As promised, although I took an extra article to get to this point, today we are going to talk about the second factor necessary to initiate muscle hypertrophy according to this review I’ve been looking at in-depth recently. Adding to the first factor, that being mechanical tension, which I discussed in detail in both the second and third installment of this series, (I highly recommend reading at least the third part as at that point I feel as if some good conclusions have been reached and summarized) is metabolic stress.
A couple of mechanisms that can be categorized as metabolic stress that we as weight trainers can feel during a set is both the pump and the burn. This is due to the following factors that make up the markers or conditions that are metabolic stress. Those factors are the occlusion of veins by continuous muscle contractions that prevent blood from escaping. Once again the notion of continuous, meaning you need to do many reps in order to achieve this, is mentioned. This is further evidence that muscles need to be worked and not just forced to heave heavy weights for a few reps in order to grow. Secondly, the lack of oxygen within the blood that is trapped in the muscles. Thirdly, the build up of metabolic by products such as lactate and the increased hormonal surge as a result. Lastly, the pump that is present due to the pooling of blood within the muscles being worked.
All of the above mentioned conditions will be a part of the body’s need to call for more muscle to be built in order to be better prepared for the next round of training where these conditions will again be present. All of these metabolic stress factors work synergistically with muscular tension (time under tension, fatigue and the tension is through a full range of motion being part of that equation) to become greater than what they would accomplish individually. The greater the tension and fatigue produced through a full range of motion, the greater the resulting metabolic byproducts will be to combine together to create newer and bigger muscles. The formula to building the biggest muscles possible continues. Until next time my friends,
Happy Lifting!
The ABC’s Of Muscle Growth Part 1
The ABC’s Of Muscle Growth Part 2
The ABC’s Of Muscle Growth Part 3
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