What’s growin’ on?

Written by Edward Caddye

This is going to be the first article (and hopefully not last!) that I write for this blog. It shall briefly cover all aspects of ‘how and why you grow’ To begin with, I better introduce myself.

I have known Lee for a good three years – it all began when he decided that he wanted to join in with a training session of mine, so obviously being the studious person he is, missed his IT lesson to tag along. I quote, “I thought I should get in with the nerdy guy.” Unfortunately he had to make do with me in the end.

We have trained together, dieted together, and most importantly discussed together many aspects of nutrition and training. I am currently at university studying for a degree in Biochemistry, with my specific interest stemming from bodybuilding. I think that should do for now.

Understanding how to make yourself grow is one of the first steps in being able to make solid gains in the gym. Many people think that surely, just going to the gym, lifting a few weights now and again and drinking a protein shake here and there will work. Well in some cases that might be true, we all know those genetic freaks that get on our nerves.

There are three main factors which you must consider when your goal is to ‘get big’. These are training, eating and sleeping.

Starting with sleep, this can often be overlooked. Sleeping is the time of the day when you grow. If you don’t sleep, there’s a very likely chance you won’t grow. If you don’t sleep enough, there’s an equally likely chance you won’t grow as much as you could do. Why is this? Growth hormone levels rise during sleep, a very anabolic, growth promoting hormone. Obtaining enough rest is extremely important, especially if you want to be able to perform the next day in the gym or in whatever else you might be doing. Going out the night after a leg workout and not being able to walk in the morning is not a pleasant experience!

The act of lifting weights is an extremely important part of growth, and keeping a strict routine of 2-4 times per week is definitely going to help your gains remain consistent. The physical act of lifting a weight is enough to stimulate the protein synthesis of muscle proteins. This was demonstrated in rats (in early experiments by A. Goldberg), whereby one of their hind legs had the Achilles tendon cut and the effects of merely walking around with only one hind leg was noted. The result of these experiments showed that the mechanical process of using the muscle, caused growth up to 600% of the original size, even during starvation conditions, and a non-functional hormone system. A very potent observation was made in addition to this growth, the amino acids that are needed to produce the muscle protein in the working leg, came from guess where? The non-functional leg muscle. This leads neatly into the role of a diet.

Clearly breaking down muscle from your left arm in order to grow your right arm, is somewhat counterproductive – this is where nutrition comes into the ability to grow. After training, muscle proteins must be produced in order to regenerate the muscle, hopefully to be bigger and stronger than previously. Muscle proteins, the same as any other protein in the body are produced on an assembly line by building blocks known as amino acids. As there is no storage facility for these building blocks in the body – it is important to eat proteins (which break down to form amino acids) regularly throughout the day. Depending on your weight, eating six or more meals of 30g or more protein a day is optimal.

It is not only mechanical stress that can stimulate muscle protein synthesis however, very careful manipulations in your diet can also amplify this growing phenomenon. There are 20 naturally occurring amino acids, 8 of these are essential, 3 of these have a branched chain structure. These ‘branched chain’ amino acids are very important for acting on muscle tissues, most importantly Leucine. Leucine has a very specific role whereby it turns on a ‘switch’ in the cells – telling them to produce new protein. If you feel you are already eating sufficient protein in your diet, try supplementing with 2-4g of leucine on top of your current intake, 2 hours after every meal or with your post-workout meal.

One last thing: the number of repetitions to perform per set is always a very hot topic. Metabolic physiologist Dr. Scott Connelly stated that it requires 6 repetitions of 85% of your one rep max in order to stimulate the maximum number of satellite cells which can be thought of as muscle stem cells – producing more cells and therefore growth. I personally do not believe that sticking to two sets of six reps for every exercise is optimal – it is all about what works for you!

I hope you have taken at least one snippet of information from this article, brief and broad as it may be. Please check out Lee’s Q&A or submit your own question for more tailored information! Don’t forget to email Lee for topics that you would like me to cover in my following articles!