In case you have missed, "All about Muscle - Part I". I would recommend you to read it before this article.
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In the previous article of this series, we understood the types of muscle, types of muscle fibres and how actin and myosin work together to contract your muscle.
The current article aims to further detailed understanding of the muscles.
Without wasting much time, LET'S GET STARTED!
We will be understanding, the two main terminologies which are majorly responsible for the growth of the muscles are:
Hypertrophy.
Hyperplasia/Hypergenesis.
When we are talking about the growth of the muscles, it means we are talking about the human cell.
Image Source: Medic Test
1. Hypertrophy:
We can break this word into two parts, Hyper meaning Over and trophy meaning nourishment.
Hypertrophy refers to as growth in the size of the cell.
The two factors which contribute to the muscle Hypertrophy are:
1.1. Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy (Functional).
1.2. Myofibrillar Hypertrophy( Non-Functional).
1.1 Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy refers to an increase in glycogen storage within our muscles.
The sarcoplasmic fluid contains ATP(Adenosine Triphosphate), glycogen, creatine phosphate and water.
Increase in the volume of sarcoplasmic fluid within the muscle increase the size of the muscle.
Think about the appealing muscle pump after bicep curls, that's Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy.
1.2 Myofibrillar Hypertrophy refers to an increase in the cross-sectional area of the Myofibrilla within the muscle fibre. Myofibrilla is responsible for the movement of the muscle.
This terminology will be significantly useful to those who are concerned about lifting heavy weights and getting stronger.
Increase in size of the myofibrilla will increase the contraction of muscle due to an increase in myosin and actin.
Image Source: Andrew Mayer
We might tend to assume that these two hypertrophies are mutually exclusive. But they both are mutually inclusive.
Increase in Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy increases Myofibrillar Hypertrophy and vice-a-versa at a diverse rate.
2. Hyperplasia:
We can break this word into two parts, Hyper meaning Over and plasia meaning formation. It is also known as "Hypergenesis".
Muscle Hyperplasia refers to an increase in the number of muscle fibres.
Many Fitness channels on YouTubers claim this phenomenon to happen without any shreds of evidence.
Let me tell you it is quite doubtful to sayso, as there is a lack of evidence on this phenomenon in Humans.
It is a complex process for the researchers to count the number of muscle fibres within the muscle.
However, We have humungous pieces of evidence of hyperplasia on Birds, Cats, Mice and even Fish.
A study by J. Antonio and W. J. Gonyea, "Progressive stretch overload of skeletal muscle results in hypertrophy before hyperplasia" on 26 Adult quails.
In the study, the quail's right wing attaches to the progressive weight ranging between 10% to 35% of the bird mass.
he stretch protocol was as follows: day 1 (10% wt), days 2 and 3 (rest), day 4 (15% wt), days 5–7 (rest), day 8 (20% wt), days 9 and 10 (rest), days 11–14 (25% wt), days 15 and 16 (rest), and days 17–38 (35% wt).
At the end of the study, the Muscle mass of the Adult Quail increased 174% (12 days), 196% (16 days), 225% (20 days), 264% (24 days), and 318% (28 days).
There was also a whopping 82% increase in Muscle Fibre. Which concludes that Muscle Hyperplasia is real.
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