subject: What Actually Causes Muscle Growth? [print this page] Muscle gain, body building, muscle growth and building muscle mass are some facts which are synonymous both to taking supplements' and joining a gym' via a routine of exercises and techniques of pumping iron.
The eternal question in muscle building has always been - what actually causes muscle to grow? The answer has scientific elements associated with it. Muscle gain is related to muscle hypertrophy. Muscle hypertrophy again comes down to protein metabolism and its effects.
Protein metabolism is the actual ratio of the amount of protein that gets converted and the amount of protein which gets broken down to be sent to other areas. This difference is critical in terms of muscle gain which an individual is to attain. To understand this process of body building, we need to understand the normal process of homeostasis. In this process, the anabolic and catabolic processes nullify each other in a way where the end result is close to zero or negligible (the state of equilibrium) in ideal conditions of homeostasis in our body.
It is due to this level and impact of homeostasis on our body that we do not grow or reduce in size suddenly. In other words, our bodies are accustomed to the process of homeostasis. However this fact also explains the concept of steroids and other illegal drugs which limit the process of homeostasis for abrupt growth, but this has many major side effects on our body.
For muscle growth, each and every muscle fiber has to swell (bulge) to get a greater CSA, which stands for cross sectional area. When muscle fibers are packed with protein, the cross sectional area of that fiber is increased which eventually increases the size of the concerned muscle. This is the reason, for muscle growth high protein diet is suggested. To attain muscle growth, breakdown of protein has to be altered. However the best approach towards body building is to try and be stronger rather than being huge and beefy.
In addition, the concept of human growth hormone (hgh) is also an important aspect of muscle growth as it affects the stage of fuel homeostasis and also stimulates the immune system. Once you understand the process of muscle growth, it becomes easier to follow a certain method with proper diet and exercise for better muscle gain.
