Muscle Revolution: Concepts and Recipes for Building Muscle Mass and Force

Foreword
Instructions for Use of This Book
Acknowledgments
Contents
1: What Are We Talking About? Clear Thinking Through Clear Terminology and Vice Versa
	1.1	 Muscles Contract: Not (Only)!
	1.2	 Mice Under the Skin
	1.3	 Why Skeletal Muscles Do Not Have Eccentric Airs and Graces
	1.4	 Do Not Be Deceived by Appearances
	1.5	 The “Trinity” of Force Production
	1.6	 The Relationship Between the Rate of Change of Length and the Force of a Muscle
	1.7	 What Does “Exercise” Actually Mean and How Is It Quantified?
	1.8	 If You Want to Lose Weight, Fly to the Moon!
	1.9	 Muscles Only Want One Thing: To Rotate Loads Around Joints
	1.10	 Why Your Muscles (Have to) Work Even Though You Are Not Performing Any Work
	1.11	 What Do Human Muscles Have to Do with Horses?
	1.12	 Force Always Tastes Like Newtons
	1.13	 Why You Should Not Confuse Your Training Resistance with a Projectile
	1.14	 Jogging on the Leg Press
	1.15	 Summary: Why Muscle Force Does Not Always Lead to Visible Movement
2: All that Glitters Is Not Gold
	2.1	 Surrogates for Internal Muscle Force
	2.2	 How Strong Is “Strong”?
	2.3	 Maximum Force Is Not Equal to Peak Force
	2.4	 Decoding Muscle Force
	2.5	 Muscles in the Zebra Skin
	2.6	 Spoilt for Choice When Selecting the Best Training Tool?
	2.7	 Not All Machines Are Created Equal, or Are They?
	2.8	 The Ominous Force Curve
	2.9	 Summary: Don’t Blindly Follow the Squat Trend
3: Thick and/or Long? A Never Ending Question
	3.1	 The Functional Role of Muscle Length
	3.2	 The Functional Role of Muscle Thickness (Muscle Cross-Sectional Area)
	3.3	 Summary
4: The Neuromuscular Origin of Muscle Force
	4.1	 The Muscles in the Brain
	4.2	 How Is Muscle Force “Coded”?
	4.3	 Muscle Fibers, as Part of the Motor Unit, Always Work as a Team
	4.4	 Why Are Neuromuscular Connections Dotted?
	4.5	 Not All Muscle Fibers Run from Tendon to Tendon
	4.6	 Neuromuscular Catchment Areas
	4.7	 How Motor Units Can Differ
	4.8	 Summary
5: A Bouquet of Cellular Diversity
	5.1	 The Colorful World of Muscle Fibers
	5.2	 Molecular Motors of the Muscle
	5.3	 Fiber Type-Specific Motor Classes
	5.4	 Distribution of Muscle Fiber Types in Humans: What Determines It?
	5.5	 Changes in the Distribution of Muscle Fiber Types Due to Training or Inactivity
	5.6	 Why You Can Produce More Force Pliometrically than Miometrically
	5.7	 Summary: Does “Fast” Training Make Your Muscle Motors Faster?
6: Muscular Energy Bundles
	6.1	 The Dynamics of Muscular Energy Consumption
	6.2	 Matching Supply and Demand
	6.3	 Muscle Fibers Have Several Resources for Regenerating Energy
	6.4	 The Phosphagen System: A Firework of Energy
	6.5	 The Glycolytic System: Sugar-Sweet ATP Regeneration
	6.6	 Mitochondrial Respiration: Why We Need Oxygen
	6.7	 Mitochondria: Small but Mighty!
	6.8	 Integration of the Three Systems for the Regeneration of ATP
	6.9	 Summary: ATP Molecules Resemble Rechargeable Batteries
7: Why You Fatigue During Exercise
	7.1	 The Different Components of Neuromuscular Fatigue
	7.2	 Metabolites as Fatigue Mediators
	7.3	 Microtraumata as Fatigue Mediators
	7.4	 From Muscle Mice to Sore Muscles
	7.5	 Summary: The Lore of Being Sore
8: The Molecular and Cellular Muscle Universe
	8.1	 Muscle Regeneration: A Balancing Act
	8.2	 DNA: The Mother Molecule of All (Muscle) Proteins
	8.3	 All Muscle Fibers Are Muscle Cells, But Not All Muscle Cells Are Muscle Fibers
	8.4	 When Satellite Cells Are Awakened
	8.5	 The Gift of Self-Renewal
	8.6	 Muscle Spindles Also Contain Muscle Fibers
	8.7	 Characterisation of Human Muscle Tissue
	8.8	 Summary
9: How You Can Influence Which Muscle Fibers Are Used in Training
	9.1	 Back to the Motor Units
	9.2	 How Is the Force of a Muscle Modulated During Voluntary Force Production?
	9.3	 Muscle War Zone: Recruit and Fire!
	9.4	 How Do Recruitment and Increase in Firing Frequency Encode the Level of Force?
	9.5	 What Do Autonomous Reserves Have to Do with Hibernation?
	9.6	 The Tonic Recruitment Threshold
	9.7	 The Regular Recruitment of Motor Units
	9.8	 Mechanism of Recruitment of Motor Units
	9.9	 Where Brain Meets Muscle
	9.10	 How Is the Rate of Force Development Encoded by Recruitment and Frequency?
	9.11	 Practical Relevance: Force Magnitude and Rate of Force Development
	9.12	 Do You Want Big and Strong Muscles? Weaken Them!
	9.13	 Can Type 2 Fibers Be Selectively Activated?
	9.14	 Neuroanatomical Muscle Cartography
	9.15	 Force Transmission Between Neighbours
	9.16	 Tensional Integrity and Mechanotransduction: To What Extent Do Muscle Fibers Have Integrity?
	9.17	 Can a Muscle Be Specifically “Sculpt”?
	9.18	 Summary
10: When Resistance Training Meets Muscle Plasticity
	10.1	 How Do Muscles Adapt To Resistance Training?
	10.2	 Length Adaptation (Longitudinal Hypertrophy or Atrophy) in Animals and Humans
	10.3	 Radial Growth of Muscle (Radial Hypertrophy or Atrophy) in Humans
	10.4	 Summary
11: How Is Skeletal Muscle Protein Synthesized and Broken Down?
	11.1	 Building Muscle Protein Mass
	11.2	 The Relationship Between MPS and MPB
	11.3	 How Your Muscles Hypertrophy and Atrophy Hourly
	11.4	 Summary
12: Dietary Protein as an Anabolic Stimulus
	12.1	 Whole-Body Protein Metabolism Is Not Equal to Muscle Protein Metabolism
	12.2	 The Anabolic Effect of Dietary Protein on Muscle Metabolism
	12.3	 Protein Quality Counts!
	12.4	 The Protein Quantity Counts as Well!
	12.5	 Why Eating Alone Isn\'t Sufficient to Bulk Up Muscles
	12.6	 The Concept of Full Muscle
	12.7	 Amino Acids, Protein Shakes or Meals?
	12.8	 Are Carbohydrates Necessary in a Protein Shake?
	12.9	 Why Not Take Isolated Amino Acids?
	12.10	 Summary
13: Resistance Exercise as an Anabolic Stimulus
	13.1	 The Acute Anabolic Muscle Response to Resistance Exercise
	13.2	 Bridging the Gap Between Muscle Protein Synthesis and Motor Unit Recruitment
	13.3	 How Does Training Intensity Affect Muscle Protein Synthesis?
	13.4	 The Dose-Response Relationship Between Training Load and the Acute Increase in Muscle Protein Synthesis
	13.5	 What Influence Does the Muscular Time Under Tension Have on the Anabolism of the Muscle?
	13.6	 Which Is More Effective: Single-Set or Multi-set Training? A Pointless Question
	13.7	 The Key to Muscle Growth
	13.8	 The Difference Between Time Under Tension, Effective Time Under Tension and Number of Repetitions
	13.9	 Is Pliometric (Eccentric) More Effective than Miometric (Concentric)?
	13.10	 Skeletal Muscles Also Have a “Feeling of Satiety”
	13.11	 What Is the Optimum Time Interval with Which to Train a Particular Muscle?
	13.12	 Misconception of Supercompensation
	13.13	 Summary
14: The Synergistic Relationship Between Resistance Exercise and Dietary Protein Intake
	14.1	 The Synergistic Effect Between Resistance Exercise and Dietary Protein
	14.2	 Protein Intake: Best Before, During or After Resistance Exercise?
	14.3	 Does Resistance Exercise Affect Protein Digestion?
	14.4	 Is Carbohydrate Intake Necessary Immediately After Resistance Exercise to Maximize MPS or Minimize MPB?
	14.5	 Is the Anabolic Response of the Muscle Weaker if You Train with Relatively Empty Muscle Glycogen Stores?
	14.6	 Transfer from Acute to Long-Term Effects?
	14.7	 When Does Protein Supplementation Make Sense?
	14.8	 Summary
15: Does Endurance Training Inhibit Muscle Growth?
	15.1	 Who Bites Whom: The Resistance Training the Endurance Training or Vice Versa?
	15.2	 Why Muscle Protein Synthesis Is Not a Priority in the Presence of Energy Stress
	15.3	 Misconception of Periodization
	15.4	 Does Resistance Training Make Sense for Endurance Athletes?
	15.5	 Why Resistance Training Hardly Makes Your Heart Fitter
	15.6	 Summary
16: The Hunt for Hormonal Ghosts
	16.1	 Whole Body or Split Training?
	16.2	 Why Testosterone Is Overrated as an Anabolic Hormone
	16.3	 How Does Resistance Exercise Affect the Blood Concentration of Anabolic Hormones?
	16.4	 Summary
17: Men Are Not Martians and Women Are Not Venusians
	17.1	 What Does Planetary Science Have to Do with Gender-Specific Muscle Development?
	17.2	 How the Contraceptive Pill Can Affect Your Muscle Mass
	17.3	 XXY
	17.4	 Summary
18: Specificity of Adaptation to Training
	18.1	 Does Your Right Arm Benefit When You Exercise Your Left?
	18.2	 Initially with the Shotgun, Later with the Precision Rifle
	18.3	 Exerceuticals
	18.4	 Summary
19: Why Muscle Training Is Not Optional
	19.1	 The Hidden Sides of the Skeletal Muscles
	19.2	 The Muscle-Bone Unit
	19.3	 The Bone-Building Potential of Training and Exercise Purely from the Perspective of the Bone Deformation Achieved: Practical Tips
	19.4	 Training During Pregnancy
	19.5	 “From the Age of 25, Muscle Force and Mass Go Downhill”: If You Believe So!
	19.6	 Anabolic Resistance
	19.7	 The Anti-aging Effect of Resistance Training
	19.8	 Summary
20: At the End of the Day, What Makes You Aesthetic?
	20.1	 The Difference Between Muscle Mass and Body Mass
	20.2	 If Measuring, Then Correctly
	20.3	 Fat Loss
	20.4	 Why You Do Not Continue to Lose Weight Despite Even More Exercise
	20.5	 About Problem Zones and Cellulite
	20.6	 Is There an Optimal Time of Day for Muscle Training?
	20.7	 The Path from Training Stimulus to Muscle Adaptation
	20.8	 Summary
21: Nature’s Whim: The Extent of Adaptation to Training Is Individual
	21.1	 Interindividual Variability of Adaptation to Training: The New Mantra?
	21.2	 Twice as Much Muscle Mass: Without Training!
	21.3	 What Can Be Expected in Terms of Average Muscle Growth?
	21.4	 Why We Sometimes Confuse Cause and Effect in Training Too
	21.5	 Summary
22: Neural Aspects of ResistanceTraining
	22.1	 Force Versus Exercise Competence
	22.2	 Is a Bigger Muscle Also a Stronger Muscle?
	22.3	 Are 100 Newtons Equal to 100 Newtons?
	22.4	 Core Training
	22.5	 Rate of Force Development
	22.6	 Summary
23: Anabolic Enhancers
	23.1	 Vitamin D
	23.2	 β-Hydroxy-β-Methylbutyrate (HMB): Top or Flop?
	23.3	 Fish Oil as an Anabolic Enhancer
	23.4	 Creatine Supplementation: Why? What for?
	23.5	 Summary
24: Go for It!
References
Index