The Progression of Building Muscle

Your muscles are highly adaptable to changes in size, strength, endurance, and power through exercise and diet. All humans, male and female have a similar training response but factors such as body composition, muscle size, hormone types and levels, gender, genetics, age, and training specificity all contribute to muscle progression. Both strength and endurance training have the ability to change muscle composition.

  1. Anatomy of a Muscle

    • Morning training sessions may grow bigger muscles.

      Your muscles are made up of predominately water followed by protein. The right balance of protein needs to be present in order for your muscles to grow. According to an article in "Physiological Reviews," protein synthesis refers to the entire process of muscle progression or building, including training and needs to exceed muscle protein breakdown in order for hypertrophy to occur. And the American College of Sports Medicine states that for men, scheduling your resistance training during the morning may yield better results since testosterone is a key hormone utilized in the timing of nutrient delivery and its levels are highest before noon.

    Training for Breakdown

    • Overloading your muscles during a workout by introducing a stressor greater than the strength of your muscle causes a breakdown of the muscle fibers in the form of microscopic tears. Stressing your muscles can mean lifting additional weight or even your own body weight. It may also include isometric contraction of your muscle as well as strenuous, anaerobic endurance exercises such as sprinting. We all possess two distinct types of muscle fiber: slow-twitch which is the type utilized during low-intensity, aerobic training and causes increases in endurance, and fast-twitch which is recruited during high intensity training and the type that builds muscle size, strength, and increases power. Heredity determines your amount of each type of muscle.

    Resting to Rebuild

    • Your muscle changes at the cellular level. It will take weeks or even months of consistent training for you to see those changes. Your muscles will begin to repair themselves almost immediately after working, provided you adequately rest them and eat properly. You need to take in the right amount of quality protein for your muscles to grow. Timing may also be a factor, with 30 to 60 minutes after training, the ideal window to consume a meal. Protein synthesis takes effect within a couple of hours after finishing your workout and may continue up to 24 hours.

    Adaptation, Plateau, and the Next Level

    • Training factors such as variation, duration and intensity will vary over time; therefore, it is difficult to predict muscle adaptation from person-to-person. Indications that your muscles have become used to the loads you place upon them can take several forms such as working heart rate, workouts that feel too easy, performance progression failure, even your physical appearance. Continuing training at the same intensity will result in your muscles stagnating. They will plateau and you will stop seeing progression. You will need to increase the intensity of your workouts by lifting heavier weights, increasing repetitions, working out longer or more frequently, and adding speed or intervals to your endurance training.