Maximise Muscle Growth

Building muscle is a relatively straight forward concept. Lift a heavy weight over and over again for a few sets and repeat again in a few days times.

However, you may not know there are three key components to muscle building aka hypertrophy.

If you know what these three are you can better understand the muscle building process and utilise it in your own workout routine.

Mechanical Tension

Mechanical tension is a way to create muscle growth by using heavy loads and performing exercises through a full range of motion. Mechanical tension stimulates anabolic (muscle-building) pathways within the muscle cells, leading to protein synthesis and muscle growth

The key here is not just about how much weight you’re lifting but how you’re lifting it. Form, tempo, and load are the critical focuses here! 

For example, when performing a squat, focus on maintaining control through both the lowering (eccentric) and lifting (concentric) phases. Using a time count of 2-3 seconds during each phase of the lift can help to ensure you're keeping tension on.

Metabolic Stress

Metabolic stress is a physiological process that occurs during exercise in response to low energy. 

Weight lifting has an important impact on the increase of metabolite accumulation (lactic, phospate, hydrogen in muscle cells). Which influences hormonal release, hypoxia, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and cell swelling. Resulting in muscle building.

To maximise this factor, focus on intensity and volume. Reduce your rest periods, incorporate supersets or drop sets, push your sets to failure, switch up your routine periodically. 

Muscle Damage

Damaging your muscles through resistance exercise sends a signal for your muscles to grow back bigger and stronger. This is why you sometimes feel sore after a workout—it’s your body repairing micro-tears in your muscles.

Providing stress to the muscle through mechanical tension and metabolic stress naturally leads to muscle damage.

For example, eccentric-focused training (slowly lowering the weight) is an excellent way to create this damage. 

Progressively overloading your exercises to lift heavier weight and get more reps will also create muscle damage.

Putting It All Together

Prioritise mechanical tension: Start your workout with heavy compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, or rows, focusing on proper form and progressive overload.

Include metabolic stress: Add some higher-rep sets, supersets, or circuits toward the end of your session. For example, you could do a biceps superset with curls followed by hammer curls, aiming for a good pump.

Allow for muscle damage: Don’t shy away from exercises that challenge you eccentrically, but don’t overdo it. Plan your recovery days wisely to give your muscles time to repair and grow.

Overdoing it can lead to excessive soreness and longer recovery times, which might hinder your progress. Balance is key.

There is more more to cover on this topic. So be sure to subscribe to my emailing list on my website www.andrewcainept.com (get a free high protein cookbook whilst you're at it).

Andrew.