What exactly happens to the muscle during weightlifting? How does it build mass, I mean physiologically...do the muscle fibers grow to compensate the amount of nutrients and blood rushing to them or something? Well, hit me back please...
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Effects of weightlifting on muscle (physiologically)
- Thread starter futurefreud03
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Lean_Physique16
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little muscle fibers are destroyed. They grow back with rest and nutrition. Find an article about it on this website
(this is a copy & paste job) 
Training Effect
Muscle tissue responds to training in a number of ways, biomechanically as well as biochemically.
Hypertrophy is the enlargement of a muscle fiber. It is known that the contractile strength of a muscle is related
to the cross-sectional area of the muscle, albeit an imperfect relationship. There are many factors besides the
muscle???s cross-sectional area which affect strength. Generally, the bigger the muscle, the greater its
force-generating ability for one all-out contraction.
Atrophy is the shrinkage of muscle tissue from disuse. A good example of atrophy is a body limb after a cast is
taken off. The leg or arm gets much smaller, losing as much as 25 percent of its size within the first 24-48 hours of complete immobilization!
Currently, there is little data to support the notion that training results in an increase in the actual number of
muscle cells (called hyperplasia) although some evidence suggests that an increase in number may indeed
occur in response to high-tension repetitive exercise. However, the increased size of the cells is far more
important in response to most forms of training. There are several other ways that muscles adapt to training.
One way is the ability to store greater amounts of myoglobin, a compound similar to hemoglobin that aids in
oxygen transport within muscle cells. When myoglobin is depleted or in short supply (as it is in fast-twitch
muscle cells), contraction cannot continue.
Two other (related) training effects are facilitation, and the decrease of inhibition caused by the parasympathetic nervous system. Facilitation means that greater numbers of motor units can be recruited, or called into action.
With more motor units ???firing,??? greater force is generated.
Training causes many adaptations to take place in the connective tissue and the skeletal system, including
increases in the tensile strength of tendons and ligaments (from both increased thickness and cellular
organization), increased retention of calcium in bone, and improved resilience of cartilage. Regular physical
activity also increases nutrient exchange between synovial fluid and cartilage.
Bone fractures also recover faster through the mild stimulation of weight-bearing exercise on the injured part.
The current therapy for most broken bones includes exercise as soon as it is feasible.
The Fiber Fusion Theory*
When a muscle cell is damaged, it is either repaired or sloughed off into the amino acid pool. While this is the case with all muscle fiber types, it most often happens with Type IIb fibers. Type IIb fibers are often lost when they are used, because of their great contractile strength and poor recovery ability. When these muscle fibers are
damaged, cortisol is released, and this hormone is responsible for ???cleaning up??? the damaged tissue. Once cortisol is blocked through proper nutritional and training practices, the Type IIb fibers will fuse with satellite cells???
non-contractile cells which help repair and strengthen muscle cells. The end result is the Type IIb fiber
converting to either a Type IIa or Type IIc fiber.
The advantages of fiber fusion are extremely noteworthy. Most importantly, you haven???t lost the Type IIb fibers
which compose up to sixteen percent of your total muscle mass! Furthermore, when fiber fusion does occur, the
Type IIb fiber has not lost its superior contractile strength, but has gained in size and resistance to fatigue and injury.
Training Effect
Muscle tissue responds to training in a number of ways, biomechanically as well as biochemically.
Hypertrophy is the enlargement of a muscle fiber. It is known that the contractile strength of a muscle is related
to the cross-sectional area of the muscle, albeit an imperfect relationship. There are many factors besides the
muscle???s cross-sectional area which affect strength. Generally, the bigger the muscle, the greater its
force-generating ability for one all-out contraction.
Atrophy is the shrinkage of muscle tissue from disuse. A good example of atrophy is a body limb after a cast is
taken off. The leg or arm gets much smaller, losing as much as 25 percent of its size within the first 24-48 hours of complete immobilization!
Currently, there is little data to support the notion that training results in an increase in the actual number of
muscle cells (called hyperplasia) although some evidence suggests that an increase in number may indeed
occur in response to high-tension repetitive exercise. However, the increased size of the cells is far more
important in response to most forms of training. There are several other ways that muscles adapt to training.
One way is the ability to store greater amounts of myoglobin, a compound similar to hemoglobin that aids in
oxygen transport within muscle cells. When myoglobin is depleted or in short supply (as it is in fast-twitch
muscle cells), contraction cannot continue.
Two other (related) training effects are facilitation, and the decrease of inhibition caused by the parasympathetic nervous system. Facilitation means that greater numbers of motor units can be recruited, or called into action.
With more motor units ???firing,??? greater force is generated.
Training causes many adaptations to take place in the connective tissue and the skeletal system, including
increases in the tensile strength of tendons and ligaments (from both increased thickness and cellular
organization), increased retention of calcium in bone, and improved resilience of cartilage. Regular physical
activity also increases nutrient exchange between synovial fluid and cartilage.
Bone fractures also recover faster through the mild stimulation of weight-bearing exercise on the injured part.
The current therapy for most broken bones includes exercise as soon as it is feasible.
The Fiber Fusion Theory*
When a muscle cell is damaged, it is either repaired or sloughed off into the amino acid pool. While this is the case with all muscle fiber types, it most often happens with Type IIb fibers. Type IIb fibers are often lost when they are used, because of their great contractile strength and poor recovery ability. When these muscle fibers are
damaged, cortisol is released, and this hormone is responsible for ???cleaning up??? the damaged tissue. Once cortisol is blocked through proper nutritional and training practices, the Type IIb fibers will fuse with satellite cells???
non-contractile cells which help repair and strengthen muscle cells. The end result is the Type IIb fiber
converting to either a Type IIa or Type IIc fiber.
The advantages of fiber fusion are extremely noteworthy. Most importantly, you haven???t lost the Type IIb fibers
which compose up to sixteen percent of your total muscle mass! Furthermore, when fiber fusion does occur, the
Type IIb fiber has not lost its superior contractile strength, but has gained in size and resistance to fatigue and injury.
My understanding is something would have to trigger growth hormone release to do this.
Remember that meat is made up of proteins, to fuel the rebuilding process you need protein in the blood stream. If you go longer stretches without protein and are only having it for portions of the day and not observing "constant" protein uptake, then the body will go into negative nitrogen retention and release aminos from the muscle itself.
