DAMAGE AS A STIMULUS FOR

GROWTH
Back to: The science of Hypertrophy

Muscle damage will activate a significant part of the muscle growth process by initiating the repair/rebuilding mechanics.

When your fibers sustain muscle damage, various signals like interleukins, FGF and neutrophils activate the satellite cells surrounding
the muscle cells. Satellite/stem cells once activated will replicate. Among the replicated cells you will have proliferating cells that can
either be new muscle cells or more often give their cellular material to the damaged cells to facilitate repair and rebuilding.

It is important to note that this is a process driven by the immune system. People with a weaker immune system will thus have a harder
time repairing damaged muscle tissue and increasing muscle mass in response to muscle damage.

We must understand that this satellite cell activation is not sufficient to maximize muscle growth. You will still need to increase protein
synthesis to be able to speed up the rebuilding process. This is done by either the anabolic hormones (IGF-1, testosterone, etc.) or
mTOR.

Finally, cell swelling that comes from the inflammatory response to training could itself trigger muscle growth: the increase in intra-
cellular pressure triggering protein synthesis. This might be the reason why the use of anti-inflammatory drugs reduces muscle growth
from training.