The Basics
Arguably one of the most brilliant people who has ever walked this earth, Socrates, once said “No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training…what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” This quote has marinated with me for many years now as I have grown to live by it. My goal in this article is to teach you how and why it’s important to be strong.
The idea of being “strong” is not only cool and may look pleasing aesthetically, but strength can and will boost your quality of life on many levels. When strong, you’ll have better posture (while sitting and standing). Proprioception will increase significantly (balance and stability). On physiological level, your metabolism will work faster as this allows your body to burn much more fat while resting.
Doing simple things like going on hikes and walking down a flight of stairs (in the dark) will become way easier as you do more building. In general, sleeping will become more beneficial and much more rewarding. Most importantly, when muscles, tendons and ligaments are all equally strong, your chances of getting injured goes down drastically. Look out for your future self!
The fundamentals
When it comes to building muscles, in order, it goes:
1. The neurological level
2. Connective tissue level
3. THEN we get to muscle formation
The neurological level
We have over 600 muscles in our body that we need to give constant notice to. If not, they could easily disappear if not taken care of. The brain first will send a signal via motor neurons throughout the body to a certain group of muscles to either contract or relax, which pulls on connective tissues and bones. The larger the challenge, the more motor units it will take to help us achieve the task we want to achieve.
If the call is too much for one muscle group to handle, the subconscious will send more signals (neurons) to other groups of muscles to help finish the job. The central nervous system (CNS) can easily take a huge tax in this process, as sleepiness may be a side affect of recruiting many muscle groups over and over.
Connective tissue level
After the brain sends signals to a group of muscles in our body to move something heavy, the brain then sends signals (through the spinal chord) to our muscle fibers through these nerves called “motor neuron axons”. These motor neuron axons then connect to the nuclei (synaptic terminals) inside the muscle fibers. The site of this exchange of energy is called a “neuromuscular junction”. If this is way too complicated, check the link below to better understand the process!
As we expose our muscles to stress, these little guys experience minuscular damage that literally tears them apart. When this tear happens, the cells in your muscles release these little things called cytokines which active your immune system in order to help repair this “injury”. The greater the devastation to the muscle tissue happens the more “rest” our body will need in order to repair itself and grow properly. This cycle makes the muscle bigger and stronger over time.
In everyday life, the stress and demand that we put on ourselves is simply not enough for new muscle groups to grow and get stronger. In order to get appropriate damage we need in order to grow, we have to go through a process called “hypertrophy”. If not, the opposite will happen and muscles will then deteriorate and eventually shrink in size.
Testosterone, Insulin and rest
Of coarse the muscles need the proper amount of rest, nutrition and hormones in order to grow in size. Protein will provide the building blocks for these new cells in the from of “amino acids”. Protein combined with testosterone and insulin will help shift our bodies into a state where the tissues are ready to repair and grow. This mainly occurs during sleep.
Everyone has a certain amount of testosterone in his or her body. Gender and age has a huge roll to play in this process of muscle formation, which is mainly why younger men generally have more muscle gains due to their natural amount of testosterone. Just remember to eat real foods, rest and repeat when exposing yourself to new challenges. Similar to life, significant growth for muscles will require challenge and tension.
Pro Tip: Know your muscle types!
Muscle Types
While smooth and cardiac muscles are involuntary, skeletal muscle works under our control (voluntary). There are generally two types of muscles fibers that make up who we are. The first one is the “Slow twitch” muscle type, which contracts slower. Some examples of these slow twitch muscles is the soleus and the spinal erectors. These muscles are very “fatigue resistant” as the main role of these muscles are usually meant for stability.
The second groups are the “fast twitch” muscles types. Examples of these muscles include the hamstrings and the gastrocnemius (calf). These muscles tend to contact faster and get tired more quickly. Long eccentric movement will help grow these muscle types faster.
On the other hand, it gets a bit more complicated as there are hybrid and fast(er) twitch muscle types as well. Essentially these are types that are ready to switch over to either side depending on what exercises are being implemented. The less trained you are, the more hybrid types you will have throughout the body.
