Those who are looking to gain more muscle mass can easily browse through the web and see that they could bulk on a high-protein and high-calorie-diet. These suggestions may come alongside recommendations to do heavy weightlifting. While these activities could help, some may see different results compared to others.
How Muscle Growth Works
Live Science explains that anyone can reap benefits from weight training, even if their goal is not to get ripped. Muscle growth takes place when these cells create or synthesize fresh proteins faster than the breaking down of existing proteins. As such, weightlifting tension, or that of other exercises that involve pulling or lifting against resistance, can trigger this synthesis. Muscle damage that leads to muscle soreness can also facilitate growth.
However, for those who are not used to exercising or during intense training, muscles could end up incurring significant damage. Rather than pumping up muscles, this, in turn, may require a significant amount of synthesis for the broken muscle fibers to be repaired and for inflammation to be cleared away.
Kevin Murach, a muscle growth researcher from the University of Arkansas, explains that focusing on contractions that are concentric, wherein muscles shorten when applying resistance, can lead to tension maximization and damage minimization.
There are also certain proteins, including mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin), that tension activates and supports growth by promoting synthesis. Different proteins, such as myostatin, also keep the growth of muscles in check.
The Role of Genetic Factors
Some individuals, however, find it harder compared to others to see muscle growth results despite exerting rigorous efforts. As such, this goes to show how genetic factors play a significant role as well.
CNET explains that genetics play a vital role when it comes to the body's capacity to put on muscle as well as its limitations in doing so. As such, hormones, muscle fibers, and ribosomes, among others, can significantly affect this.
Growth hormones, insulin, estrogen, and testosterone are all considered anabolic hormones, which play key roles in muscle growth. Estrogen, specifically, boosts muscle strength and mass, while testosterone helps with muscle growth. Testosterone levels that peak during puberty could shed light on why males tend to have more muscle mass compared to females. Murach explains that, however, when adults undergo the same weightlifting procedures, their gains, which are relative to their size, tend to be the same for males and females. Murach adds that transient testosterone boosts that take place during exercise do not massively affect muscle growth.
As for muscle fibers, each one has two types of muscle fibers that are specialized for different activities. These are fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibers. Fast-twitch ones work for explosive and powerful movements, while slow-twitch fibers foster endurance-requiring and sustained exercises. The fast-twitch ones have a more ready growth compared to slow-twitch fibers.
Wayne Wescot, Ph.D., who is the former exercise science director from Quincy College, explains that people who have higher proportions of fast-twitch fibers can have a faster and more effective response to strength training stimulus, Shape.com reports.
Ribosomes, which are molecular protein-synthesizers, have also been recently found to be a potential genetic factor that affects muscle gain. People have different quantities and types of ribosomes because of genetic variations. This, in turn, could affect protein synthesis levels and the kinds of muscle proteins that are being produced.
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