What should athletes do to achieve local muscle growth rather than an increase in body volume? Read the article and find out what medications you need to use. In this article we will describe the pros and cons of each drug in order to enhance the effect of training.
Each of us, and especially athletes, have muscle groups that are not yet fully developed, or not developed at all. Professional athletes call these muscles “lagging muscles.” Trainers recommend immediately starting to push up such muscles, otherwise, in the process of pumping up other muscle groups, your body will look out of proportion.
Of course, there are still lucky people whose body allows them to pump absolutely all muscle groups at the same time, but there are few of them. If too large a muscle group remains undeveloped, then simply changing the training system will no longer be enough.
In order to modify and perfect this muscle group as quickly as possible, trainers recommend resorting to injections. Power Shots can radically change your approach to training and nutrition, but you will get a beautiful, athletic body that will satisfy you and those around you.
Synthol
This drug is actively used for general “tightening”, for example, an undeveloped, unpumped quadriceps. Professional bodybuilders do not recommend the use of this drug in general.
If we touch on a little history of the drug itself, it turns out that this is its second name. Previously, the drug was called “Pump-n-Pose”, but for some unknown reason the name Synthol took root among athletes. That's why we decided to call it the same.
Initially, the drug was developed to visually enlarge certain muscle groups; its main component was esiclene. But in the process of repeated use, it turned out that esiklen gives only a temporary effect, or more precisely, momentary. Of course, this was not enough for professional athletes, and they decided to use synthol. The developers expected that synthol would have a prolonged effect.
A distinctive feature of this drug is that by penetrating the muscles, it causes and stretches the fascia. The composition of the drug includes:
- Fatty acid.
- Lidocaine.
- Benzyl alcohol.
The main positive effect is that after systole is removed from the body, the muscles do not deflate, but, on the contrary, retain their volumes, and the voids are filled with muscle fibers as they are removed.
Pros:
- You can make this mixture yourself at home, just buy the drugs in a specialized store and mix them in the correct proportions.
- After taking the drug, the effect will be noticeable not only to you, but also to those around you.
- The result lasts for a long time.
- The muscles do not lose volume.
- There is a possibility of damaging the nerve and immobilizing the arm. But this will not affect those people who are well versed in anatomy, so let people who know and understand medicine inject the drug.
- There is a high risk of infection and abscess development.
- Unfortunately, synthol cannot help everyone. It all depends on the characteristics of the body.
Esiklen
There are rumors about this drug. Many people talk about its active use, but here’s the paradox: Russian markets he was never met. But that’s not about that now. Let's study the drug in detail. So, the first feature of this drug is that it was produced not only in the form of injections, but also in tablet form.
Although the name of the drug is unfamiliar to us, the name of its main component is known to many - methandrostenolone. The drug, which was produced in the form of injections, was essentially useless. But its oral use brought visual enlargement muscle mass, and in a short period of time, almost immediately after application.
Unlike synthol, the effect of esiclene did not last as long as we would like - only 4 days. But, despite this, esiklen was much more popular than synthol. Professional bodybuilders used this remedy 3 weeks before the start of the competition.
No advantages, as such, were noticed with the drug, except perhaps a short-lived increase in muscle mass.
Minuses:
- High price.
- It is quite difficult to purchase the drug.
- Short-term effect.
Oil preparations
Oil preparations are the most common injections, the choice of which, even in pharmacies and specialized stores, is very wide, and purchasing them is not difficult.
In fact, the oil base of all these drugs itself is used to dilute esters such as testosterone, nandrolone, etc. Mixed with them, it becomes an excellent substitute for the drug known to us - synthol.
When mixing, do not forget that the oil is not “empty” either. It contains a huge amount of anabolic compounds, which also affect the growth of our muscles. One of the fans of this mixing is bodybuilder Valentino. Looking closely at his hands, you can be horrified, but he is an excellent example of how these drugs work when mixed.
Pros:
- Everything is the same as synthol. The only difference from synthol is that the effect appears a little later than usual.
- All the same as synthol. Infection. Treatment is surgical only.
Suspensions for local muscle growth
There is not a large selection of drugs here. These drugs include testosterone and stanozol. The latter interacts with androgen receptors, and is also a good way to locally increase muscle growth.
Pros:
- Safety.
- Ease of use.
- Long lasting results.
- Infections and abscesses.
- There was no significant muscle growth observed.
IGF-1
Inserted into the fold of the abdomen. There is rapid muscle growth that is noticeable not only to you, but the effect lasts for a long time. The number of muscle fibers also increases.
Pros:
- IGF enriches cells with missing amino acids and accelerates the breakdown of glucose.
Prostaglandin
This drug has relatively recently begun to be used by professional bodybuilders, and then only before preparing for competitions. Statistics have shown that prostaglandin is an even more popular drug than synthol.
The use of the drug itself does not change the shape of the muscles; it only promotes their accelerated growth. Although the effect is difficult to achieve, it will last for a long time.
Pros:
- Rapid muscle gain.
- Active RNA synthesis.
- High price
- Swelling of the arms and legs.
It is administered intramuscularly. Blood circulation increases. The drug is aimed at increasing the muscles of the upper body. It is recommended to administer it 20 minutes before the start of an intense workout.
Pros:
- Low cost
- The effect comes quickly and is noticeable not only to you.
- Difficulty in consolidating the resulting effect
- A fall blood pressure(in some cases, sharp).
Video review of drugs for muscle growth:
In the training process, it is always very important to understand how and most importantly why you perform certain exercises. Thoughtlessly and chaotically doing random exercises in no particular order does not work, unfortunately. When performing exercises, neuromuscular connection is important, i.e. completely controlled execution of movements. It is equally important to understand at least the very basics of how training works and biomechanics.
Initially, the number of muscle fibers is determined genetically. Some have more of them, some have the opposite. But any genetic input can be adjusted in accordance with one’s own preferences and ideas about body aesthetics. What we call muscle growth is actually hypertrophy of connective tissue and an increase in sarcoplasm, which fills the space between muscle fibers and connective tissue. It consists of carbohydrates (glycogen), fats, amino acids and enzymes.
The first and most important thing to understand is. Muscles don’t grow because you “eat a lot of protein”! This is a stupid myth. In order for a muscle to work actively, it needs a quick supply of energy. And it, in turn, is lost during training in any case and is replenished with carbohydrates! Protein foods, from which the body obtains the necessary amino acids, act as building materials for muscles. Simply put: carbohydrates are needed to maintain muscles, proteins to increase them. It is for this reason that it is recommended to eat a meal rich in carbohydrates 1-2 hours before training.
What causes muscle growth? What doesn't kill us makes us stronger - this phrase best describes the process of gaining muscle mass. During training, the connective tissue that surrounds and protects muscle fibers is subject to microdamage. The harder the workout, the worse this damage will be, but don't worry, that's how it should be. After training, a recovery process occurs and the tissue, in order to avoid subsequent injuries, becomes denser and rougher. Due to this, fiber volume increases. As the tissue becomes rougher, it is necessary to increase the load over time to compensate for this adaptive element. Muscle growth, oddly enough, is largely tied to this process. It is also important to note that different types of training are aimed at developing different types fibers, therefore changes in fabric may be different. This process proves once again one of the golden rules of bodybuilding: recovery processes after training play no less a role than the training itself.
Let's look at this process in more detail. Recovery processes begin approximately 3–4 hours after training and end after 1.5–2 days. It is for this reason that a day or so of rest between workouts is recommended. And that’s why split training is very effective when different days are being worked on different groups muscles, giving you more time to rest. The main assistants in the recovery process are proper balanced nutrition and healthy sleep, which is a natural and best catabolism blocker.
Important: regular exercise gets the body used to spending more energy on recovery, so the need for nutrients may increase.
And one more little trick. It is believed that cardio training and mass gain are incompatible, but this is not true. To prevent cardio from burning your muscles, you need to watch your diet. If the body receives enough essential nutrients, it does not need to take energy from the body's own reserves. At the same time, cardio training accelerates blood circulation, which allows you to quickly remove toxins and regeneration byproducts from connective tissue, which increases the speed of recovery.
With love, BodyLab team.
Muscle growth is a complex process of increasing the mass of muscle fiber and surrounding tissue, requiring both physical training, adequate nutrition and adequate sleep. It is often believed that muscle growth occurs precisely during sleep, when the body mobilizes reserves for recovery - including by increasing the level of somatropin (growth hormone) production.
In order to understand that muscles are growing, you just need to listen to the signals from your body. Firstly, the processes of healing and subsequent increase in muscle mass are closely related to the appearance of characteristic muscle pain. Although this pain is often attributed to increased production, the latter Scientific research this is refuted - pain occurs due to a number of factors.
Secondly, an increase in body weight along with an increase in strength also clearly indicates that the muscles are growing successfully. However, we note that this rule requires regularly increasing the weight with which you pump your muscles - the launch of growth processes implies a new level of stress for the muscles. Such stress can also be another type of load, which indicates the benefits of alternating sports.
What makes muscles grow?
We all know that physical exercise make muscles grow. However, from an anatomical point of view, this is not entirely accurate, since the muscles themselves practically do not grow, but only the volume and density of the myofascia increases. It is also important that even the best strength exercises are completely useless without adequate nutrition (both in terms of protein and total calories).
What causes muscles to grow:
- Regular strength training for hypertrophy
- Increasing the diet by 10-15%
- Consuming enough
- Sufficient recovery time
Anatomy and physiology of muscle growth
From a scientific point of view, it is more correct to talk not about muscle growth, but about an increase in their volume - that is, about muscle hypertrophy. Most scientists tend to believe that the sheer number of muscle fibers remains virtually unchanged throughout life and is determined genetically¹. Physical training does make the fibers stronger, but does not lead to an increase in their number.
Visual muscle growth and its pumping through exercise is primarily an increase in sarcoplasm (the nutrient fluid surrounding muscle fibers), muscle glycogen depots and the proliferation of connective tissues. Essentially, the athlete's body begins to more efficiently use and energize existing muscle fibers.
How muscles grow:
- Strength training
- Multi-joint basic exercises
- Sufficient amount of glycogen in muscles
- Use
How long does it take for muscles to grow?
Scientific research suggests that the process of muscle growth begins approximately 3-4 hours after strength training², and ends after 36-48 hours - depending on the muscle group. That is why it makes no sense to train the same muscle group more often than once every two to three days, and the ideal training frequency for gaining mass for beginners is 3 workouts per week.
Moreover, immediately after training, the beginner’s body requires both easily digestible proteins to stop catabolic processes in the muscles, and carbohydrates in an amount of at least 100-150 g (30-40 g immediately after training, the rest within 2-3 hours). The period when the body prefers to send food energy to the muscles is called metabolic or.
The best exercises for muscle growth
The most effective effect on muscle growth and glycogen synthesis is the so-called “basic training”, which triggers the processes of hypertrophy. This training consists of performing multi-joint exercises that involve several large muscle groups at once. Exercises should be performed in 5-7 repetitions with a heavy working weight - and this requires perfect knowledge of the technique.
Such strength training provokes microdamage to muscle tissue, the subsequent restoration of which leads to muscle growth. In addition, basic hypertrophy training has a positive effect on the body's production of a number of hormones necessary for muscle growth - primarily testosterone and growth hormone. Let us remind you that these same hormones affect fat burning and the appearance of relief.
What is hypertrophy?
This is an increase in muscle mass of the body due to the growth of individual groups of skeletal muscles. It is hypertrophy that means muscle growth and is the main goal in bodybuilding, since without muscle growth it is impossible to either increase their strength or increase their volume. The training strategy for hypertrophy is basic exercises and heavy working weights.
In turn, muscle hypertrophy is divided into two types - myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. The first is achieved by increasing the volume of muscle fiber cells (while the actual number of cells remains virtually unchanged), the second is achieved by increasing the nutrient fluid surrounding this fiber. Speaking in simple words, the first affects strength, the second affects muscle volume.
Carbohydrates are the main nutrition for muscles
On the one hand, heavy strength training using multi-joint exercises triggers various physiological processes in the body, leading to an increase in the strength of muscle fibers. On the other hand, without sufficient energy supply in the form of carbohydrates, fats and proteins (in that order), there will simply be no muscle growth.
The body needs carbohydrates to create glycogen reserves (the main source of energy for muscles), fats - for the synthesis of testosterone and other important hormones. Separately, we note that the nutrition and training strategy for muscle growth largely depends on the athlete. People who are naturally thin need increased nutrition, while it can harm endomorphs who are prone to obesity.
Features of sports metabolism
The main difference between the metabolism of athletes and the metabolism of a non-athlete is the ability to use carbohydrates more efficiently and regulate the level of insulin in the blood. In simple words, athletes’ bodies prefer to process carbohydrates from food and send them to muscles rather than to fat reserves.
Regular “muscle pumping” gradually increases metabolism, requiring a significant increase in caloric intake and forcing the athlete to eat more. It is also interesting that modern scientists believe that there are no genetic lucky ones, and everyone can become the owner of a sports metabolism after several years of appropriate nutrition and training.
***
Despite the fact that muscle growth is not such a complex physiological process, it is achieved only with the right combination of factors such as regular strength training, increased caloric intake and adequate rest. To grow muscles, most beginners only need 3 workouts per week - otherwise they risk overtraining.
Scientific sources:
- How do muscles grow? Young sub Kwon, M.S. and Len Kravitz, Ph.D.,
- Muscle Growth Part I: Why, And How, Does A Muscle Grow And Get Stronger? Casey Butt, Ph.D.
How muscles grow after training - a scientific approach. Learn how to gain muscle mass and recover properly between strength training sessions.
Skeletal muscles are composed of filamentous myofibrils and sarcomeres that form muscle fibers. 650 skeletal muscles human body contract, receiving a signal from motor neurons triggered by a part of the muscle cell called the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Motor neurons tell your muscles to contract.
The better you are at contracting your muscles, the stronger you become.
Powerlifters can lift enormous weights without looking overly muscular. This is due to their ability to activate these motor neurons and contract muscles better. Therefore, many powerlifters are smaller than bodybuilders, and can lift much more weight.
Maximum strength gains occur at the very beginning of your strength training. Further muscle development occurs gradually, since you have already learned how to activate them.
The physiological side of gaining muscle mass
After exercise, your body repairs old damaged muscle fibers or forms new protein compounds (myofibrils). The restored myofibrils increase in thickness and number, creating muscle hypertrophy (growth).Muscle growth is associated with the predominance of protein synthesis over its breakdown and occurs not during training, but during rest.
There are also satellite cells that act as stem cells for your muscles. When activated, they help nucleoids enter muscle cells. And this already leads to the growth of myofibrils.
The ability to activate satellite cells is a key factor that distinguishes genetic uniques from hard gainers (i.e. people who are not predisposed to gaining muscle mass).
The most interesting discovery over the past 5 years has been that in people whose muscles respond well to exercise, the level of myofibril hypertrophy reaches 58% with activation of satellite cells by 23%. As the number of activated cells decreases, hypertrophy also decreases. If a person’s muscles do not respond to the load, there is not only no myofibril hypertrophy, but also activation of satellites (0%). And so it turns out that the more you engage your satellite cells, the more you will grow. The question arises: how to activate satellite cells for muscle growth?
3 types of stimulation that make muscles grow
Natural training is based on constantly increasing stress on the muscles. This stress is an important component of their growth. It maintains homeostasis in your body. It is stress, together with maintaining homeostasis, that is the basis of the three main conditions for gaining muscle mass.
1. Muscle tensionTo grow, you need to give your muscles more stress than what they have adapted to. How to do it? The main thing is to constantly increase working weights. Muscle tension creates changes in the chemical processes within the muscle, which creates preconditions for growth such as the activation of mTOR (an intracellular protein that is a signaling element that regulates the development and hypertrophy of muscle fibers) and satellite cells.Two other factors explain how some people manage to be stronger but smaller than others.
2. Muscle damageIf you've ever felt muscle pain after a workout, this is an indicator of localized muscle damage from exertion. It is local damage that activates satellite cells. This does not mean, of course, that you must feel pain to do this. But there should still be muscle damage. Painful sensations usually resolve over time due to other processes.
3. Metabolic stressIf you've ever felt a pump (blood flowing into a working muscle) during a workout, it was an effect of metabolic stress. Bodybuilders believe that it is the pump that makes muscles grow. Scientists partly agree with this.
Metabolic stress allows muscles to grow, although the muscle cells themselves do not necessarily become larger. This happens due to the entry of glycogen into the muscles, which helps them increase due to the growth of connective tissue. This process is called sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, with which you can look larger without increasing strength.
How hormones affect muscle growth
Hormones are the next element responsible for muscle growth and restoration and having great importance in the regulation of satellite cell activity. Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), mechanical growth factor (MGF) and testosterone are the most important hormones directly related to muscle gain.
The goal of many athletes when working out in the gym is . Everyone knows that it increases protein synthesis and reduces protein breakdown, activates satellite cells and stimulates the production of other anabolic hormones. Despite the fact that we cannot use up the overwhelming (up to 98%) part of the testosterone secreted by the body, strength training not only stimulates its production, but also makes the receptors of our muscle cells more sensitive to free testosterone. It can also increase the production of growth hormone by increasing the amount of neurotransmitters in damaged fibers.
Insulin-like growth factor regulates muscle mass by increasing protein synthesis, improving the uptake of glucose and amino acids (constituents of protein) by skeletal muscles, and also activates satellite cells for greater muscle growth.
Why do muscles need rest?
If you do not give your body enough rest and nutrition, you can stop the anabolic processes in the body and trigger catabolic (destructive) ones.
The increase in protein synthesis after exercise lasts for 24-48 hours, so all the food eaten during this time will go towards muscle hypertrophy.
Remember that your limit is set by your gender, age and genetics. For example, men have more testosterone than women, so their muscles will certainly be stronger and larger.
Why doesn't muscle growth occur quickly?
Muscle hypertrophy takes time. For most people this is a fairly lengthy process. People don't see significant changes in weeks and months because fundamental changes are only possible through the nervous system's intervention in activating your muscles.
In addition, different people have different genetics, hormone production, the type of muscle fibers and their number, and the ability to activate satellite cells. All of this can slow down muscle growth.
To make sure you're doing your best For , protein synthesis must constantly prevail over its breakdown.
To do this, it is necessary to consume a sufficient amount of protein (especially essential amino acids) and carbohydrates - then the cells will be able to recover. Visually noticeable muscle growth and changes in form will greatly motivate you. But for this it is important to understand the scientific side of the issue.
How muscles grow: conclusion
In order to pump up muscles, you need to create stress to which the body has not yet adapted. This can be achieved by lifting more weight and varying the exercises, so you will injure more muscle fibers and stress the muscles during the pump. At the end of your workout, the most important thing is to get enough rest and fuel for muscle recovery and growth.
In this article, I will tell you when muscles grow, after what, due to what, etc. and so on.
In the process of building muscles, 3 components are important (success depends on them): TRAINING, NUTRITION and RECOVERY. All 3 components work in conjunction (together). By themselves = they do not give anything.
So, today's topic - when muscles grow - touches on the 3rd component (recovery).
Recovery is muscle growth.
That is, answering the topic of the article - muscles grow during rest (recovery). That's all.
Look, I will show you the whole chain - how everything happens (so that you understand).
When you train in the gym, you do not grow muscles (as many people mistakenly believe), on the contrary, you injure them (that is, destroy them) in the process of performing various exercises on one or another muscle group. Why are we doing this? To stimulate (activate) future muscle growth.
That is, simply put, training creates the prerequisites for future muscle growth. Without training = activation of this process = that is, muscle growth = will not happen.
Whether this muscle growth will be realized depends on other components (nutrition and sleep).
This is why all 3 pillars (components) that I mentioned at the very beginning are important.
So, after training, the healing of injuries that were received during training begins, this is called “compensation”, and only after these training injuries are eliminated will muscle growth begin (this is called “supercompensation”).
This is the basic theory. I introduced you to it so that you understand (a) = growth occurs during rest (recovery).
This is why rest (recovery) accounts for 10% of success in muscle growth.
I repeat, if you think that muscles grow during training, YOU ARE WRONG!!!
During training, muscles are destroyed, and they grow during REST (recovery) and only with appropriate (correct) nutrition.
If there is CORRECT TRAINING and RECOVERY (rest), but there will be no proper nutrition(construction materials) = nothing will come of it (there will be no growth).
And all because the ORGANISM needs building materials (proteins + fats + carbohydrates + water + vitamins and minerals) in order to heal injuries (which were received during training) during rest (recovery).
And if there are no food nutrients, THEN THERE WILL BE NO GROWTH, even if there is rest (recovery). Do you understand this or not? There will be no way to heal injuries, because... there are no building materials (nutrition) for healing and subsequent muscle growth. Understand?
You cannot build a house without building materials. Even if you have WORK (training) and a lot of time (recovery). I hope this analogy clearly demonstrates to you that you cannot build a body (muscles) without proper nutrition (building materials). Even if there is RECOVERY (rest).
CONCLUSION: MUSCLE GROWTH IS A RELATIONSHIP:
TRAINING(30%)<= ПИТАНИЕ(70%) =>RECREATION(10%)
In my experience, most people underestimate the role of recovery.
In most cases, there is only talk about training and nutrition (this is normal), but recovery is also important = we must not forget.
We won’t talk about training and nutrition today. Today we are talking specifically about the topic of the article.
And we must not forget because everything may be perfect for you in terms of training + nutrition, that is, you have created (a) all the prerequisites for muscle growth, BUT remember and do not forget that growth does not occur during training, but precisely during RECOVERY AFTER TRAINING ! That's the point.
If you do not create conditions for proper rest (recovery), then growth will slow down or stop completely. So the choice is yours. I'm just telling it like it really is.
SLEEP is the most important factor affecting overall recovery.
At night, you need to sleep at least 8-10 hours.
Ideally, in addition to this, sleep for another hour or two during the day (if possible and willing).
Also try to go to bed and get up earlier (for example, go to bed at 9-10 o’clock, wake up at 7-8), because this also has a beneficial effect on the level of your sex hormones.
With a lack of sleep, weakness, fatigue, drowsiness, etc. occur.
What kind of training is there... strength indicators, strength endurance and neuropsychic activity fall... And in general, without sufficient (without good) sleep, both your mood and your composure, determination, desire to train, etc. disappear.
If for an ordinary person (i.e., not involved in sports) sleep is so important for normal life, imagine the role of sleep for a person involved in sports (in the gym)…
If you lack sleep, your muscle tissue (your muscles) will begin to break down, and all because lack of sleep or no sleep at all increases the manifestation of catabolism (destruction).
What is our goal? That's right - muscle growth... and not destruction, so draw your conclusions.
RECOVERY is generally a complex concept (not just sleep), which is influenced by absolutely everything in your life. Any STRESS outside of training slows down recovery.
Remember this when, for example, you are nervous, lacking sleep, walking at night, etc., etc. the same nutrition (correct, sufficient, etc., etc. or not), stress level during training (severity of injuries), genetics, gender, etc.
However, along with proper training + nutrition = what is said in this article will be enough.
eat lift sleep repeat
That is, if you have everything correctly (competently) organized in terms of training and nutrition = and in addition to this, there is high-quality recovery (rest, sleep, absence of stress outside of training, etc.) = there will be growth.
Therefore, take care of organizing all 3 components = otherwise you will not see success.
P.s. It is important to understand that this article is only a piece of information. That's not all. This is just a small part =)
You can get the most current and complete information, based on the latest scientific data regarding muscle pumping (for both men and girls), in my courses:
for men
for girls/women
Congratulations, administrator.
