

These events appear to occur within each muscle fiber. There appears to be some limit to how large a myofibril can become: at some point, they split.

The additional contractile proteins appear to be incorporated into existing myofibrils (the chains of sarcomeres within a muscle cell). An increased requirement for protein, especially branch chained amino acids, is required for elevated protein synthesis that is seen in athletes training for muscle hypertrophy.Ī gradual increase in all of these training variables will yield the muscular hypertrophy. Anabolic steroid use can cause testicular atrophy, cardiac arrest. Testosterone is also a medically regulated substance in most. It is also considered a performance- enhancing drug, the use of which can cause competitors to be suspended or banned from competitions. Taking additional testosterone, as in anabolic steroids, will increase results. As testosterone is one of the body's major growth hormones, on average, males find hypertrophy much easier to achieve than females. Natural hypertrophy normally stops at full growth in the late teens. Lower- intensity, longer- duration aerobic exercise generally does not result in very effective tissue hypertrophy instead, endurance athletes enhance storage of fats and carbohydrates within the muscles. Muscular hypertrophy can be increased through strength training and other short- duration, high- intensity anaerobic exercises. Early muscle growth has been studied and has some association with the implementation of a muscle resistance training program.

These changes occur as an adaptive response that serves to increase the ability to generate force or resist fatigue in anaerobic conditions. Two factors contribute to hypertrophy: sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which focuses more on increased muscle glycogen storage and myofibrillar hypertrophy, which focuses more on increased myofibril size. Muscle hypertrophy involves an increase in size of skeletal muscle through a growth in size of its component cells. Athletes use a combination of strength training, diet, and nutritional supplementation to induce muscle hypertrophy.
