The best and most sustainable way to build muscles is to follow a regular workout routine that aligns with your needs and your personal fitness goals and to maintain a healthy diet that includes balanced servings of healthy macronutrients: protein, unsaturated fats, and complex carbohydrates. Some people, however, opt to supplement their regimen with supplements, like protein shakes, to ensure adequate amounts of nutrients that support optimal muscle function. As always, it is important to speak with your doctor before beginning a new diet and/or exercise regimen.*
When it comes to managing your weight, the most effective way to see lasting results is to not only lose fat but to also build lean muscle. Lean muscle refers to the muscles in your body that are not inhibited or obscured by body fat and are an important part of maintaining metabolism--which, in turn, may help you burn calories more efficiently. In this guide, we’ll explore the complexity of muscle growth, and discuss some of the best supplements to support your muscle building goals.
The Muscular System & Its Functions
Your muscular system is comprised of more than 600 muscles, many of which work in groups to control movement, when your body is in motion, and to maintain posture when you are sitting still. Your muscles control all voluntary movements, whether it’s walking, typing, lifting objects, or even stretching. Muscles also control involuntary movements, like the beating of your heart, or the movement of food through your digestive tract. Muscles are the only bodily tissues that are able to contract.
There are three types of muscles. Smooth muscles line the walls of your hollow internal organs, and are responsible for the involuntary, rhythmic movements that pass substances through those organs. The heart is a cardiac muscle, and it contracts involuntarily to circulate blood through the body.
Skeletal muscles are attached to your bones. These are the muscles responsible for our voluntary movements; they are attached to one or two bones by tendons, and they contract to move those bones. They work in groups, controlling the movements of your neck, back, shoulders, upper and lower arms, abdomen, hips, upper and lower legs, and more. When it comes to building muscles through exercise, it is the skeletal muscles that your workout routines target.
The movements of skeletal muscles are controlled by your body’s nervous system, specifically motor neurons. Motor neurons are nerve cells that control movement. Each motor neuron controls a group of muscles and cells called a motor unit. When you move a specific part of your body, your brain sends a signal to the motor unit, and the motor unit stimulates the muscles to contract, causing movement. When you lift weights, for instance, your brain is signaling your hands to grip the weights, while also signaling the muscles of your arms to contract to lift the weights. Motor units play an important role in muscle growth.
How Muscles Grow & Recover
You’ve read in our guide on proteins that proteins are the building blocks of muscles. Skeletal muscles are composed of two types of tissues called sarcomeres and myofibrils, which work together to contract the muscles. Myofibrils are long, very thin fibers that are made up of four different proteins. Two of these proteins, actin and myosin, comprise more than 90% of muscle fibers. When muscles contract, actin and myosin interact with one another by binding to each other and releasing, a movement commonly referred to as a power stroke. Building muscle doesn’t occur when you workout; it occurs when you rest following a workout, which is why regular exercise that doesn’t overdo it and allows you adequate recovery time is key to promoting normal muscle growth. We’ll explore the way in which exercise promotes muscle function, but first, we need to understand how it is that muscles grow. Experts believe there are two physiological processes that cause muscle growth and enhance muscular strength. These processes are known as neural adaptation and hypertrophy.
Neural Adaptation
Remember: the movements of skeletal muscles are a result of motor signals sent from your brain to the motor neurons that stimulate muscle contractions. When you exercise, your brain is sending repeated, controlled motor signals to the muscle group you are targeting. As you continue to exercise with more regularity, your motor neurons adapt and become more efficient. The process of synchronous activation occurs as your motor neurons are able to recruit more muscle cells, and therefore more power strokes with each contraction, to a specific movement. Regular exercise may also promote the body’s normal response to increased muscular activity.
Hypertrophy
Muscular hypertrophy is the enlargement of muscle cells that happens while you are recovering from your exercise. It is the muscles’ response to the stress endured during exercise. In the period of rest after a workout, the feeling of soreness you experience is a result of the strain your muscles have undergone. Muscle growth occurs when your body repairs strained muscle fibers, a cellular process that involves the synthesis of new protein and the integration of this protein into the myofibrils. The new protein makes these fibers thicker, and higher concentrations of actin and myosin that result from protein synthesis mean more power strokes when the muscle contracts.
The Importance of Exercise for Muscle Growth
Neural adaptation and muscular hypertrophy are the processes by which muscles grow, but how are these processes stimulated?
Routine exercise, particularly strength training, is one of the most important ways to promote normal muscle growth. Strength training uses resistance from weights, either weighted equipment or your own bodyweight, to build muscle mass. The tension created by the weights applies stress to the targeted muscle groups, and this stress is an integral factor in muscle growth.
In order for muscles to grow, they must recover from the stress undergone during a workout; this is when the muscles repair themselves through hypertrophy--protein synthesis that contributes to the increase in muscle size. The tension created during a weightlifting exercise may help promote this process.
Gradually increasing the weight you lift may help train your body to slowly build more muscle mass, as it continues the application of more stress than your muscles have adapted to. Before beginning any exercise routine, it is important to consult with your doctor or a physical trainer to assess your limitations and capabilities. You should have goals for your fitness routine that challenge you, but you also want to be sure that you don’t overwork yourself. You also want to allow yourself sufficient time between each workout session for your muscles to recover.
Muscle Supplements: Which Ones, and When?
When it comes to dietary supplements, there is no replacement for a healthy lifestyle. Supplements alone cannot promote normal muscle growth; exercising is still an important part of building lean muscle. Dietary supplements are also no substitute for a well-balanced, nutritious diet.*
Where supplements are helpful, however, is in supplementing the nutrients you consume in your diet. Exercise is one (albeit important) factor in building muscles, but a healthy diet may also promote the normal process of recovery between workouts that is essential to muscle growth.*
Since proteins are the building blocks of muscles, maintaining a diet that contains a variety of protein-rich foods is important. The body’s metabolism of protein fuels muscle growth and recovery, so make sure you are receiving adequate amounts of dietary protein.*
The most protein-rich foods are usually animal products--meat, eggs, or dairy. This means that vegetarians may not always have enough protein in their diet. There are also people with ambitious bodybuilding goals who might require more protein for muscle growth than they generally consume on a regular basis. In both these instances, dietary supplements may be a helpful way to support their daily intake of protein.*
The best supplements to promote healthy muscle growth and retention are those that contain adequate amounts of protein. To learn more about the impact of strength training, diet, and dietary supplements on muscle growth, we recommend checking out the TLS® Health Guide & Journal.
TLS® Weight Loss Solutions promotes transformative lifestyle changes that help you achieve your fitness and nutrition goals. Through positive, sustainable habits, TLS® gives you the tools you need to eat right, find an exercise regimen that works for you, and maintain a positive, more goal-oriented mindset. More than just a weight loss or muscle building regimen, TLS® uses a four-pronged approach to cover numerous facets of healthy living:
Low-Glycemic Eating: a diet that incorporates healthy foods to support your metabolism and help you lose fat.
Body Composition: an emphasis on exercise to not only focus on body fat loss, but also preserve lean muscle mass.
Education: a foundation of knowledge and insight into the most important aspects of healthy living, giving you the tools you need to transform your lifestyle.
Science-Based Supplementation: an offering of some of the best dietary supplements on the market to support your other efforts to eat right and support your body’s needs.*
These delicious shakes provide you with 21 grams of protein and a diverse blend of amino acids to promote healthy muscle growth and retention. Whey is a naturally complete protein that may help support healthy protein synthesis in human muscle.*
This shake contains a blend of rice and pea protein to provide essential amino acids found in whey protein. Additionally, TLS® Plant-Based Protein Shakes contain 22 essential vitamins and minerals.*
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product(s) is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Sources
Alexander, Robert McNeill, et. al. “Muscle.” Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica. Web. 15 Mar. 2018.
Andrews, Mark A.W. “How Does Exercise Make Your Muscles Stronger?”. Scientific American.16 Dec. 2014. Web. 15 Mar. 2018.
Cox, Lauren. “What is Whey Protein?” Livescience. 24 Apr. 2014. Web. 15 Mar. 2018.
Leyva, John. “How Do Muscles Grow? The Science of Muscle Growth”. Builtlean. 01 Jul. 2018. Web. 15 Mar. 2018.
Morrison, William, MD. “9 Functions of the Muscular System”. HealthLine. 21. Mar. 2018. Web. 21 Mar. 2018.
North, Cat. “Do Protein Shakes Really Help You Get Big?” Livestrong. 03 Oct. 2017. Web. 21 Mar. 2018.
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