You have muscle cells that are grouped in bundles called motor units. They are called units because each of these muscle cells has a single nerve that commands them to contract or relax. Each motor unit is either completely on, or completely off - there is no in-between.
So, when it comes to strength, think of it like tug of war. You have two teams with 200 people each. However, lets say you start out and team A has all 200 pulling at once, while team B only has 50 people. Who do you think will win?
When you are using your muscles, your motor units switch on in groups. More motor units at once means more force generated. This is how you can control speed - while each unit is either on or off, your central nervous system will command groups to switch on at the same time - just enough to allow you to move the weight at that speed.
So, your two people are training differently. One person has perhaps some more genetic potential for mass and/or has trained to gain mass. The other person has more efficient muscles. Your body never effectively utilizes 100% of your motor units. This is why you can find someone small with a lot of strength - their muscles are more efficient. The strongest power-lifters don't have muscles as big as the biggest bodybuilders for this reason. It's a different response and stimulus.
For the Girls:
There are more myths and misconceptions about strength training than any other area of fitness. While research continues to uncover more and more reasons why working out with weights is good for you, many women continue to avoid resistance training for fear of developing muscles of Herculean proportions.
Other women have tried it and been less than thrilled with the results. Don't worry, people say. Women can't build muscle like men. They don't have enough testosterone. This is, in fact, only partly true.
Many women, believing they wouldn't build muscle, hit the gym with a vengeance and then wondered why, after several weeks of resistance training, their clothes didn't fit and they had gained muscle weight.
The truth is, not everyone responds to training in quite the same way. While testosterone plays a role in muscle development, the answer to why some men and women increase in muscle size and others don't, lies within our DNA.
We are predisposed to respond to exercise in a particular way, in large part, because of our genetics. Our genetic makeup determines what types of muscle fibres we have and where they are distributed. It determines our ratio of testosterone to estrogen and where we store body fat. It also determines our body type.
A question of body type…
All women fall under one of three body classifications, or are a combination of types. Mesomorphs tend to be muscular, endomorphs are more rounded and voluptuous and ectomorphs are slim or linear in shape. Mesomorphs respond to strength training by building muscle mass much faster than their ectomorphic counterparts, even though they may be following identical training regimens.
Endomorphs generally need to lose body fat in order to see a change in size or shape as a result of strength training. Ectomorphs are less likely to build muscle mass but will become stronger as a result of resistance training.
Building just your heart muscle…
One of the fundamental principles of strength training is that if you overload the muscle, you will increase its size. With aerobic training, the overload is typically your body weight. Activities such as step/bench training or stair-stepping result in changes in the size and shape of the muscles of the lower body. Increasing the height of the step or adding power movements increases the overload.
For those concerned about building muscle, it would be better to reduce the step height or lower the impact of the movements. While this may reduce the aerobic value of the workout, it also will decrease the amount of overload on the muscles, making it less likely that you will build more muscle.
For the boys
Ok, so you want to get huge?! You get into the gym, pound weights til you have a big red head, go home and thats it. You might think thats all you have to do - pump the weights. If only it was that simple.
Nutrition plays a very large part of recovery and growth. Without both you won’t put muscle on. Bodybuilding diets are constantly changing due to the increase of your muscle mass; if you put muscle on you have to eat more, if you lose muscle you need to eat less. So how do you keep an eye on what is happening inside the body?
Well, you have two means that would work. The first is by asking the team at B Transformed to start tracking your bodyfat percentage on the specialized scales. You should also monitor your weight to see if your goal to put muscle on is causing an increase in bodyweight. This will sort out questions like ‘If the weight is going up then is it muscle? or is the stomach getting bigger?’. Be cautious, you can expect to put some bodyfat on when trying to put muscle on, but you want to monitor that the dreaded fat isn’t going on to much.
Another good method of checking which is going up, muscle or fat is to use a set of body fat calipers. Again, ask the team at B Transformed to get your measurements using these.
If you’re interested in building more muscle, or body building, ask the team at B Transformed to sit you down and work out a program that is specifically catered to your needs, we will walk you through the training, nutrition, and willpower requirements.
Training by the rules…
When it comes to strength training, the old rule still applies: to get stronger, work with heavier weights and perform fewer repetitions. To promote endurance, use lighter weights and complete more repetitions.
It's encouraging to note that just like men, most women will experience a 20 percent to 40 percent increase in muscular strength after several months of resistance training.
Understanding your body type and how you might respond to exercise can help you set realistic goals and expectations. Avoid comparisons to others you see, at the clinic or elsewhere, and remember that no two people are alike.
Focus on how good exercise makes you feel rather than how you would like to look. Accepting our bodies for what they are is a great way to get rid of the guilt or pressure we often feel to look a certain way.