Muscle Growth: Playing God With Your Body, Part 2

This is Part 2 of a two-part series that explains how your muscles grow. If you haven’t already read Part 1, please go back and read it first. In this post, we’ll explain the message presented in Part 1 and what it represents.

In Part 1, a short story was told in which I had you imagine that you were the Greek god, Zeus, up in the clouds. Your goal was to push a small tribe of people into building a stronger building. You couldn’t force them to do it. You could only put them in the right situation that would cause them to grow.

Think about your muscles. They react in a similar way. We can’t just tell them to grow, but instead we can create the proper environment that stimulates their growth. As you may have guessed, the people in this story represent the systems within you that cause you to grow; the building represents your body and your muscles.

Strength Progression

Our muscles do not grow spontaneously. Instead, they grow in response to the stresses we put upon them. That means that if we want to see results, we need to lift weights, and this momentarily weakens our muscles.

Remember the people inside their thatched home? They never tried to make a stronger home until there was a need. Once the wind blew and weakened their home, they immediately went to work rebuilding it.

Your muscles work in a similar way. Lifting weights weakens your muscles and creates a response in them to grow stronger. Notice that the people never came out to rebuild the home while the wind was blowing or while the earthquake was raging. They waited for a calm moment when they could go out and do the repair work.

Your muscles will also wait for a calm moment. Each exercise is a shock to them. They begin to repair and rebuild after you exercise. The time that you spend resting is the time that your muscles are actually being repaired. If the wind never stopped blowing, when would the people ever have a chance to repair the home?

This is especially important when you are a beginner. Your body will be undergoing changes and attempting to grow, and so you will need lots of rest. Each time the storms became calm, the people went out and gathered materials to build the home with.

I can’t emphasize enough how critical this point is. After you exercise each time, your body must have plenty of rest and nourishment (food, protein, etc.) that it can use for rebuilding. Simply exercising without the proper rest or fuel will give you meager gains at best.

Also notice that Zeus was very careful to begin with light winds that slowly became stronger. He could have blown the house down in the beginning if he wanted to, but that was not his goal. He just wanted to build a stronger house.

This is equal to overtraining. If you are just getting started with exercises, you may be filled with a desire to grow and become strong – but take it easy in the beginning. Zeus was ready, but the people were not. You may be all ready to go, but your muscles will probably need some time to get used to these new shocks.

Take a few weeks with very light weights to get used to the movements you will be doing. Just as the winds grew stronger and stronger with time, you will build your body up by increasing the weights just a little bit each time. Eventually, you will get to the point where you are lifting heavier and becoming much stronger.

Avoiding Muscle Resistance

One day you will realize that your gains are slowly beginning to level off. Your muscles will slowly grow accustomed to the exercises that you are doing and stop reacting to them. Think of the people who grew accustomed to the winds… when the people stopped reacting to the winds, Zeus was able to get them off their feet with an earthquake.

You’ll have to give your muscles a little earthquake from time to time to keep them growing. If you stop seeing results from the bench press, start doing the dumbbell bench press or maybe decline presses. The point here is that you have to be careful to never let your muscles grow too accustomed to your workout routine.

Every time your muscles begin to think that they are safe, you send a new shock. Continue to do certain exercises only as long as they give you the gains you need.

Trying New Methods

Zeus had a lot of success in the beginning with his winds and earthquakes, but they were really just variations of the same idea. He was using different ways to push and shake the walls so that the people would make them bigger and stronger. But one day, no amount of pushing or shaking the building had any effect. The people sat calmly inside their fortress.

This is when Zeus got creative. He took a whole new approach and sent a tsunami. At some point, you will also need to come up with a new approach to keep your gains moving.

This could mean any number of things. Instead of just trying new exercises, you might shake things up by applying new principles to your workout. You may experiment with using high repetitions one day and lower reps the next time in order to surprise your muscles. Perhaps you will change the intensity from time to time, or maybe even find a workout partner to push you further.

Whatever the answer is, you will have to determine how to overcome the resistance to growth that your muscles naturally have. This will require a plan that will be executed according to the needs of your own body.

Focusing on Your Weak Areas

We all have weaknesses. Remember when Zeus noticed that the roof was weak and sent down hail and meteorites? We all have weak spots that need to be fixed. Focus on them early so that they can keep up with the rest of your body.

If your calves are lagging behind, you might decide to ditch your workout pants for a pair of shorts. Seeing your small calves might help motivate you to work them harder. Perhaps you should change your routine slightly so that they can receive greater emphasis. Just be sure that you recognize your weak spots early and help them keep up.

Why the Story?

You might be wondering why I have decided to use a story when I could have just told you how to make your muscles grow. The answer is simple… we remember stories much longer and much more deeply than we remember raw facts. When you begin to apply these principles, you will be on your way to building your own fortress.

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Related posts:

1. Muscle Growth: Playing God With Your Body, Part 1
2. Free E-book About Changing Your Body Type: 3 Months to a New You
3. Setting the Record Straight on Muscle Recovery Time

Tags: 101, god, muscle growth, principles, Weight lifting