The Building Muscle Process

The building muscle process is relatively simple to understand.

With all of the information available on the internet, you’d think it would be easier to find information about just what exactly causes muscles to grow. There are quite a few misconceptions out there and this article will put down a few of those myths and reveal exactly what happens when your body builds muscle.

The whole process begins when the existing muscles in the body are put under extreme stress, such as when they push or pull more weight then they are used to pushing and pulling.

When muscles are asked to do more work than they are accustomed to, they suffer minor ruptures. You’ll feel these micro-tears as muscle soreness. These mini-injuries are repaired while the body rests. The resulting muscle is slightly larger than before, better able to handle the stress that caused the initial tears.

A bodybuilder maximizes the muscle building process by continuously escalating the stress level place on muscle groups. This is accomplished by increasing the amount of weight, the repetitions of the exercises and/or changing the type of exercise used on a specific muscle, causing new micro-tears, building the muscle more and more.

Massive muscle growth requires a specific nutritional plan as well. There are three macronutrients that you’ll need in correct proportions to fuel muscle growth. Carbohydrates, proteins and fats will deliver the nutritional payload your muscles call for.

Carbohydrates provide the fuel to get you through your workouts. Slow digesting, low glycemic index (GI) carbohydrates, most fruit and vegetables (excluding potatoes, corn and peas), whole grains, basmati rice and pasta are favored because they don’t cause a spike in blood sugar like high glycemic carbs will. A sharp spike in blood sugar causes an increase in insulin production which makes it more likely that food energy would be stored as fat, not used as energy. Post workout meals, however, often contain some quickly digested carbs in order to replace glycogen in the muscles and promote protein synthesis.

Protein is the building block of muscle creation and professional bodybuilders eat massive amounts of it. For some, protein is almost one-third of their calories for the day. In addition to poultry, beef, pork and eggs, protein powders made from whey or soy are added to meals or used as meal replacements in shakes.

You need approximately two tablespoons of dietary fat each day. Approved sources of fat for the muscle builder are the unsaturated kind which is liquid at room temperature and is found in canola and olive oils, nuts, seeds and avocados.

The missing components here are rest and recuperation. You’ve placed your body under great stress and it needs rest. The specific muscles you’ve worked on need to recuperate and shouldn’t be exercised again until they properly recover. For most people that means at least 48 hours should elapse between workouts of the same muscles.