Effects of Muscle Hypertrophy on Bodybuilders

Muscle hypertrophy refers to growth as well as increase in the size and volume of muscle cells. Muscle hypertrophy is of great significance to bodybuilders and is affected by age, nutrition, steroids and exercises. The latter factor is the one that is of concern to most bodybuilders. During adolescence, hypertrophy takes place at the highest rate. There are other short terms which are common to most bodybuilders among them strength training and anaerobic exercises. These measures all strengthen the muscles which are involved in respiration.

On the other hand, aerobic exercises have a lower intensity and are not ideal for muscle hypertrophy. It can lead to long-term increase in the size of muscles because protein intake increases immediately after exercising. Endurance training in athletes results in drastic reduction of body fat, requiring an increased intake of amino acids and carbohydrates.

Two types of muscle hypertrophy are common. One is sarcoplasmic hypertrophy which results in increase in the amount of sarcoplasmic fluid within the muscle cells. This is often accompanied by growth in the size of muscle cells. Myofibrillar hypertrophy leads to muscular strength and this comes with increased muscle size. Myofibrillar hypertrophy is divided into two processes. One of them leads to increase in the volume of nuclei within the muscle tissue while the other leads to growth and increase in the contractile material which is supported by an individual nucleus. This second process is the usual way of defining muscle hypertrophy.

Hypertrophy that arises as a result of strength training among bodybuilders is a combination of two processes one of which is contraction. The other process is experienced by professional athletes and endurance athletes. It results in neural drive which stimulates the muscle contraction process. Measurable gains can be realized once the bodybuilder learns how to use the muscles for his own fitness benefits. The second process refers to the unregulated mechanism, which is rather difficult to explain in general terms. It is best elaborated using terms such as up-regulation which begins to trigger a ubiquitous messenger mechanism into action. Genes have a lot to do with what happens to the muscles including their growth. It only becomes difficult when one is trying why muscle hypertrophy as a result of strength training fails to occur in some of us and cannot necessarily be well compared to gains accruing from actual strength of the body muscles. Furthermore it is not possible for muscles to grow in size without increasing in strength.

Muscle fibers are made up of myofibrils which are maintained through protein synthesis. There is a limit to the size of a mature fibril. After this size is reached, it splits these events are observed even inside every muscle fiber. In other words, hypertrophy occurs as a result of growth of each muscle cell and not an increase in the number of individual cells. When the rate of uptake of amino acids by muscles decreases, there is an inhibition of protein synthesis. This makes muscle hypertrophy a very integral approach of understanding how bodybuilding can be enhanced.

Dane Fletcher

Dane Fletcher is the world's most prolific bodybuilding and fitness expert and is currently the executive editor for BodybuildingToday.com. If you are looking for more bodybuilding tips or information on weight training, or supplementation, please visit http://www.BodybuildingToday.com, the bodybuilding and fitness authority site with hundreds of articles available FREE to help you meet your goals