Ever wonder what makes your muscles grow? How does someone tone their arms or sculpt their core? Any time you pick up a pen, walk down the stairs, or text on your phone, your brain sends signals to your muscles to contract and relax to perform the desired activity. You subconsciously do these things as your body works in amazing ways.
Imagine you move your arm to lift your pen on the desk. First, your brain sends a signal to motor neurons inside your arm. When the motor neurons receive this message, they fire causing the muscles to contract and relax. The contraction allows your muscles to pull on the bones in your arm and generate your desired action of reaching for your pen. Imagine picking up something heavier like a water bottle. Since the water bottle is heavier, your body recruits more motor units to achieve the task.
As you expose your muscles to stress, your muscle fibers (muscle cells) experience microscopic damage or tears. This may sound bad, but in this case, it’s actually a good thing. In response to these tears, the “injured” cells release cytokines or inflammatory molecules. Cytokines activate the immune system to repair the “injury.” This is when your muscles grow. Rest days and sleep in your workout routine is so important because it gives your muscles time to repair and become stronger. The greater the damage to the muscle tissue, the more your body will need to repair itself. As your muscles cycle through tear and repair, they become bigger and stronger and adapt to progressively greater demands.
Even though you are using muscles to pick up your pen, this movement and most every day activities don’t cause enough stress to promote muscle growth. Our muscles cells need to be exposed to higher workloads than what they are used to cause hypertrophy or the building of muscle.
For example, let’s say you walk up ten flights of stairs every day. Since you do this daily, your body is used to it and this won’t stimulate new muscle growth. Now, let’s say today you walk up the stairs with a 40-pound bag. Since your body isn’t used to this overload, it can promote new muscle growth if done every day and slowly adding more weight every few weeks. If you don’t continuously expose your muscles to resistance, they will shrink, otherwise known as muscular atrophy.
Your muscles also rely on proper nutrition, hormones, and rest for optimum muscle growth. Rest days and sleep are so important for the process of repairing damaged muscle fibers. Protein in your diet preserves muscle mass by providing the building blocks for new tissue, also known as amino acids. Your gender, age, hormones, and genetics all affect how quickly and efficiently your muscles repair themselves.
So the next time you lift weights, understand that each repetition is working toward important microscopic tears in your muscle that, once repaired, will make your muscle stronger. Remember to follow me on Instagram! And check out my new Core For A Cause Program.
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