In this article on how muscles grow you will learn that the body builds muscle in a similar way that the skin forms calluses. Weird, I know, but true.
If you have no knowledge of carpentry, do you think you could build a house?
Probably not. At least not a very good one.
Muscle Building Knowledge Is Your Ally
You need to accept the fact that knowledge is your most powerful ally when it come to muscle building.
If you intend to accomplish anything worthwhile, you need to have at least some knowledge of the task in question.
From now on you need to adhere to a new philosophy: “I will work smart, not hard”.
Unfortunately, this philosophy is usually overlooked by thousands of beginner bodybuilders who flood gyms all over the country everyday, attempting to build muscle and lose fat.
Ask any of these guys how muscles grow and all you will get is unsatisfactory answers or deer-caught-in-the-headlights blank stares.
Bodybuilding isn’t dumb luck, it’s a science.
Now, don’t freak out; you won’t need a four year degree in biology to build big guns, but it will help to know the basics of how muscles grow to effectively meet your muscle building goals.
You must be asking by now “How do muscles grow?”
To start with, muscle building is a very complex process involving a vast number of steps. You don’t need to understand the fine details of this process as a bodybuilder, just the basic steps of muscle building.
You should understand that every action and process in your body has a simple purpose: to keep you healthy and alive.
So exactly how do muscles grow?
In scientific terms, the muscle building process is called “hypertrophy”.
When you work out at the gym, what you”re doing is placing your muscles under stress by lifting weights.
Your muscles come closer to failure with every repetition you perform, which means at some point, they will “give out,” and you will not be able to do any more reps, no matter how hard you try.
As they approach failure, these reps create deeper and deeper inroads into the muscle fibers, resulting in what is called “micro-tears.”.
What this means is that you’re inflicting a small amount of damage to the muscle fibers by breaking them down.
Muscle Repair Equals Muscle Growth
As a reaction to this damage, the body needs to repair the muscles.
The repair process starts when the stress on the muscles ceases, or when you stop working out.
Since the body’s ultimate aim is to keep you alive and healthy, it will rebuild itself a little bigger and a little stronger to protect itself against similar stress in the future.
Increased Muscle Size
So this increased muscle size and strength is a natural response to the micro-tears, and the body repairs damaged tissue caused by resistance training.
Understanding this concept may seem simple, but it’s very important for muscle building success.
Muscle building happens in a similar way that the body forms calluses on the skin when overused.
Like calluses on the hands, muscles are like calluses for the body, and grow more and more with constant use.
How do muscles grow?
When your work out in the gym, your body initiates a process of adaptation designed to help it cope with the stress, but this will ONLY happen when your body perceives the work in the gym as a threat to survival.
Let me say this once more: Your workout must be hard enough for your body to see it as a threat to its survival and ability to cope.
How Muscles Grow Conclusion
So now you see why a nonchalant, half-hearted attitude will not do you any good in the gym.
The body only perceives a threat to itself when your workout intensity is high enough.
Now that you know the basics of how muscles grow, check out The Truth About Building Muscle website to discover how you can use your knowledge to fuel massive muscular growth.
