Yes, you can build muscle mass through heavy weight lifting, but this may not help much. Lifting heavy weights will make you a stronger athlete, but it will not maximize your muscle growth .
Performing a single rep of a specific exercise has little benefit for hypertrophy , due to the form and focus with which the training is performed.
As a result, little tension is created in the working muscle, yet your body does not know how much weight it is lifting, all it knows is how much tension it feels.
The good thing about this is that you can lift a weight of 13 Kg that will feel like 27 only if you lift it in a correct and effective way. By focusing on stress, you will not only decrease the risk of injury , but you will also make room for the creation of an incredible physique.
Does mechanical tension build muscle mass?
According to research, mechanical tension is one of the three main factors associated with muscle growth, as well as muscle damage and metabolic stress . The stress of strength training disturbs the integrity of skeletal muscle, eliciting cellular responses in myofibrils and satellite cells.
Stress has a huge anabolic effect and plays a role in hypertrophy, in part due to a higher rate of protein synthesis.
Other research suggests that the amount of time a muscle is under tension is important for muscle growth . According to a 2011 study, a leg extension exercise with a slow lifting movement (Six seconds up and six seconds down) produces greater increases in the rate of muscle protein synthesis than the same fast heavy lifting.
So if you want to increase muscle mass, one variable that will help you is lifting the weight slowly . Maintaining constant tension at moderate speeds has been shown to improve muscle ischemia and hypoxia, factors that aid in muscle growth.
Will muscle tension make me stronger?
The mind-muscle connection is a term heard among people who lift weights quite often, and for good reason. To work the correct muscle, you have to understand when it is fully flexed and when it is not. Again, the muscles know and feel the tension , not the amount of weight you are lifting.
If you are trying to improve your shoulders, it is much better to use a lighter weight with dumbbells, focusing the movement only on the shoulder blades and arms. You shouldn’t even think about arching your back or bending your knees, as hypertrophy training doesn’t allow movement in any other area of your body.
To reap the benefits of muscle tension and avoid injury, you have to learn the function and range of motion of each muscle. For example, the main action of the biceps brachii is to flex the elbow and supination of the forearm, so the elbow must be fully flexed and take care of the forearm movements to contract the biceps.
This means that there is no need to bend your wrists or make unnecessary movements. Put aside the idea that muscle growth goes hand in hand with lifting heavy weights, you can achieve biceps increase with an effective workout using only 4-6 kg of weight.
If you don’t believe that professional weightlifters use light weight, you can go to YouTube and watch videos of tall athletes. They have more muscle than almost anyone in the world, and they use surprisingly light weights in many exercises. The fundamental idea is to understand how the muscles should be contracted , when you internalize this, the results will be remarkable.
Can muscle tension reduce the risk of injury?
Tension is not only effective in inducing muscle growth, it can also help reduce the likelihood of injury in athletes . If your goal is to maintain perfect shape and highlight your muscles, you must maintain muscle tension without irritating your joints.
That is not to say that you cannot sustain an injury using this method. If you don’t have adequate rest, you are increasing your risk of injury. Always make sure to stretch your muscles after your workout, get about 8 hours of sleep a day, and eat well to keep your body totally healthy.
Exercise can be a painful experience if done incorrectly , and this is why it is always important to seek the help of a qualified professional if you are not completely sure what you are doing.
References
- Luke Briggs. Your Secret Weapon for Pain-Free Muscle Growth. To: breakingmuscle [Revised December 2015]
