subject: How To Avoid Overdoing Muscle Building [print this page] You know that working out is muscle buildingYou know that working out is muscle building. But do you know how these muscles are built? There are actually just two types of growth that occur inside the muscles.
The first type is the actual muscle growth where the cells repair what is destroyed or torn during the workout. This is called myofibrillar hypertrophy. It won't really add to the muscle bulk but this is the reason why a lot of wiry guys like soccer players are really quite strong.
The second type is the increase in muscle cell size. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy just means that there is an increase in plasma or liquid inside the cell walls, but just that increase in bulk doesn't mean that you grow stronger.
So, you need to have both kinds of growth while you are building muscles or you won't look quite right. You may have noticed some people working out in your gym that are really quite big in size but their muscles look like balloons, almost like a puffy quilt.
In order to look balanced, you need to have the proper balance of growth and not just one or the other. With more of the first type of muscle growth, you'll be wiry and angular, but have undersized muscles. With the second type of growth, you'll look more like a built Michelin man with "fluffy" muscles that you could pop with a pin.
While you need to reach a lower percentage of body fat in order for your muscles to appear defined, that doesn't solve the whole problem. When fat people lose weight, their skin hangs in folds because it has been stretched so far that it takes a little time to tighten up. It works the same way when you lose body fat.
The skin should be so tight that you can see all the muscles that have been defined. To get this, you have to stay at a lean level so that your skin can adapt to your new size. Everything starts to get leaner and more angular because you are adapting to this newer, more improved level.
Another thing you can do is not to work until fatigue and lose more reps but move up in weight. It's better if you can move down to about five pounds less than your target weight. A few weeks before you want to show off your "new look" just increase your reps and you will certainly look "ripped" permanently.
