How do we actually “get stronger?” A peek into how it works.

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It’s been another awesome month at AVSC and I’ve been seeing some amazing progress from folks in the space. A few new faces popped in this month and I hope everyone is feeling welcome!

A peek behind the curtain…

You’ve probably heard me say that I’m an open book: I love transparency in my coaching philosophy and program design. I invite questions and criticism because it makes me a better coach and improves your experience, as well as give you some autonomy and agency when it comes to your training programs. Today I wanted to peel back the curtain and give you a glimpse into some exercise physiology, exercise selection, and other choices we make in the gym to improve strength, build muscle, and improve overall health.

How do we get stronger? The physiology behind how muscles grow stronger.

Mechanical Tension

When you grab a weight, your muscles tense up. When you grab a heavier weight, they increase their tension; and when you grab a weight you can barely move, you engage a whole heck of a lot of muscle and tension. The greater the tension, the more muscle fibers we recruit to complete the task (move the weight) and the more we stimulate them for growth so that next time you lift the weight, it feels a little easier.

Basically, your body reads this muscle tension or stress and signals more growth and repair so that the task becomes easier on you next time you do it.

Notable exercises we use for this: barbell or trap bar deadlifts; squats; pullups; and rows

Metabolic Disruption

That “burning” sensation you feel after a hard set of an exercise is a metabolic byproduct of anaerobic metabolism. In layman’s terms, your body burns through fuel to complete the task, and that fuel has “waste” that contributes to that burning sensation. Don’t sweat it though! Your body quickly and easily disposes of the waste or recycles it, which is why the burning is only temporary.

Like mechanical tension, the burning signals the body to build and repair muscle tissue to make it more tolerable next time.

Notable exercises: high rep squats; lots of pushups; lots of lunges

Muscle Damage

That soreness you feel the next day or two from an exercise is not lactic acid like you might have heard before (lactic acid is one of the metabolic byproducts from #2 above!), but rather structural damage to muscle tissue. Your body responds to this damage by metabolizing protein from your diet and rebuilding those tissues, improving their strength and quality. However, chasing soreness is never a good goal (because who likes to struggle to sit on the toilet?). Soreness is to be expected on occasion, but so long as our workout is challenging, we’re checking the muscle damage box.

Notable exercises: all of them, so long as they are challenging enough to induce a stimulus

Disrupt Homeostasis

Your body likes homeostasis – the state your body is in while at rest. Hard training like we do in the gym is a stress that greatly disrupts homeostasis, causing a cascade of effects that help build strength and resilience. In order to better prepare for a stimulus (our next training session), your body will rebuild muscle tissue store resources like glycogen to better prepare for the next workout.

I can nerd out all day about this kinda stuff! I hope I didn’t bore you, or at the very least I hope you learned something. There’s a method to the madness, and I want you to have a general idea of how the body responds to all the work you’re doing in the gym.

There’s more “behind the curtains” stuff but that’s enough for today. Let me know what you think and if you ever have more questions, feel free to ask! I’m an open book 😉