Why do muscles grow?
During exercise your muscles will begin to tear slightly due to having too much strain on them; these tears are known as microtears. This causes the brain to realise that the muscles are not big or strong enough to cope with the pressure that they need to. The body then sends more nutrients to build the muscle back bigger than it was before. This is a process called muscular hypertrophy.
What makes the muscle grow?
In short, the stuff that makes the muscle grow is protein. Protein is a key building block in our body and it makes up a lot of our body parts. Muscle fibres are made up heavily of proteins and amino acids. Amino acids are just broken down proteins. More specifically, muscle is made up of fibers which are made up of myofibrils. These myofibrils are made up of actin and myosin which are separated by tropomyosin. All three of these are just different types of proteins.
What are proteins?
Proteins are any molecules made up completely from amino acids.
What are amino acids?
Amino acids are compounds that have both carboxyl and an amino group.
A carboxyl is something that has the molecular chain C-O-O-H in and an amino contains the chain N-H2
If you want to know why our muscles need to repair because of exercise, click the button opposite.