The science behind muscle hypertrophy is often not discussed since people usually just think protein and exercising build muscle, and that’s the end of the story. However, muscle hypertrophy is something that you should be familiar with since you want to train the intelligent bodybuilding way! Believe it or not, but a lot of people actually train better when they know how their body actually functions and how testosterone can help them with their workout. Click on testosterone booster results before and after to see it yourself.
What is Muscle Hypertrophy?
This is the term used for when the muscle cells grow and increase in size, and the common way to accomplish this task is through various forms of exercise, which could be weight training and bodyweight training. The opposite of muscle hypertrophy is atrophy, which means you either have something medically wrong or you’re just lazy and lose muscle from the lack of physical use.
An increase in blood flow to the muscles you are targeting is what causes that feeling of being pumped up, and the number of capillaries in the muscle region(s) increases if you repeatedly concentrate your focus on that particular area. For example, during biceps curls, you clench your hand to flex your bicep and cause more blood to flow to this muscle, and after about three weeks of training, you will notice a slight or significant difference in your biceps muscle.
However, you didn’t increase the number of muscle cells. Instead, you increased the size of your muscle cells significantly enough to notice a change. Muscle hypertrophy can take place through the use of heavyweight training with lower rep amounts, and also through strength training with moderate weight settings and higher rep amounts. Both are essential for developing stronger and bigger muscles effectively.
- Benefits of Heavy Weight Training
- You can benefit from heavyweight training with lower reps because:
- You increase the number count of myofibrils in each individual cell.
- Increase the amount of connective tissue and glycogen (glucose) storage.
- Sarcoplasm fluid volumes increase, which is the fluid-filled with a protein found around each cell.
What all this accounts for is muscle hypertrophy, and larger muscles have essentially proven to come from heavier lifts with lower rep amounts. That is why a lot of people perform the 5×5’s workouts with compound training, and sometimes even perform 10×1’s, which is a bit more advanced due to the large weight settings used for each rep you perform. You generally see this type of training with deadlifts, bench press, squats, cleans, military presses, and the likes. Sitting and performing a lateral pull-down for one rep is just not going to work!
The Benefits of Higher Reps
Muscle hypertrophy is also accomplished through performing higher reps with moderate weight, but not lightweights! Lightweight settings are good for warming up. However, if you want to build muscle you need to increase your weights to where you strain towards the end of the set.
You want to perform higher reps with exercises since it builds up your mitochondria, which is known as a cell’s “powerhouse” since it converts chemical energy over to cellular energy and 25% or more of your muscles sizes are accounted for an increase in your mitochondria. So isolation exercises, such as the lateral pull-down, need to be performed with a little bit more reps, or 8-12 reps to be more specific, and compound lifts can be performed with higher reps one week out of every month or two.
Everything depends on your diet and fitness routine when it comes to how many reps will be performed. Remember, muscle hypertrophy is not going to occur without plenty of rest and nutrient intakes, which is where the protein comes in. Muscle building needs protein regardless if you want to be lean or bulky, and regardless if you are male or female. The recommended amount of rest is 24 hours after that specific muscle group(s) has been targeted.
Isn’t the science behind muscle hypertrophy compelling when you finally know how your body is functioning while muscle building is taking place? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe for when future posts are created! Stay healthy and fit the intelligent bodybuilding way!
