Muscle growth is possible only through the adaptation of the body to stress. Every athlete should remember this. Learn all about adapting muscles for growth in bodybuilding. Today we will talk about all the factors that affect the growth of muscle mass. Of course, there are quite a few of them, but today the main ones will be considered. Particular attention should be paid to adapting muscles to growth in bodybuilding, but first things first.
The effect of homeostasis on muscles
The human body always strives to maintain balance (homeostasis). For this, he has many different mechanisms. During training, the load forces a large number of muscle parameters to move away from balance. The degree of this displacement is influenced by various factors, for example, the intensity or nature of the physical activity.
When the lesson ends and the loads are removed, then response mechanisms are triggered in the body, the task of which is to restore the lost balance. Thus, the body adapts to the loads that the athlete used. At the same time, certain changes are taking place, which should prevent the emergence of a new imbalance in the future.
Thus, bodybuilding training is an athlete-directed process of adapting the body to the load. It is customary to divide adaptation into two types:
- Urgent - occurs with a single exposure to the body of an external load. This type of adaptation can include the restoration of energy reserves and resources of the central nervous system.
- Long-term - a response that occurs when multiple loads accumulate, each of which caused an urgent adaptation.
The role of supercompensation in muscle adaptation
Muscle work leads to some fluctuations in internal parameters, for example, the level of creatine phosphate decreases, the reserves of glycogen in muscle tissues are depleted, etc. When the load ceases to affect the body, due to the recovery processes in a certain period of time, the level of substances necessary for the muscles to work exceeds the initial one, which was observed before the start of the training. This phenomenon is called supercompensation. Basically, this is the growth of muscle tissue.
Also, two important features of this phenomenon should be noted:
- The stage of supercompensation is rather short-lived and the level of all energetic substances soon begins to return to the initial level. Simply put, with a long pause between workouts, the athlete can lose everything that was gained during all previous training sessions.
- The more energy was lost during the training, the more intense the recovery processes will be.
However, the second feature appears only under certain conditions. When the loads are high enough, the recovery processes slow down. This, in turn, affects the timing of the onset of the supercompensation stage. Also, a state of overtraining is associated with high loads, when the body is not able to recover on its own.
The recovery of other parameters trained by the athlete proceeds in a similar way. First, there is a decrease in the body's capabilities, after rest, the stage of supercompensation begins.
Muscle growth rules
It should be said right away that muscle growth is possible only if the adaptation of muscle tissues is summed up after each training session. Moreover, this summation must take place strictly according to certain rules.
Rule # 1
When repeated training is carried out at the stage of supercompensation, a positive interaction of all training effects arises. This leads to long-term adaptation and, as a result, to muscle growth. Progress moves forward with every small step. Of course, every athlete wants to get a quick result, but, unfortunately, this does not happen.
Rule # 2
New muscle training after a long rest will not give the expected effect. This is due to the fact that each such training session starts at a low level.
Rule # 3
Frequent training sessions will not lead to growth, as the recovery phase is interrupted. For growth, muscle tissue must not only recover, but also slightly exceed the previous level of development.
It must be said that the rules described above work only in the long term and show that there is some progress. At the same time, within several training sessions, training at the stage of underrecovery is quite possible. This can have a positive effect in the future. To achieve the task set for oneself, it is necessary to determine the level of load, thanks to which the maximum possible growth will be achieved. The recovery time to the supercompensation stage should also be calculated. After that, it is necessary to load the body with a certain frequency. However, it is very simple only on paper. In practice, there is one serious nuance.
It is important to remember that muscle growth is a complex process that affects not only muscle cells, but many other parameters as well. For example, supercompensation of the creatine phosphate level appears within a few minutes after the load is removed. It will take a couple of days to restore glycogen stores, and the muscle cells themselves can recover over several days. As can be understood from all of the above, adapting muscles to growth in bodybuilding is a rather complex process that requires a lot of attention to yourself.
Speaking about muscle growth, it is impossible not to touch upon the issue of protein compounds that are necessary for this process. Every athlete wants to know what kind of training helps to accelerate the synthesis of proteins in muscle tissues. Unfortunately, science today is not ready to answer this question. There are several hypotheses. The most popular assumption is that when protein compounds are destroyed during a training session, an acceleration of their synthesis will subsequently be observed. However, it is still difficult to say how close this hypothesis is to the truth.
For the factors affecting muscle growth, see this video:
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