How Muscles Are Built
One can always fix a routine and design an exercise plan and try and follow it in order to achieve the goals one has set for them but it is paramount to know why exactly and what exactly it is that you are doing. This is because if one is clear in their head, it becomes much more bearable, if not easier to follow the routine more religiously and with more conviction and concentration, without any distractions. One has to have a focused mindset as it is a well known fact that the brain is a vital muscle one needs to strengthen if they are to make changes in their body and not give up in mid course.
Do not get astonished if I tell you that in order to strengthen your muscles, you need to tear them down. Lifting heavy weights and doing other such weight bearing activities tend to cause micro tears in the muscle fiber. The human body, in return, responds quite magnificently by not only repairing this damage caused, but by also adding some more tissues in the muscle in order to prevent future such damage. This principle has been known to man forever, as adaptation. And the human body is very good at adaptation.
Just as a broken bone is repaired and healed in due course of time by our body, this muscle-tear repair also works in almost the same fashion. Anyone who has had a bone fracture (i.e. a broken bone) must have seen the X-Ray reports. These reports depict that how much change a body goes through during this healing process. The bone is healed as well as it grows larger in size in the area where the break occurred. Quite obviously, one doesn’t go around breaking the bones in his body for this, but this example would make the picture very clear. Proper intake of fluids is vital during this healing process for our body. These act as building blocks to repair and increase the muscle tissue. The diet must be rich in plenty of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and fats as well (healthy ones, of course, like olive oil, seed oil etc.).
Muscles adapt and grow in different ways and it is a good idea to have a basic understanding of these differences so that one achieves the results and does not end up wasting his efforts. Basically, there are two types of muscle fibers, fast twitch and slow twitch. The former, i.e. the slow twitch fibers are more efficient at oxygen utilization and are used for activities, such as running a marathon race. The latter, i.e. the fast twitch fibers tend to tire out quickly and are more suited to short bursts of energy and quick bursts of power. These are the fibers your workouts will be mainly targeting.
Another important part of the equation is recovery time. If you do not allow enough time for the muscle to recover before tearing it down again, you will not get any growth. People who fall in this trap usually either stay the same or they actually lose muscle.
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March 9th, 2010 at 10:31 am
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