Muscle Hypertrophy, The Aim of Steroids

Achieving an anabolic state in the body is the desired position every bodybuilder wants to be in, not just those on steroids like dianabol.  During this state, muscle is repaired and grown due to the availability of all nutrients required for muscle growth.

Muscle hypertrophy is the correct term for the way adults build skeletal muscle. We understand protein synthesis and the importance of protein to build muscle, but lets look at hypertrophy a little deeper.

Since the discovery of ‘satellite cells’ in 1961, a great deal of research has gone into understanding the process of building muscle and the mechanisms involved. This research has showed scientists that these ‘satellite cells’ differ from normal cells by the fact that they are able to regenerative throughout adult life.

It is these satellite cells that are able to fuse with existing muscle fibre to produce muscle growth and repair.

These cells are generally dormant in the body and require a stimulus to activate the cells profile.

Injury or trauma is able to provide the necessity stimulus to activate the satellite cells into action. Once they have been stimulated by injury, these cells begin to divide and multiply and form into mytoblasts. These mytoblasts will then fuse with existing muscle fibres donating their nuclei(the cells brain).

Skeletal muscle is referred to as multinucleated, which means they posses more than one nuclei. Increasing the number of nuclei, in turn, allows the cells to regulate more cytoplasm. The more cytoplasm in the cells increases the amount of protein able to be stored.

The more nuclei, the bigger the cell, the more protein stored.

Remember that this process does not increase cell count but overall cell size and protein content.