If you are a person who visits the gym frequently, then chances are that you are familiar with building muscle while also losing fat at the same time. Ever wondered how this process works? If so read on.

This will focus exclusively on skeletal muscles. There are up to 650 skeletal muscles in the body and they contract when they receive the cue from the motor neurons. These motor neurons are the part of the body that gives the signal asking the muscle to contract. The finer you are at having those prompts that tell your muscles to shrink, the stronger you get. It is due to this that you see some weight lifters who are able to lift astounding weights even though they do not look very muscular and why weight lifters are almost always smaller made than body builders. This activation of motor neurons explain why some types of movements are much easier after regular practice and why the growth of your muscles are extremely fast during the initial stages where you began working out. Once you are done with your workout, the body repairs the torn muscle fibers through a procedure where it incorporates the muscles together resulting in new muscle strands. As time goes on and with more exercising these muscles grow larger in size and number. This growth does not happen you are exercising, but actually works when you are resting after the work out. It is during this stage that it needs nutrition to help build muscle, hence why you see body builders consume things like casein protein NZ and amino acid supplements to assist with the task.

The key to having a steady growth of muscle is to put the muscles under continuous stress. The stress you exert on the body is critical to grow muscle mass. This stress creates three known methods that assist with the growth of muscle.

Muscle tension is one method where you have to gradually increase the stress that your body is experiencing. The way to do this is to increase the weights that you are lifting. The second technique is muscle damage. Most of you who work out are bound to have felt this. It is that sore feeling in your muscles after a workout. This damage to the muscles causes inflammatory molecules and other cells to free itself in to the body and in the process cause the activation of satellite cells. The final technique is referred to as metabolic stress. In gym terms it is commonly referred to as the “pump” after a workout.