Strength vs Hypertrophy: The Science of Building Muscle
Summary
TLDRThis script delves into the fascinating world of muscle growth, exploring the physiology behind hypertrophy and the different types of muscle tissue in the human body. It distinguishes between smooth, cardiac, and skeletal muscles, highlighting their unique characteristics and growth processes. The video also examines training principles for increasing muscle size versus strength, discussing the impact of resistance training and the role of the nervous system in strength development. Additionally, it touches on the role of testosterone in muscle growth and offers insights into hair loss prevention with a sponsored product.
Takeaways
- 💪 There are three types of muscle tissue in the human body: smooth, cardiac, and skeletal muscle, each with unique characteristics and functions.
- 📏 Smooth muscle is found in the walls of organs and tubes in the body and is under involuntary control, unlike skeletal muscle which is under voluntary control.
- 🤰 The largest mass of smooth muscle in the human body is the uterus, which can undergo significant growth through hyperplasia and hypertrophy.
- 🫀 Cardiac muscle is unique to the heart, has a branching structure, and cannot divide, meaning it grows through hypertrophy alone, not hyperplasia.
- 🏋️♂️ Skeletal muscle, attached to the skeleton, is what people typically focus on when trying to increase muscle size and strength through resistance training.
- 🚫 Skeletal muscle cells, like cardiac muscle cells, cannot divide, so growth occurs through hypertrophy, an increase in cell size.
- 🏋️♀️ Hypertrophy of skeletal muscle is stimulated by forceful, repetitive muscular activity and results in an increase in the contractile protein units within the cells.
- 💊 Testosterone plays a role in muscle growth but can also contribute to other effects like hair loss, which can be mitigated with devices like the IR restore Elite.
- 🏆 Training for strength versus hypertrophy requires different routines, with powerlifters focusing on higher intensity and longer rest periods, and bodybuilders on higher volume and shorter rest periods.
- 🔄 Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, an increase in fluid content within muscle cells, is theorized to contribute to muscle size without proportional strength gains, which is more common in bodybuilding routines.
- 🧬 The physiological adaptations for strength and hypertrophy are not mutually exclusive, but advanced athletes often display a greater manifestation of one over the other based on their training goals.
Q & A
What are the three types of muscle tissue in the human body?
-The three types of muscle tissue in the human body are smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, and skeletal muscle. Smooth muscle is found in the walls of organs and is under involuntary control, cardiac muscle is only found in the heart and also under involuntary control, and skeletal muscle is attached to the skeleton and is under voluntary control.
How does the structure of smooth muscle differ from that of skeletal muscle?
-Smooth muscle cells are smaller and have a spindle-like appearance, while skeletal muscle cells are larger and do not branch. Smooth muscle is found in hollow structures and organs, whereas skeletal muscle is attached to bones to facilitate movement.
What is the primary function of cardiac muscle?
-The primary function of cardiac muscle is to contract and pump blood throughout the body. Unlike skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle cells are branched and cannot divide.
How does muscle hypertrophy occur in skeletal muscle cells?
-Muscle hypertrophy in skeletal muscle cells occurs due to an increased production of contractile protein units, such as myofibrils and sarcomeres, within the muscle cell. This increase in contractile units contributes to the muscle cell getting larger and stronger.
What is the difference between hypertrophy and hyperplasia?
-Hypertrophy refers to the increase in size of a cell, while hyperplasia refers to an increase in the number of cells. In the context of muscle, hypertrophy involves muscle cells getting larger, whereas hyperplasia would involve an increase in the number of muscle cells.
Why is the heart's inability to regenerate muscle cells a concern in the case of a heart attack?
-In the case of a heart attack, damaged cardiac muscle cells are replaced with scar tissue because these cells cannot divide and regenerate. This can reduce the heart's efficiency in pumping blood and may lead to complications.
What is the role of satellite cells in skeletal muscle?
-Satellite cells are small stem cells found between mature skeletal muscle cells. They have the capacity to fuse with one another or with damaged muscle cells to help regenerate the muscle tissue. However, their contribution to muscle regeneration is limited and cannot fully compensate for significant muscle damage.
How do training principles for strength differ from those for hypertrophy?
-Training for strength typically involves higher intensity lifts (close to a person's one-rep max), longer rest periods, and a focus on compound exercises. Training for hypertrophy often involves lower intensity lifts with higher rep ranges (8-15 reps), shorter rest periods, and a mix of compound and isolation exercises.
What is the significance of the sarcoplasmic reticulum in muscle cells?
-The sarcoplasmic reticulum is a modified smooth endoplasmic reticulum that stores calcium within muscle cells. Calcium is crucial for muscle contractions, and the development of more sarcoplasmic reticulum is one of the changes that contribute to muscle hypertrophy.
Why might a larger muscle not always be proportionally stronger?
-A larger muscle might not be proportionally stronger due to sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which is an increase in fluid content within the muscle cells. This can lead to an increase in muscle size without a proportional increase in strength.
What is the role of the nervous system in strength training?
-The nervous system plays a significant role in strength training by improving coordination and recruitment of motor units. This adaptation contributes to the overall increase in strength observed in individuals who engage in strength-based training routines.
Outlines
💪 Introduction to Muscle Growth and Physiology
This paragraph introduces the common human curiosity about increasing muscle size and the reality that some individuals have achieved significant muscle growth. It sets the stage for a discussion on the physiological principles behind muscle growth and the differences between muscle strength and size. The speaker also introduces the three types of muscle tissue in the human body: smooth, cardiac, and skeletal, explaining that these tissues have distinct characteristics and functions. The paragraph emphasizes the importance of understanding muscle fibers and their role in muscle size and strength increases.
🌀 Exploring Smooth and Cardiac Muscle Tissues
This paragraph delves into the specifics of smooth and cardiac muscle tissues. Smooth muscle, found in the walls of organs and tubes within the body, is under involuntary control and can grow through hyperplasia, increasing the number of cells. Cardiac muscle, unique to the heart, is also under involuntary control and cannot divide, but can still increase in size through hypertrophy. The paragraph highlights the importance of understanding these muscle types, especially in terms of their growth and the implications for health and exercise.
🏋️♂️ Understanding Skeletal Muscle Hypertrophy and Training
The focus shifts to skeletal muscle tissue, which is under voluntary control and is the primary type targeted in resistance training for muscle size and strength. The paragraph explains the process of hypertrophy in skeletal muscle cells, which involves an increase in contractile protein units, leading to larger cells capable of generating more force. It also discusses the role of satellite cells in muscle regeneration and the limitations of muscle cell division. The paragraph further explores the differences in training routines for strength versus hypertrophy, including the types of exercises and rep ranges commonly used.
📊 The Nuances of Strength and Hypertrophy Training
This paragraph examines the distinctions between strength-based and hypertrophy-based training routines, highlighting the physiological adaptations that occur with each. Powerlifters, who focus on strength, develop more contractile protein units and improved nervous system coordination. Bodybuilders, aiming for hypertrophy, may experience an increase in muscle cell size partly due to sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which could explain the sometimes disproportionate increase in size without a corresponding jump in strength. The paragraph concludes by emphasizing the need for further research to fully understand these adaptations and encourages viewers to explore more about muscle physiology.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Hypertrophy
💡Muscle Fibers
💡Smooth Muscle
💡Cardiac Muscle
💡Skeletal Muscle
💡Muscle Tissue
💡Myofibrils
💡Hyperplasia
💡Resistance Training
💡Powerlifting Routines
💡Bodybuilding Routines
Highlights
The human body contains three different types of muscle tissue: smooth, cardiac, and skeletal.
Smooth muscle is found in the walls of organs and is under involuntary control.
Smooth muscle can grow through hyperplasia, increasing the number of cells.
Cardiac muscle is found only in the heart and has a unique branching structure.
Cardiac muscle cells cannot divide, making the heart's strength gains different from other muscles.
Skeletal muscle attaches to the skeleton and is under voluntary control.
Skeletal muscle cells also cannot divide but increase in size through hypertrophy.
Hypertrophy is the increase in size of muscle cells, involving more contractile protein units.
Different training principles are used for strength versus hypertrophy.
Powerlifters focus on high-intensity, compound exercises for strength gains.
Bodybuilders use a mix of compound and isolation exercises for muscle size and aesthetics.
The nervous system plays a role in strength gains by improving motor unit recruitment.
Hypertrophy training may lead to sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, increasing fluid content in muscle cells.
Testosterone contributes to muscle growth but can also lead to hair loss in some individuals.
The IR restore Elite device is a low-level laser therapy option for hair loss.
Muscle tissue characteristics and training principles are crucial for understanding muscle growth and strength.
Muscle fibers, or cells, make up the whole muscle and can be referred to interchangeably.
The largest smooth muscle mass in the human body is the uterus.
Transcripts
most of us at some point have probably
wondered what it would be like to have
bigger muscles and some have worked to
turn that Wonder into a reality as there
are people that have developed
incredible increases in the size of
their muscles but what is actually going
on when you increase the size of a
muscle and what are some important
training principles to stimulate muscle
growth well today we're going to discuss
these training principles and for even
more fun we're going to dive into the
physiology of muscle and talk about some
of the characteristics of muscle tissue
that allows for these amazing size and
strength increases plus we'll discuss if
there's an actual difference between
increasing strength versus increasing
the size of a muscle it's going to be a
hypertrophic one so let's do
this as we get into this discussion
about increasing muscular size did you
know there are actually three different
types of muscle tissue in the human body
and I'm not talking about fiber types
here like fast twitch or slow twitch I'm
talking about actual different types of
muscle tissue and I think going over
these different types of muscle tissue
will give us an even greater
understanding on not only how we
increase muscular size but also what's
going on at the cellular level plus it's
just really cool to know the differences
in muscle tissue now as we talk about
the muscles I do want to say that often
you hear the phrase muscle fibers and
these are actually the muscle cells that
make up the whole muscle like the biceps
is made up of thousands and thousands of
muscle cells but just know know that if
I ever say muscle cells or muscle fibers
I'm talking about the same thing but on
to the different types of muscle tissue
and these are non- stried or smooth
muscle stried cardiac muscle and stried
skeletal muscle striad refers to this
strip likee pattern these dark and light
alternating bands that can be seen under
the microscope but from here on out
we'll just simply refer to them as
smooth cardiac and skeletal muscle
tissue now all three of these different
types of muscle tissue have this amazing
ability to contract but they also have
some major differences like where you
find it in the body how it's hooked up
to the nervous system differences in
architecture and structure and of course
differences in how muscle tissue grows
and gets bigger and stronger with smooth
muscle tissue the muscle cells are
smaller and have this spindle likee
appearance and you find smooth muscle
lining the walls of your organs I often
will tell students if it's a tube or a
hollow structure it's likely going to
have smooth muscle built into the wall
now that may sound a little bit funny at
first but we have a lot of tubes inside
of us our digestive tract is a tube we
have respiratory tubes blood vessels
urinary tubes and many genital
structures are tubes and all these have
smooth muscle built into the wall that
will contract to move along and or
influence the flow of what's ever inside
the tube now smooth muscle is under
involuntary control it can work
reflexively and is controlled by your
autonomic nervous system so luckily you
don't have to think about it but could
you imagine if you did have to think
about Contracting all the smooth muscle
in your body
like if you ate a cookie you might have
to pause stop what you're doing and
think about Contracting the muscles of
the digestive tract and maybe even
include some Shimmy Shake maneuver to
move that nutritious cookie around one
of the bends of your dunum and your
intestines are over 20 ft long so that
would be quite the distraction during
your already busy day but luckily you
don't have to do that because your
autonomic nervous system does this for
you automatically but I do think that we
should be grateful or at least have a
moment of silence or moment of gratitude
that the very very beginning and the
very very end of your digestive tract is
skeletal muscle which is under voluntary
control I mean could you imagine if your
external anal sphincter was smooth
muscle and it just opened and closed
whenever it wanted to that would be a
disaster literally and here's a little
quiz question for you do you know what
the largest smooth muscle mass is in the
human body here's a little hint I don't
have it
it's actually the uterus now I grew up
with three sisters and they definitely
had some very interesting ways to
describe how the smooth muscle making up
the uterus was not under voluntary
control during menstrual cramping this
thing just contracts however and
whenever it wants to right and I
shouldn't laugh because I can't really
experience that but even during labor
it's involuntary Contracting so as
another FYI when everybody in the
delivery room is saying okay give me a
push it's not like mom has the ability
to contract the uterus during labor more
forcefully mom is actually Contracting
the abdominal muscles which will
increase the intraabdominal pressure
which will assist the uterus in pushing
a baby out but one last point I want to
make about smooth muscle and we can also
relate this to skeletal muscle growth
and this is that smooth muscle can also
grow and get larger and it does this
through a process called hyperplasia
which is an increase in the number of
cells and keep that in mind when we talk
about cardiac and skeletal muscle
there's going to be an important
difference there and so think about the
uterus again when pregnancy occurs the
uterus goes through dramatic changes and
gets huge and part of the reason for
this is that the smooth muscle cells
will divide and therefore increase the
overall number of smooth muscle cells
making the uterus bigger plus those
smooth muscle cells can also just get
larger which when a cell gets larger we
call that hypertrophy so two processes
can contribute to the overall increase
in size of the smooth muscle hyperplasia
and hypertrophy but let's see how this
works with the heart and skeletal muscle
tissue cardiac muscle tissue as the name
implies is only going to be found in the
heart and under the microscope these
cells are longer and larger than smooth
muscle cells and the cardiac muscle
cells branch which we'll see is
different than the skeletal muscle cells
now obviously these cardiac muscle cells
will contract and make the heartbeat
pumping the blood throughout the body
and as you may have guessed cardiac
muscle tissue is under involuntary
control it has its own built-in
Pacemaker and it is is also hooked up to
the autonomic nervous system now I have
had some students occasionally argue the
point that their cardiac muscle tissue
is voluntary for some reason and then I
usually look them in the eye and I say
something like make your heart beat it
52 beats per minute now go we don't have
that kind of direct control over our
heart we obviously know that our heart
rate will increase if we go running down
the street or if we relax and do deep
breathing generally our heart rate will
go down but again this is not a direct
precise control over our heart rate now
something that I hinted to earlier that
is important for us to consider with
cardiac muscle is that cardiac muscle
cells cannot divide and that's different
than what we learned with smooth muscle
and let's think about this from two
different perspectives from a clinical
perspective and an exercise perspective
from a clinical perspective if you kill
any of those cardiac muscle cells you
can't really replace them and that's why
something like a heart attack also known
as a myocardial infarction can be so
detrimental if you have heart attack
that kills a lot of these cardiac muscle
cells they get replaced with scar tissue
and then the heart will not be able to
contract as efficiently as it did before
but from an exercise perspective if the
cardiac muscle cells can't divide how
does the heart get stronger well let's
answer that question and keep it in the
back of our minds after we get into a
little bit more detail with skeletal
muscle tissue now if you've spent much
time thinking about muscle you may have
also thought about testosterone and its
contribution to building muscle but
sometimes test testosterone contributes
to other things like in some of us
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dihydrotestosterone or DHT in the hair
follicles of the scalp and this is one
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the description below skeletal muscle
tissue as its name implies attaches to
and moves the skeleton there are a few
exceptions to this like the muscles a
facial expression actually attached to
and move your facial skin so you can
show emotions and make all sorts of
funny faces and expressions of people
the skeletal muscle is what we typically
think about when we are working out and
increasing the size of our muscles
mostly through resistance training
skeletal muscles are under voluntary
control and for the most part we can
contract them whenever we want to but
again here's something that's very
important similar to cardiac muscle
cells skeletal muscle cells cannot
divide now for all the physiology nerds
out there I do need to mention satellite
cells satellite cells are these small
stem cells embedded between the larger
mature non-dividing skeletal muscle
cells but these satellite cells retain
the capacity to fuse with one another or
with damaged skeletal muscle cells that
can help regenerate these damaged muscle
cells however the number of new skeletal
muscle cells that can be formed by
satellite cells is not enough to
compensate for significant skeletal
muscle damage or degeneration and so
skeletal muscle tissue that has been
damaged significantly will still be
replaced by Scar Tissue and therefore
any regeneration of skeletal muscle
tissue is greatly limited so again with
mature skeletal muscle cells not being
able to divide and the limitations we
just discussed with these satellite
cells how do do our skeletal muscles get
bigger and stronger well you've probably
seen this coming and hopefully you
learned some cool stuff along the way
but the skeletal muscle cells that you
already have just get bigger and when
cells get bigger as we've already
mentioned we call this hypertrophy and
even though we're going to focus the
remainder of our discussion on skeletal
muscles and talk about what's actually
going on during hypertrophy I do want to
just mention that this is also how
cardiac muscle gets bigger and stronger
the cardiac muscle cells that you do
have just get bigger and they undergo
hypertrophy as well but what exactly
happens when our skeletal muscle fibers
or skeletal muscle cells undergo
hypertrophy hypertrophy is due to an
increased production of the contractile
protein units within a skeletal muscle
cell maybe you've heard of these
contractile units before like myof fial
and sarir and we have a video coming
soon going into the amazing details of
the myof fibral and sarir but for today
know that these myof fibral and the
sarir within them generate the force
inside the skeletal muscle cell and the
increased production of these units is
one of the major contributors to the
muscle cell getting bigger but other
changes also contribute to hypertrophy
such as the development of more
mitochondria and other organel within
the muscle cell for example the
sarcoplasmic reticulum which is a
modified smooth endoplasmic reticulum
that stores calcium within the muscle
cell and as an FYI calcium is extremely
important for muscle cell contractions
increased fluid content within the
muscle cell can also contribute to high
hypertrophy and we're going to discuss
that in a little bit more detail in just
a minute but hypertrophy results or is
stimulated I should say from forceful
repetitive muscular activity which is
often done through resistance training
and because hypertrophied muscles often
contain more myofibrils and therefore
sarer in general a larger muscle with a
greater cross-sectional area is capable
of producing more force or in other
words is stronger but obviously an
important part of this video is what
exactly is meant by forceful repetitive
muscular contractions what does this
mean for the specifics of an exercise
routine well this does depend a little
bit on the person because for example
almost anyone that is just starting with
resistance training and lifts relatively
heavy weights will increase strength and
muscular size with a variety of
different rep and set schemes but as
people get more advanced you start to
diverge more into is your main goal
strength or is your main goal
hypertrophy because as you get more
advanced you will start to train a bit
differently for those two goals and you
start to get more into powerlifting
routines versus bodybuilding routine in
general those that have strength as a
main goal follow more of a powerlifting
routine and the lifts tend to be higher
in intensity so a higher percentage of a
person's one rep max these would be
loads or weights that someone may only
be able to lift one to five times and
because of the higher intensity the rest
period is typically longer with people
resting about 3 minutes sometimes even
up to 5 minutes in between sets
they also tend to make compound
exercises the staple of their routines
and often don't include a lot of
isolation exercises and just to be clear
a compound exercise would would involve
multiple joints and multiple muscle
groups like a squat or a bench press
whereas an isolation exercise would
typically involve one muscle group and
one joint like a biceps curl now for
those that are more concerned with
hypertrophy you start to follow more of
a bodybuilding routine compound
exercises are often a part of this
routine but they tend to do a greater
amount of isolation movements than those
that are more concerned purely with
strength and if hypertrophy is the main
goal then there obviously is some
interest in how the muscles look
aesthetically and so these isolation
movements can allow for more specific
targeting of certain muscles to really
get that balanced look in physique and
in general the loads are a lower
percentage of a one rep max compared to
that which powerlifters use this doesn't
mean the routines are easy the weights
are still somewhat heavy but with higher
reps common rep numbers would be
something they could lift 8 to 15 times
there are routines that work for
hypertrophy and bodybuilding that can
have higher reps and even sometimes
lower but in general that 8 to 15 is a
good place to start and due to the
weight of each lift generally being
lower than in powerlifting the rest
periods are often shorter from about 60
to 90 seconds and the overall lifting
volume per session and even throughout
the week is typically higher and this
training strategy tends to be a greater
stimulus for hypertrophy more so so than
strength but you might be thinking wait
a minute Jonathan you told us earlier
that a big part of what causes
hypertrophy is an increase in the
production of the contractile protein
subunits within a skeletal muscle so
isn't a bigger muscle a stronger muscle
well in general yes but again as you get
more and more advanced you start to see
more of a Divergence between
strength-based routines versus
hypertrophy based routines and therefore
this results in differences in the main
physiological adaptations that occur now
clearly these two adaptations strength
versus hypertrophy don't exist
completely in their own little bubbles
because if you look at powerlifters
whose main goal is strength they
obviously have large muscles and if you
look at bodybuilders whose main goal is
muscular size and hypertrophy they
obviously are still quite strong so in a
way all we are seeing is a greater
manifestation of one of these two
adaptations if you're mostly concerned
with strength and you are following more
of a powerlifting routine you're going
to get a greater manifestation or
development of more of those contractile
protein units the myof fibral and the
sarir which as we already learned are
what produces the force within the
muscle cell plus there's a major
contribution from the nervous system the
nervous system will get better at
coordination and recruitment of more
motor units with strength-based training
and therefore this nervous system
adaptation is going to be something else
that contributes to the greater strength
that you can see in powerlifters if
you're more concerned with hypertrophy
and following more of a bodybuilding
routine yes you are going to get
increases in the contractile protein
units but part of that increase in size
is theorized to come from an increase in
the fluid content within the muscle
cells and this is referred to as
sarcoplasmic hypertrophy which is kind
of this disproportionate increase of the
sarcoplasmic fluid compared to the
increase in the number of myof fibral
giving us a theory as to why people may
not see a proportional increase in
strength with their increases in
muscular size as they get more advanced
in their bodybuilding routines now just
to be clear the sarcoplasm is just the
cytoplasm or the inside fluid containing
area of a muscle cell and again
increasing the fluid within the
sarcoplasm will give an overall increase
in the size of the muscle cell now as
I've hinted we don't exactly know all
the reasons why this cop plasmic
adaptation occurs but we do see the
differences between bodybuilders and the
powerlifters so hopefully more answers
to come with further research in the
future but hopefully this did give you
some useful information about the basics
of different training methodologies of
strength versus hypertrophy and
hopefully you enjoyed learning more
about the different types of muscle
tissue found in your body and if you're
interested in learning more about
muscles as we age we'll link some videos
on screen here and thanks for supporting
the channel let me know what muscle
tissue you think is the coolest in the
comments and we'll see you soon
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