W6: Strength Training

Question 1

What is Muscular Strength?

Answer 1

maximal force a muscle or muscle group can generate

Question 2

What are Mechanisms of Muscle Gains?

Answer 2

Question 3

What are NEURAL ADAPTATIONS TO RESISTANCE TRAINING?

Answer 3

Mechanisms Underlying Neural Adaptations
● increased activation of agonist and synergist muscles
○ Recruitment of additional motor units
○ increased synchronicity of motor units
○ increased frequency of stimulation of motor units
● decreased co-activation of antagonist muscles

Question 4

What is Hypertrophy?

Answer 4

Hypertrophy: increase in size (cross sectional area) of existing muscle fibres
● increased myofibrils (aka myosin and actin) ➜ increased
cross bridges ➜ increased muscle strength
● Results from adding new sarcomeres in parallel to one another

Question 5

What is Hyperplasia?

Answer 5

Hyperplasia: increase in number of muscle fibres
● Maybe in cats?
● Maybe in humans?
● Takeaway: Even assuming it can occur in humans, hyperplasia
represents a very small contribution (~5-10%) to the overall
increase in muscle size

Question 6

Neural vs Hypertropic gain from training

Answer 6

Initial Strength Gains:
Early in the training program, strength improvements are primarily due to neural adaptations. This phase involves the nervous system becoming more efficient at activating muscles.

Later Strength Gains:
As training continues, hypertrophic adaptations become more significant. Muscle fibers increase in size (hypertrophy), contributing more to strength gains as neural adaptations plateau.

Summary:
Weeks 0-4: Strength improvements are mainly due to neural adaptations.
Weeks 4-8: Hypertrophic adaptations become increasingly important, eventually surpassing neural contributions.