The benefits of lifting weights to increase muscle occur in 5 stages

Lifting weights is an ideal type of exercise to build and increase muscle mass. The benefits of lifting weights also include weight loss and fighting osteoporosis. But you may be wondering, what happens to the muscles of the body after lifting weights so that you can grow up like a bodybuilder? Here's the explanation.

The benefits of lifting weights to increase muscle occur in the following 5 steps

1. There was a small injury to the muscle

Intense weight lifting causes small wounds to form in the muscle fibers and connective tissue. At first, the wound will be small, but it will continue to grow in large numbers, exhausting the muscles.

The healing process for muscle wounds can take more than a week, but you can speed it up by eating more foods high in carbohydrates, protein and healthy fats as soon as you finish exercising until the next few days. These food sources help speed up the process of building new muscle.

Adequate rest after exercise can also help speed up healing of tired muscles after lifting weights.

2. Muscle damage

Lifting weights and doing other strenuous exercise causes minor tears and other damage to your muscle tissue. As scary as it may sound, this damage is actually a key component of muscle development.

The damage your muscles receive while lifting weights triggers the healing process and also prompts your body to try and adjust to prevent other damage in the future.

3. Rebuild muscles

Over time, the tired muscle cells will be repaired by the body while the damaged muscle cells will be replaced with new ones. The body's ability to rebuild muscles contributes to increased muscle size, strength and capacity.

This muscle building process is assisted by the digestion of protein from food which will be used to make new muscle.

4. Formation of lactic acid

Lifting weights or other types of strenuous exercise will stimulate the body to produce lactic acid as a waste of the body's metabolism.

To a reasonable extent, lactic acid can be burned as an energy reserve when the body needs more energy which can be generated through cellular respiration. Simply put, lactic acid can increase your stamina to exercise longer.

Even so, excessive amounts of lactic acid in the body can harm muscles. This causes muscle fatigue and muscle pain that feels like burning after exercise.

5. Pump muscles

The muscles will contract frequently enough to allow you to lift and lower the weights during exercise.

This contraction puts pressure on the blood vessels, causing blood to flow to the muscles. As a result, there is an increase in blood pressure in the muscles. This increase in blood pressure causes blood plasma to leak from the capillaries into the surrounding tissue. This process is what causes the "pumping effect" so that the muscles become enlarged.