Wellness
Endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility are interconnecting parts that make up the term called wellness. Essentially, when our bodies are in motion and responding positively with these four types of exercises we have wellness. It is a complex paradigm. The environment and our mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, and social aspects affect our well being. Therefore, wellness is dynamic. However, physical wellness is achieved through multiple aspects, especially, muscular hypertrophy.
Muscle Hypertrophy
Hypertrophy is a combined word that describes resistance training with both mechanical tension and metabolic stress. This word entails both a prefix or hyper, which means super or beyond, and a suffix or trophy, which means nourishment and growth. Resistance training is at the core of hypertrophy that requires specific volume, intensity, frequency, and rest.
Training & Nutrition
Building muscle is a long term pursuit. Exercise physiologists suggest to use specific training with appropriate protein intake before and after exercise. “The response of muscle protein metabolism to a resistance exercise bout lasts for 24-48 hours; thus, the interaction between protein metabolism and any meals consumed in this period will determine the impact of the diet on muscle hypertrophy,” (Maximizing Muscular Hypertrophy . . .). In other words, pairing nutrition and exercise will produce more muscle protein synthesis rather than muscle protein break down, which is the loss of amino acids that later becomes stored as energy deposits.
Muscle Protein Synthesis
The availability of amino acids, organic compounds that form to make protein in the body, controls muscle protein metabolism (Tipton, n.d.). While exercise has a major effect on muscle growth, hypertrophy can only occur if muscle protein synthesis is higher greater than muscle protein breakdown. Muscle protein break down remodels the muscle, helps it adapt to training, and causes an increase in muscle mass. The term “breaking down” means taking apart amino acids for the body to create glucose that can be later used for energy. Both processes are natural and important for muscle protein synthesis, which increases muscle mass, repairs muscle damage caused by exercise, and loses protein to store as energy in the body if it’s needed.
Summary
Building larger muscles can have positive affects on your body’s overall performance. It’s not the size of a muscle that helps your body, but the process that entails protein synthesis. Your body uses exactly nine roles of protein on a daily basis, which includes breaking down protein into glucose that will be used for energy. In terms of wellness, the physical aspect will help regulate your body’s natural processes like muscle protein synthesis and muscle protein breakdown. Altogether, your body wants to be healthy and in a state of well being naturally.
Author: Jamie Moore senior at SHSU Pre: Nursing
Works Cited
Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review of Advanced Resistance Training Techniques and Methods. (n.d.). PubMed Central (PMC). Retrieved January 22, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6950543/
Tipton, K. D. (n.d.). Exercise, protein metabolism, and muscle growth. PubMed. Retrieved January 22, 2021, from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11255140/
