MUCLE GROWTH

It’s obvious we all going to grow as long as we eat (nutritional food). But in case of muscle growth does it only require food? If not, then what else do we feed our muscle with apart from the food we eat?

                Muscles grow due to muscle fiber hypertrophy but it is thought that hyperplasia also plays a role in muscle growth. Muscle hyperplasia is essentially the increased number of fibers in the muscle due to splitting of the cells (this is the normal body growth and does not need any additional effort) whereas hypertrophy is the increase in size of the muscle due to the enlargement in the size of the fibers. Hypertrophy in muscle growth is classified into two types which are transient and chronic. Transient hypertrophy is the increase in apparent size of the muscle due to fluid accumulation in the intercellular spaces of the muscle fibers while chronic hypertrophy is the increase in the actual size of the muscle due to hyperplasia and the thickening of the individual muscle fibers. As mentioned above hyperplasia (cell division) requires food while the thickening of the individual muscle fibers will cost you a lot of session at the gym (tearing up the muscle through rigorous exercises).

                Generally the increase in size of muscle fiber depends on protein synthesis. Once the muscle fiber sustains microtears, the process of muscle growth is induced. Due to variety of hormones protein synthesis is increased. A steroid hormone called testosterone enters into the muscle cells by diffusing across the cell membrane, and works together with a hormone receptor within the cell which then prompts gene transcription and protein formation. Human growth hormones (hGH) are released from the anterior pituitary (a gland in the head), and triggers the production of insulin-like growth factors (IGF). IGF causes the muscle cell to increase its uptake of amino acids and glucose to form protein while hGH causes nuclear division in the muscle cell without triggering mitosis and hence there are more nuclei to more rapidly synthesize protein. Protein synthesis can also be initiated due to the release of insulin within the body. The release of insulin can be stimulated by certain amino acids. Thus, protein synthesis is increased largely due to these three hormones, and with a larger amount and a faster rate of synthesis, proteins can rebuild the muscle fibers thicker.