How To Build Muscle (Explained In 5 Levels)

[00:00] in this video I'm going to explain how

[00:01] to build muscle in five levels of

[00:03] increasing complexity starting with the

[00:05] most basic explanation and getting more

[00:07] detailed as we go now in preparing this

[00:09] video I consulted with a number of

[00:10] different experts including a professor

[00:12] in muscle metabolism an industry leader

[00:14] in the field of biomechanics and an

[00:16] active researcher in the field of

[00:17] strength and conditioning I'm also a pro

[00:19] natural bodybuilder myself and I've been

[00:20] studying the science behind getting

[00:22] jacked for over a decade while coaching

[00:24] people from around the globe and just

[00:25] for fun I'd like you to comment below

[00:27] which level you got to before you

[00:28] started zoning out or getting lost

[00:31] [Music]

[00:35] all right so building muscle is actually

[00:36] pretty simple all you really need to do

[00:38] is lift weights and eat protein protein

[00:40] of course being the macronutrient found

[00:42] in foods like fish chicken meat Dairy

[00:44] beans lentils and protein powders and

[00:47] when you weight train your muscles start

[00:48] to think well if we're going to keep

[00:50] lifting these heavy weights I'd better

[00:52] start to get some bigger muscles to make

[00:53] this easier this is called an Adaptive

[00:56] response and it's kind of like when you

[00:57] play guitar your fingertips start to get

[00:59] harder and roales as an Adaptive

[01:01] response to pressing against the strings

[01:03] it hurts at first but then it gets

[01:05] easier as you build the thicker skin

[01:07] layer however lifting weights isn't

[01:08] quite enough on its own to build muscle

[01:10] in order to build something you need

[01:12] building blocks and when it comes to

[01:14] muscle the building blocks are called

[01:15] amino acids which you get by eating

[01:17] protein so when you lift weights you're

[01:19] telling the muscle it needs to get

[01:20] bigger and when you eat protein you're

[01:21] giving the muscle the building blocks it

[01:23] needs to actually

[01:26] [Music]

[01:28] grow so in reality it's probably not

[01:31] quite good enough to just lift weights

[01:33] and eat protein to get really solid

[01:35] results for example if you're lifting

[01:36] the exact same weight for the exact same

[01:38] reps 2 years from now that you lifted

[01:40] today that probably won't be good enough

[01:42] to keep the muscle growing sure you'll

[01:43] see some decent growth at the beginning

[01:45] because you've never lifted any weight

[01:46] before but soon enough that weight will

[01:48] no longer be challenging enough to

[01:50] present a sufficient stimulus for your

[01:52] muscle to continue growing this is why

[01:54] we need to expand the lift weights part

[01:56] to lift weights with an emphasis on

[01:58] Progressive overload now the technical

[02:00] definition of progressive overload is

[02:02] the gradual increase of stress on the

[02:04] muscles during weight training but we

[02:05] can simply think of it as just

[02:07] increasing some training parameter over

[02:09] time so from workout to workout you want

[02:10] to add a little bit of weight or add an

[02:12] extra rep using the same weight for

[02:14] example let's say you're trying to grow

[02:15] your biceps rather than doing three sets

[02:17] of 10 reps with the same weight week

[02:19] after week and month after month it'd be

[02:21] much more effective to do three sets of

[02:23] 10 reps in week 1 three sets of 11 in

[02:25] week two three sets of 12 and week three

[02:28] and then in week four you can go back

[02:29] back to 10 reps again but this time add

[02:31] a little more weight now at a certain

[02:33] point you may not be able to increase

[02:34] the weight or reps each and every time

[02:36] and that's okay there are still other

[02:38] ways to apply Progressive overload such

[02:40] as by adding an extra set with the same

[02:42] reps and the same weight or even by

[02:43] doing something as simple as controlling

[02:45] the negative a little better or feeling

[02:46] a stronger mind muscle connection where

[02:48] you more consciously feel the muscle

[02:50] squeezing and stretching as you lift or

[02:52] swapping out for a new exercise and

[02:54] starting that overloading process again

[02:56] also on the nutrition side we can do

[02:58] quite a bit better than just saying eat

[02:59] protein so to be more specific the

[03:01] latest research shows that Landing

[03:03] between 1.6 to 2.2 g of protein per

[03:06] kilogram of body weight per day so about

[03:09] 0.7 to 1 gram per pound is a good Target

[03:12] for maximizing muscle gain for example

[03:13] if you weigh 165 lbs or 75 kilos you'd

[03:17] want to be eating somewhere in the range

[03:18] of 120 to 165 g of protein per day for

[03:22] General muscle building now there may be

[03:23] some advantage in going a bit higher in

[03:25] certain Advanced situations but this is

[03:27] a sufficient range for most now if

[03:29] you're very high in body fat the grams

[03:30] per unit body weight approach won't work

[03:32] as well so let's say you're 300 lb you

[03:34] don't really need 300 g of protein per

[03:36] day so in that case I simply prefer to

[03:39] use 1 g of protein per centimeter in

[03:41] height because it works independently of

[03:43] body fat percentage so let's say you're

[03:45] 5'9 or about 175 cm tall 175 g of

[03:49] protein would be plenty for you it's not

[03:51] a perfect system but it'll get you in

[03:52] the right Ballpark and while there is

[03:54] some evidence to suggest that spacing

[03:55] your protein across 3 to five meals

[03:57] throughout the day might be more ideal

[03:59] if that suggestion holds true it's

[04:01] certainly much less important than

[04:03] simply hitting a daily protein Target in

[04:05] fact contrary to Common belief training

[04:07] is a much more powerful contributor to

[04:09] muscle growth in diet and by quite a

[04:11] long shot so while it is true that a

[04:13] caloric Surplus will drive muscle growth

[04:14] more effectively and dietary

[04:16] manipulations like protein timing can

[04:18] have some impact I'm going to focus the

[04:20] remaining levels on maximizing the

[04:22] muscle response through resistance

[04:25] [Music]

[04:28] training so focusing on Progressive

[04:30] overload is smart but it still leaves a

[04:32] lot to be desired in the gym for example

[04:34] it doesn't tell us how hard we should

[04:35] push it or how many sets we should do or

[04:37] how many reps we should do or how heavy

[04:39] we should be lifting so next I want to

[04:41] take a quick look at what the research

[04:42] says about the so-called acute training

[04:44] variables factors like effort volume

[04:47] intensity exercise selection and

[04:49] frequency now I think effort is the most

[04:51] fundamental variable for growth because

[04:53] no matter how much you optimize all the

[04:54] other stuff if you aren't pushing it

[04:56] hard enough the muscle simply won't grow

[04:58] at least not optimally now there's

[05:00] currently a raging debate within the

[05:01] scientific Community about exactly how

[05:03] hard we should push each set a

[05:05] relatively small group of experts

[05:07] insists that all sets should be taken

[05:08] all the way to muscular failure defined

[05:10] as an inability to complete another rep

[05:12] despite maximum effort but I'd say that

[05:14] the mainstream scientific consensus is

[05:16] that it isn't necessary to take sets all

[05:18] the way to failure but you do need to be

[05:20] pretty close you shouldn't be leaving

[05:22] more than two or three reps in the tank

[05:24] for most of your sets now of course

[05:26] there are a few exceptions relieving

[05:27] five or more reps in the tank does make

[05:29] sense for recovery especially when

[05:31] training primarily for strength but as a

[05:33] general rule most of your sets should be

[05:35] pretty close to failure so you do need

[05:37] to push it hard maybe Harder Than You

[05:39] Think up next volume technically refers

[05:41] to the amount of work you do and this

[05:43] was historically calculated as the

[05:44] number of sets times the number of reps

[05:46] times the amount of load but as of 2015

[05:49] most practitioners began to think of

[05:50] volume simply as the number of hard sets

[05:52] you do now over the last few years it's

[05:54] become a popular meme to think of volume

[05:56] as the quote primary driver of

[05:58] hypertrophy and if I ever said this I no

[06:01] longer think it's the case rather than

[06:02] more volume leading to more growth what

[06:04] we instead see is a sort of inverted U

[06:06] Trend where more volume leads to more

[06:08] growth only up to a point past which

[06:10] further increases don't do anything

[06:12] extra and then at a certain point adding

[06:14] more volume seems to be

[06:15] counterproductive so there's this volume

[06:17] Sweet Spot which seems to be a bit

[06:19] different for everyone and I find a lot

[06:20] of people are already doing more volume

[06:22] than they really need and would probably

[06:24] benefit more by reducing their volume

[06:26] and focusing more on effort and

[06:27] execution but the main point is that you

[06:29] should experiment and figure out what

[06:30] dose of volume gives you the best

[06:32] balance of gains and Recovery still

[06:34] based on what we know from the current

[06:36] science something around 10 to 20 sets

[06:38] per body part per week seems to be a

[06:39] good range for most people and most

[06:41] muscles so for example if you're running

[06:43] an upper lower split that has you in the

[06:44] gym four days a week your chest volume

[06:46] might look something like this with six

[06:48] hard sets for your chest on Monday and

[06:50] six hard sets for your chest on Thursday

[06:52] totaling 12 hard sets for the week okay

[06:55] next we need to cover intensity which

[06:57] despite its popular conflation with

[06:58] effort technically refers to how heavy

[07:01] the weight is you can either lift heavy

[07:02] weights for low reps or light weights

[07:04] for High Reps but what's the best for

[07:06] muscle growth well it turns out that as

[07:08] long as you're taking sets sufficiently

[07:09] close to failure you can maximize

[07:11] hypertrophy using High Reps or low reps

[07:13] or a combination of both research has

[07:15] shown that reps as low as three and Reps

[07:17] as high as 30 all cause similar muscle

[07:20] growth however there does seem to be a

[07:22] limit to how light you can go new data

[07:24] shows that when you lift weights lighter

[07:25] than 20% of your one rep max you do see

[07:28] significantly less growth but the

[07:30] average rep count subjects got with that

[07:31] load was 67 reps not a very practical

[07:34] way to train regardless so the

[07:36] traditional 6 to 12 rep zone is kind of

[07:38] a myth in the sense that research shows

[07:40] you can go well outside that range and

[07:42] still grow fine as long as you're

[07:43] training close to muscular failure still

[07:45] I think there is some value in that 6 to

[07:47] 12 range because once you start dipping

[07:49] down below six reps you can risk

[07:51] unnecessary strain on your joints and it

[07:53] can be practically more difficult to

[07:54] accumulate enough volume and the more

[07:56] often you go above 12 reps the more you

[07:58] risk just burning yourself out as higher

[08:00] rep sets are harder to recover from so

[08:02] for practical purposes I suggest

[08:03] splitting it up like this with the

[08:05] majority of your sets coming in that 6

[08:06] to 12 or maybe 15 Zone while having

[08:09] smaller chunks dedicated to lower Reps

[08:11] for continued strength progression and

[08:13] higher Reps for stimulative variety now

[08:15] I think exercise selection and execution

[08:17] is just as much an art as it is a

[08:19] science sure I do tend to favor

[08:21] multi-joint compound movements like

[08:22] squats presses and rows in my own

[08:24] training because they give you more

[08:26] hypertrophic bang for your buck by

[08:28] activating large amounts of muscle Mass

[08:30] while promoting more efficient total

[08:31] body strength gain and while I

[08:33] definitely think mastering these basic

[08:34] compound movements is important single

[08:36] joint isolation exercises certainly have

[08:38] their place especially when it comes to

[08:40] targeting smaller muscles like the

[08:42] biceps rear delts side delts and abs

[08:45] which can be overpowered if you focus on

[08:46] compound lifts exclusively luckily when

[08:48] it comes to muscle growth there are no

[08:50] mandatory exercises and so after

[08:52] mastering the basics it's once again

[08:54] important to experiment with different

[08:55] movements and movement variations to

[08:57] figure out what works best for you and

[08:59] and your body's mechanics now when it

[09:01] comes to frequency it seems like most

[09:02] people have flipped from thinking that

[09:04] you should only train each body part

[09:05] once a week on a split that looks

[09:07] something like this otherwise you're

[09:08] going to overtrain and melt your muscle

[09:10] away to these days most people thinking

[09:12] that if you train on a bro split like

[09:14] this you're never going to make any

[09:16] gains at all because science in reality

[09:19] the latest research actually shows that

[09:20] frequency in and of itself likely plays

[09:22] a relatively minor role in muscle growth

[09:24] and the latest studies show similar

[09:25] results between hitting a body part once

[09:27] a week and three plus times per week how

[09:29] however I still generally recommend

[09:31] hitting a muscle at least twice a week

[09:32] and I do prefer splits like upper lower

[09:34] and full body over the traditional body

[09:36] part split because they typically allow

[09:38] for more volume per week and higher

[09:40] quality volumes per workout still as

[09:43] long as you've got all the other

[09:44] variables in place are recovering

[09:45] properly and being consistent over time

[09:48] this is an area of programming that

[09:49] probably deserves less of the spotlight

[09:51] than it tends to get and then there are

[09:53] other training variables like rest

[09:54] periods lifting Tempo and advanced

[09:56] intensity techniques that make up a

[09:57] relatively smaller piece of the puzzle

[09:59] and rather than go into detail on these

[10:01] I'll just link a few videos on them down

[10:04] [Music]

[10:07] below okay so with Progressive overload

[10:09] and the main acute training variables in

[10:11] mind at this point I'd like to get a bit

[10:13] more granular and take a closer look at

[10:15] what's actually driving muscle growth

[10:17] physiologically so in 2010 Dr Brad

[10:19] shenfeld published a landmark paper with

[10:21] over 500 citations that introduced the

[10:24] three Factor model of muscle hypertrophy

[10:26] this model proposed that there are three

[10:28] main things driving muscle growth grow

[10:29] mechanical tension muscle damage and

[10:31] metabolic stress now the very short

[10:33] version is that mechanical tension is

[10:35] the type of force that tries to stretch

[10:37] a muscle fiber one way to visualize this

[10:39] is like a tug of war as each side pulls

[10:42] tension is generated in the Rope so you

[10:43] can think of it like not only are the

[10:45] people pulling on the rope but the Rope

[10:47] is also pulling back on the people

[10:49] similar in the muscle where tension is

[10:51] passively created when the muscle is

[10:52] stretched and tension is actively

[10:54] created during contraction when actin

[10:57] molecules are pulled by meas and heads

[11:00] and as of now tension remains absolutely

[11:02] Undisputed as the primary driver of

[11:04] hypertrophy within the scientific

[11:05] community at large next muscle damage is

[11:08] basically exactly what it sounds like

[11:10] physical damage to the muscle like micro

[11:11] tears and other cellular disruptions and

[11:13] you can observe this under a microscope

[11:15] where you see that the normal pattern in

[11:16] muscle can be seriously disrupted after

[11:18] training now some believe that this type

[11:20] of damage is at least partly responsible

[11:22] for the delayed onset muscle soreness

[11:24] that you can feel in the days following

[11:25] training although the soreness

[11:27] phenomenon is no doubt caused by a

[11:28] number of factors and still isn't fully

[11:30] understood Still For Years many people

[11:32] have just assumed that getting sore

[11:34] should be the goal of training since

[11:35] soreness comes from muscle damage and

[11:37] muscle damage causes muscle growth but

[11:40] the latest science shows that that first

[11:41] claim is questionable and the second

[11:43] claim is most likely not true of course

[11:45] the most common sense way to think about

[11:47] this is that running a marathon would

[11:48] cause tons of muscle damage but wouldn't

[11:50] do anything good for muscle growth in

[11:52] fact a review paper from wacken

[11:53] colleagues pointed out that if anything

[11:56] damage in this context would seem to

[11:57] decrease muscle growth and even in a

[11:59] weight training context damage doesn't

[12:01] seem to be doing much good the study

[12:03] from domson colleagues argued that

[12:04] damage doesn't even correlate with

[12:06] hypertrophy over the long run as shown

[12:08] in the figure here early on in a

[12:09] training program you see a huge amount

[12:11] of damage this could be why you get so

[12:13] sore when starting a new routine and

[12:14] while there is an Associated early spike

[12:16] in muscle protein synthesis the vast

[12:18] majority of that synthesis is directed

[12:20] toward repairing damaged muscle tissue

[12:23] rather than building new muscle tissue

[12:25] from scratch and it's only after that

[12:27] damage decreases that muscle protein syn

[12:29] is is directed toward new muscle

[12:30] hypertrophy and while folks Playing

[12:32] devil's advocate could argue well

[12:34] studies show that Ecentric training

[12:35] causes more muscle damage and studies

[12:37] also show that Ecentric training causes

[12:39] more muscle growth I would simply

[12:41] respond that correlation doesn't imply

[12:43] causation and it seems more likely to me

[12:45] that the extra growth that you see from

[12:46] Ecentric overloading could simply be

[12:48] coming from the fact that you can simply

[12:50] overload the muscle more heavily during

[12:52] an Ecentric contraction causing more

[12:54] tension in the muscle now I should say

[12:56] that if we're being really honest we

[12:57] don't actually understand muscle damage

[12:59] all that well even the methods of Simply

[13:01] measuring muscle damage have been

[13:02] contested by prominent researchers so

[13:04] the bottom line is that any theory that

[13:05] uses muscle damage to explain muscle

[13:08] growth is speculative at best and

[13:10] unfeasible at worst but what about

[13:12] metabolic stress well metabolic stress

[13:14] refers to the accumulation of

[13:16] metabolites like lactate and hydrogen

[13:18] ions and the muscle hypoxia that often

[13:20] follows weight training and it's often

[13:22] associated with the massive skin tearing

[13:24] pumps that you get from high rep

[13:25] workouts so if muscle damage and it's

[13:27] ensuing soreness is unlikely to be

[13:29] driving muscle growth surely the pump

[13:31] and its Associated metabolic stress must

[13:33] be doing something I mean even Arnold

[13:35] seemed to recognize this the greatest

[13:37] feeling you can get in a gym or the most

[13:39] satisfying feeling you can get in the

[13:41] gym is the pump your muscles get a

[13:44] really tight feeling like your skin is

[13:47] going to explode any minute you know

[13:48] it's really tight it's like somebody

[13:49] blowing air into into your muscle it

[13:52] just blows up and it feels different it

[13:54] feels fantastic and well while the pump

[13:56] does feel good and certainly can make

[13:58] training more enjoy and perhaps even

[14:00] provide some feedback that you're

[14:01] actually hitting the muscle that you're

[14:02] trying to Target it most likely isn't

[14:05] driving hypertrophy because there are

[14:06] just too many examples of where the

[14:08] relationship between metabolic stress

[14:10] and muscle growth breaks down shorter

[14:12] rest periods cause more metabolic stress

[14:14] but significantly less muscle growth

[14:16] than longer rest periods note that

[14:18] there's a footnote in the description

[14:19] Box about this partial range of motion

[14:21] causes more metabolic stress but often

[14:23] less muscle growth in full range of

[14:24] motion training all the way to failure

[14:26] causes more metabolic stress but at best

[14:28] results in equal muscle growth to

[14:30] stopping a few reps shy of failure and

[14:31] Blood Flow Restriction Training causes

[14:33] tons of metabolic stress but doesn't

[14:35] enhance hypertrophy on its own and

[14:37] doesn't even work in conjunction with

[14:39] training unless the training methods are

[14:41] highly suboptimal and even in this case

[14:43] it still seems to point back to tension

[14:45] when I spoke with one of the authors of

[14:46] this popular Blood Flow Restriction

[14:47] study he pointed out that any benefit

[14:49] seems to be tension related would you

[14:52] argue that the impact of bfr essentially

[14:56] leads back to just creating more tension

[14:58] in the muscle like do you think it still

[14:59] goes back to tension yeah it's like it's

[15:01] just bfr is it's like cheating 20 reps

[15:05] extra in a sense it's the it's the same

[15:08] effect you just it just happens earlier

[15:10] so consensus is converging on tension

[15:12] and perhaps tension alone as being the

[15:14] primary driver of muscle growth and so

[15:16] it should be the primary goal of our

[15:18] training to maximize tension above

[15:20] anything else so how do we do that well

[15:23] the practical application is actually

[15:24] quite simple you need to apply

[15:26] Progressive tension increases to the

[15:28] MUSC itself this means we need to lift

[15:30] with good consistent technique while

[15:33] using the acute training variables and

[15:34] Progressive overload to push the level

[15:36] of intramuscular tension up over time

[15:39] also paying attention to things like the

[15:40] Mind muscle connection at least on

[15:42] certain exercises and Ecentric control

[15:45] should also help as those aspects of

[15:46] lifting have been shown to increase

[15:48] intramuscular

[15:51] [Music]

[15:53] tension okay so we know that mechanical

[15:55] tension is the main thing driving muscle

[15:57] growth but what happens next how do we

[15:59] get from a mechanical stimulus like

[16:01] tension to a biochemical signal that

[16:03] commands the muscle to grow well Dr

[16:05] tromlin explained this to me in terms of

[16:07] blocks of dominoes he said that when one

[16:09] thing gets activated it passes on the

[16:11] signal to the next thing and the next

[16:13] thing and so on but if you're smart you

[16:15] don't just build one chain of dominoes

[16:17] you build out all these side chains so

[16:18] that they fall in a bunch of different

[16:20] directions and it's the same thing with

[16:21] muscle growth there isn't just one

[16:23] pathway with one outcome but rather many

[16:25] different interconnected Pathways with

[16:27] many different Downstream effects

[16:28] effects so with that in mind let's start

[16:30] at the top all right so we lift a weight

[16:32] heavy enough that it creates active

[16:33] mechanical tension within the muscle

[16:35] this is called the stimulus the stimulus

[16:37] is sensed by mechan sensors which sort

[16:39] of feel that the muscle is being pulled

[16:41] into tension and pass that signal on now

[16:44] based on the latest research it isn't

[16:45] perfectly clear exactly which molecules

[16:47] are doing this sensing but the top

[16:49] candidates include camir which are

[16:51] collections of proteins that sit in the

[16:52] muscle fiber membrane and are

[16:54] responsible for holding muscle fibers

[16:55] together and transferring force between

[16:57] muscle fibers during contraction there's

[17:00] also Titan which as a fun fact is

[17:02] actually the largest protein we've ever

[17:04] discovered in humans and because it runs

[17:05] parallel to the muscle fiber itself

[17:07] could theoretically be responsible for

[17:09] sensing mechanical changes like

[17:10] stretching but probably only at long

[17:12] muscle lengths and then there's filamin

[17:14] which bind to the famous actin proteins

[17:16] that slide during contraction making

[17:18] them a really good candidate for sensing

[17:20] tension and for the record I read

[17:21] through the latest paper on all this

[17:22] sensing stuff from 2018 and I'll just

[17:25] say this area of research is not well

[17:27] understood yet to quote the author's

[17:28] directly conclusively identifying major

[17:31] hypertrophy stimuli and their sensors is

[17:33] one of the big remaining questions in

[17:34] exercise physiology still we can paint

[17:36] the rest of the picture with a broad

[17:38] brush for now from the mechanos sensors

[17:40] a signal gets sent to a beast mode

[17:41] molecule called mtor which is a major

[17:44] regulator of cellular growth in general

[17:46] not just in muscle tissue it's also

[17:48] implicated in many cancers because of

[17:49] its responsibility in making tissues

[17:51] bigger from there mtor goes to the

[17:53] nucleus and tells the DNA Machinery to

[17:55] produce a messenger RNA strand which you

[17:57] can think of as a set of blueprints for

[17:59] building new muscle those blueprints are

[18:00] sent to a ribosome which is like a

[18:02] muscle protein building Factory that

[18:04] manufactures a string of amino acids

[18:06] based on the blueprint from the MRNA in

[18:08] a process known as translation and this

[18:10] step is what we're actually talking

[18:11] about when we say muscle protein

[18:13] synthesis now through this translation

[18:15] process many different proteins will be

[18:16] synthesized some of which will be the

[18:18] big contractile proteins that make us

[18:20] more jacked others will be more

[18:21] ribosomal proteins or mtor proteins

[18:23] themselves so anabolic growth potential

[18:26] remains high in the future now if this

[18:28] rate of synthesis exceeds the rate of

[18:29] breakdown protein balance is said to be

[18:31] positive and in that case new

[18:33] contractile proteins are incorporated

[18:35] into muscle fibers resulting in what's

[18:37] called myofibrillar hypertrophy leading

[18:39] to increased muscle size overall but all

[18:42] of that is really just one string of

[18:43] dominoes there's also this other path

[18:45] that's triggered by amino acids in the

[18:46] protein we eat in this case amino acids

[18:48] are transported inside the cell and the

[18:50] amino acid Lucine also activates mtor

[18:53] now for the record we seem to need about

[18:55] 3 G of Lucine to stimulate mtor which

[18:57] can be found in about 20 to 20 G of high

[18:59] quality protein although some research

[19:01] has shown greater anabolic responses

[19:03] with higher protein doses so it may be

[19:05] possible to crank mtor activity higher

[19:07] with more Lucine but regardless it's

[19:09] important to realize that the

[19:10] stimulative impact of Lucine is much

[19:12] shorter than the stimulative impact of

[19:14] weight training and so for maximum mtor

[19:17] stimulation you need both training and

[19:19] Lucine with Lucine essentially

[19:21] complementing the stimulative effects of

[19:22] weightlifting then the other eight

[19:24] essential amino acids there's nine in

[19:26] total when you include Lucine make their

[19:28] way to the the ribosome where they're

[19:29] used as the fundamental building blocks

[19:31] for creating new muscle now another

[19:33] pathway that I'll briefly mention is

[19:34] that of testosterone now even though

[19:36] modifying testosterone within the

[19:37] natural range plays a relatively minor

[19:39] role in muscle growth when you inject

[19:41] highdose testosterone the hormone

[19:43] crosses the muscle cell membrane and

[19:45] either binds to an androgen receptor

[19:47] directly or is converted to DHT which

[19:50] then binds to the Androgen receptor and

[19:51] then that complex enters the nucleus and

[19:53] tells the DNA to start cranking out more

[19:55] blueprints turning up that muscle

[19:57] protein synthetic process even more now

[19:59] if I were actually discussing muscle

[20:01] growth with an expert there are a lot of

[20:02] other things I'd want to discuss I'd

[20:04] want to at least mention sarcoplasmic

[20:06] hypertrophy so far we've been focusing

[20:08] on myofibrillar hypertrophy so the

[20:10] growth of actual contractile tissue but

[20:12] there's some new solid evidence

[20:13] supporting so-called sarcoplasmic

[20:14] hypertrophy which is the growth of all

[20:16] the other stuff inside the muscle fiber

[20:18] like glycogen organel and other

[20:20] non-contractile proteins then I might

[20:22] speculate that higher rep and higher

[20:23] volume training might bias the muscle

[20:25] towards sarcoplasmic growth but then the

[20:27] expert depending on how open they are to

[20:29] guesswork might shut that down for

[20:31] lacking evidence I'd also definitely

[20:33] want to talk about myonuclear addition

[20:35] the idea that all this muscle protein

[20:36] synthetic stuff still seems to be

[20:38] limited by the number of nuclei or

[20:40] command centers that you have in your

[20:41] muscle cells to begin with and so when

[20:44] satellite cells that surround the muscle

[20:45] cell Like Satellites donate their nuclei

[20:48] that could theoretically allow the

[20:49] muscle cell to crank out more new muscle

[20:51] protein and build more muscle but then

[20:53] the expert might push back that that

[20:54] theory is actually pretty speculative

[20:56] and we can't even rightly assume that

[20:58] nuclei are in fact limiting factors for

[21:00] hypertrophy until we get more science in

[21:02] our hands and then a curious bystander

[21:04] might ask why does any of this matter

[21:05] anyway what's the point of this level of

[21:07] research maybe the expert would respond

[21:09] by saying something like knowledge

[21:10] having value for its own sake or maybe

[21:12] they'd point out a few of its many

[21:13] medical applications such as an

[21:15] understanding sarcopenia or muscular

[21:17] distrophy or maybe they'd say that

[21:18] they're trying to figure all this stuff

[21:19] out just in case there's a new pathway

[21:21] that can actually feedback into training

[21:23] recommendations or maybe we'll be able

[21:24] to use this research to develop an

[21:26] exercise pill someday that creates the

[21:28] same cellular effect is weight training

[21:30] without having to spend nearly as much

[21:31] time in the gym a sort of steroid

[21:33] without side effects that could start

[21:35] development 50 years down the road but

[21:37] since I'm getting well over my own head

[21:39] at this point I think I'm going to leave

[21:40] it there for this one if you guys made

[21:41] it this far please let me know by

[21:42] commenting I'm ready for level six and

[21:45] I'll see if I can make that happen in

[21:46] another video as new research comes in

[21:48] as always don't forget to leave me a

[21:49] thumbs up if you enjoyed the video

[21:50] subscribe if you haven't already and

[21:51] I'll see you guys all here in the next

[21:53] one