Hypertrophy and Mechanical Tension
At its most basic level, muscle growth is an adaptation the body makes in response to external stressors. The training we do will signal to the body that adaptations must occur, while our nutrition ensures that the body does not run out of fuel to do so.
Thus, our time in (and out of) the gym will be driven in the pursuit of something known as hypertrophy.
Hypertrophy
Hypertrophy, in our context, refers to muscle size increase. It's key in the pursuit of our aesthetic fitness goals. Many myths circulate about the 'best' way to induce hypertrophy, but in reality, the primary driver is mechanical tension.
You may have heard many, many different statements regarding the ‘best’ way to build muscle - that is, the best way to induce hypertrophy:
‘High reps for toning, low reps for strength!’
‘Muscles need to be broken down, so that they can be built up again stronger.’
‘You need to use higher reps so you can get a pump. This will help build the muscles!’
‘Use compound movements. They are much better for hypertrophy.’
In truth, there is only one way muscle is ever built. Many of these claims only work because they are correlated with this one factor. Hypertrophy is driven solely, or at least very majorly, by mechanical tension.
Mechanical Tension
Mechanical tension is the force muscles experience during contraction. In essence, mechanical tension is the pulling force an individual muscle fibre is exposed to under stress. Our muscles experience high degrees of mechanical tension, and thus receive the most stimulus to grow, when they experience an involuntary slowing of contraction speed (basically, this means when you do an exercise and are unable to perform it as fast as you started).
For more information on mechanical tension, check out the page on Stimulating Reps.
Muscle Protein Synthesis
Our muscles are actually in a constant balance of being built up and torn down. Disuse of a muscle will cause it to atrophy, or what's known as muscle protein breakdown. This includes when you don't train or use a muscle for long periods of time. High degrees of mechanical tension coupled with sufficient protein intake in your diet (what will you build muscle with if there's no protein in your diet?) will signal muscle protein synthesis, and result in an overall hypertrophy of the muscle.
Our goal in building muscle is to simply ensure that our muscle protein synthesis exceeds our muscle protein breakdown, as much as we can. This is what's known as being in an 'anabolic' state.
Summary
- Hypertrophy refers to the increase of muscle size. It is our primary focus.
- Nutrition is the fuel, and training is the stimulus for muscle growth.
- The best training for hypertrophy involves high amounts of mechanical tension in a muscle.
- Mechanical tension can best be described as a force that your muscles experience when under stress. High amounts of mechanical tension usually arise when there is an involuntary slowing of contraction speed when performing a movement.
- Our muscles, when not in use, naturally atrophy, and experience muscle protein breakdown. When we give them a sufficient dose of mechanical tension, assuming adequate nutrition, we experience elevated levels of muscle protein synthesis, which results in an overall hypertrophy of the muscle.
References
TODO