by CatheDotCom
Some women shy away from lifting heavy weights, believing they’ll get
bulky. For females, that’s not a worry. Women lack the hormonal makeup
to build bulky muscles and have to work hard to increase their lean body
mass at all – but doing so has a number of advantages. For one, when
you add more lean body mass your metabolic rate increases so you burn
more calories at rest. Plus, you’ll look more defined. You probably
know more than a few people who are “skinny fat” meaning they carry a
high percentage of body fat even though they’re at or below their ideal
body weight and their muscles aren’t defined. Being “skinny fat” carries
some of the same risks health-wise of being overweight. Resistance
training helps you avoid this problem, especially as you grow older.
Genetics are one factor that determines how much lean body mass you
can build but how you work out matters too. The amount of resistance you
use, how many reps you do and the rest time between sets all play a
role in how much lean body mass you develop. As you might expect, diet
is also a factor and how much cardiovascular exercise you do can impact
muscle growth. If you do extremely long sessions of cardio, especially
if you don’t consume enough calories, it can interfere with your ability
to build muscle.
Muscle Tension: One Factor That Stimulates Muscle Growth
Muscles grow by an increase in fiber size. Along with an increase in
the size of the fiber, the connective tissue and fluid within muscle
expands as well. Of course, you have to overload the muscle through
resistance training for these changes to take place. When you place
stress on a muscle by lifting a challenging weight, cells called
satellite cells, a type of stem cell, donate their nuclei to help muscle
fiber growth. For this to happen you have to generate enough tension by
lifting a weight or using resistance that generates enough damage to
stimulate satellite cells that help muscles grow.
How much resistance do you need to generate enough muscle tension to
stimulate growth? For muscle growth and hypertrophy, most experts
recommend using a weight that’s between 70 and 80% of your one-rep max.
Using lighter weights will be most effective for increasing muscular
endurance but not very effective for increasing muscle size.
The number of reps also impacts your ability to build muscle. To
increase the size of the muscle, you need to recruit a maximum number of
muscle fibers and place the muscle under tension for an adequate period
of time. To build muscle, eight to twelve reps with the final rep being
difficult to complete is ideal. Doing fewer than six reps and you’ll
get mostly neuromuscular adaptations that primarily boost muscle
strength. If you can do more than twelve reps, you’re essentially doing a
muscle endurance workout and won’t see much increase in size.
The Role of Muscle Damage in Muscle Hypertrophy
You also need a certain training volume to stimulate muscle growth.
Muscles need to spend enough time under tension to create muscle damage
that leads to growth. That’s why the optimal formula for building muscle
is six to twelve reps for each exercise and two to three sets with the
last rep being a challenge.
Why is muscle damage so important? Damage causes an inflammatory
response. This inflammation recruits satellite cells that help muscle
fibers repair and become larger. Local inflammation is a good thing when
it comes to building lean body mass.
Metabolic Stress and Muscle Growth
Another factor that contributes to muscle growth is metabolic stress.
When you do resistance training and feel your muscles burning, you’re
experiencing the effects of metabolic stress. This is a whole sequence
of events whereby lactic acid, hydrogen ions and inorganic phosphate
build up. This triggers the release of hormones like growth hormone,
IGF-1 and catecholamines that stimulate muscle growth and boost
fat-burning.
You can maximize the amount of metabolic stress your muscles are
exposed to by reducing the rest time between sets – but it’s a balancing
act. If you rest for only thirty seconds, you’ll maximize metabolic
stress, but you’ll reduce the amount of tension you can generate on the
next set since your muscles haven’t fully recovered. A rest period of
between one and two minutes seems to be an ideal balance since it allows
sufficient muscle recovery but still exposes your muscles to metabolic
stress.
Summing It Up
The best formula for muscle hypertrophy:
A resistance that’s 70 to 80% of your one-rep max
Two to three sets of 8 to 12 reps with a weight that makes the last rep difficult to complete
A rest period between sets of 1 to 2 minutes between sets
Compound exercises, exercises that work more than one muscle group at
a time, are best for building lean body mass since they recruit a
maximal number of fibers, leading to more damage, and also create the
most metabolic stress.
To continue to progress, you’ll need to progressively overload the
muscles you’re trying to build. When the final rep is no longer as
challenging, it’s time to increase the weight.
Even when you’re progressively overloading the muscle, you may reach a
plateau. That’s when you’ll need to alter things by changing your
exercise selection, the order in which you do them, the tempo, how long
you rest between sets etc. There are lots of ways to do this to jump
start growth. Regardless of the workout you do, the three factors –
muscle tension, muscle damage and metabolic stress, are all important
for muscle growth and development.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with using lighter weights and more
reps for a muscle endurance workout to avoid overtraining and to add
variety to your workout. There’s no need to lift to failure every time
you work out. Don’t forget to rest muscle groups that you work for at
least 48 hours before training them again. You need time for those
satellite cells to help your muscles repair and grow – and give you the
results you’re looking for.
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