is it just more cells being made? how does one’s bicep for example go from like, a flabby twig, to something shapely and hard and strong? i sort of have a basic understanding about lactic acid and how that makes muscles sore after a work out but how do they get bigger?
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So when the muscles fibres are exerted they experience a phenomena called microtearing, where the fibres actually become damaged. In severe cases, significant tearing causes a lot of pain and discomfort, but in repeated low doses (exercise), Microtearing actually promotes blood flow and muscle fibre building in the affected area, as the body attempts to repair the damage and then some. This is how you build muscle and why different people should work out different depending on their existing level of fitness
Very basically, when you work out, you are making small tears between the cells of the muscles. After time, the muscles reproduce through mitosis in order to repair the tear, filling the gaps of where the muscle was torn. This leads to more muscle cells than before and is also the reason why rest is so important to getting gains.
Skeletal muscle cells are very long, and each one contains multiple fibers composed of repeating segments of specific proteins, including actin, myosin, titin, among others. The proteins are made in the normal way (DNA to mRNA to peptide chain from amino acids to protein) and then assembled. The fibers don’t get longer, because there’s no point in making the muscle longer. Instead, more parallel fibers are placed down. Also, muscles cells have multiple nuclei and mitochondria, both of which can replicate to improve metabolism.
They get bigger in 2 ways. More Nuclei or Bigger nuclei.
Satellite stem cells transfer their nuclei to the muscle cells.
Muscle nuclei regulate the metabolic requirements and will determine if the muscle should grow or shrink.
There is no evidence that muscle tearing causing muscle growth, Excessive muscle tearing and lactic acid build up and soreness can lead to muscle loss.
Your body is a house and it is allocating resources to build the most appropriate house for your needs.
It is not tearing out the floor and walls to put on top like a game of Jenga.
“Muscle memory” and the ability to regain lost muscle faster is directly related to muscle nuclei.
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