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	How Muscles Respond to Weightlifting A weightlifting program can bring some great benefits. However, you will get the best results if you adjust it to fit your goals. To do this, it helps to know how your body responds to weightlifting. With that in mind, here are some of the primary responses of your body to weightlifting: Neuromuscular Strength Neuromuscular strength comes from how strongly the nervous system signals the muscle to contract. Here are the major factors that increase neuromuscular strength: Signaling more muscle fibers to contract Neurons firning faster Better coordination between contracting muscle fibers All resistance exercises will increase neuromuscular strength. Extremely low reps (1 to 2) will increase neuromuscular strength with very little muscle growth. Myofibrillar Hypertrophy Myofibrillary hypertrophy is an increase in the cross-sectional area of the muscle fibers. It is caused by an increase in the number of myofibrils. It increases the tensile strength and force-generating capability of the muscle. It results in bigger muscles combined with increased strength. You maximize myofibrillar hypertrophy by forcing the muscles to exert high forces. You can do this by lifting heavy weights that exhaust the muscles after 3 to 5 reps. Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is an increase in the volume of the sarcoplasm (the muscle's cytoplasm). It allows the sarcoplasm to house more glycogen, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and creatine phosphate (CP). It causes muscle growth combined with increased resistance to muscle fatigue. You stimulate sarcoplasmic hypertrophy by taxing the muscles' supply of ATP, CP, and glycogen. You do this with high sets or reps with resistance high enough to be anaerobic. Lifting weights that cause exhaustion after 10 to 15 reps will achieve this, especially with short rest periods between sets. You can also use intensity enhancement techniques like drop sets, giant sets, etc. None of these adaptations happen in isolation. An untrained person will achieve all of them. However, you can train for the optimum combination based on your goal. For example, you can train for the following: Proportional strength: Training with heavy sets that cause exhaustion after 1 to 5 reps will give the most strength gain relative to muscle growth. The strength gains are from neuromuscular strength gain and myofibrillar hypertrophy. This is ideal for powerlifters. Muscle growth: Training with weights that cause exhaustion after 8 to 12 reps will give good muscle growth. The muscle growth is from a combination of myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. You will also become stronger and more resistant to muscle fatigue. Anaerobic endurance: Training with resistance that causes exhaustion after 15 reps or more will lead to anaerobic endurance. That is provided the resistance is enough to tax your glycogen stores. You will still get some muscle growth even if it is a small amount. It is why high-level cyclists have muscular legs. What matters is that you tailor your training based on your goals. Other articles

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