food or supplements.
Amino acids supplied in the diet will trigger the protein synthesis that
repairs the damaged muscle and lead to the creation of bigger muscle fibers.
To achieve continuous improvement you will need to keep reaching for higher
levels of training intensity otherwise the improvement process will grind to a
halt. Fortunately, this is relatively easy to plan for provided certain basic
principles and rules are clearly followed. Subsequent articles in this series
will examine these principles in detail.
In the meantime you can find out more about building muscle by visiting the site
listed below.
Richard
Mitchell is the creator of the bodybuildingadvisor.com
website that provides guidance and information to athletes at all
levels of bodybuilding experience. Go to Bodybuilding
Advice to learn more about the issues covered in this
article.
|
