Muscular Hypertrophy and Lactic Acid - Unlocking the body's secret weapon to building muscle mass!

Generally, when you see muscular hypertrophy you automatically think muscle growth, but when you see lactic acid you think the opposite like breakdown and inability to finish reps or exercise. Most affiliate lactic acid with overtraining a muscle group and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). This post will actually squash the myth of lactic acid and perceived notions. I want to define both terms first:

Muscular Hypertrophy - is an increase in the size of a muscle through an increase in the size of its component cells. It differs from muscle hyperplasia, which is the formation of new muscle cells. Depending on the type of training, the hypertrophy can occur through increased sarcoplasmic volume or increased contractile proteins.

Lactic Acid – also known as milk acid or 2-hydroxypropanoic acid is an acid that is formed by the body. It exists in some foods. In the body, lactic acid develops generally in conjunction with exercise. As for foods, lactic acid exists in certain milk products, like yogurt, as well as some processed food like breads and beers.

Lactic Acid in Action and Its role in Muscular Hypertrophy

In the body, lactic acid forms during strenuous exercise or activity, when oxygen is limited, the body temporarily converts pyruvate into a substance called lactate, which allows glucose breakdown--and thus energy production--to continue. A complex process called glycolysis, breaks glycogen in the muscles into glucose and is one of the primary sources of energy we need to exercise. During glycolysis, each glucose molecule splits in two pyruvic acid molecules. The resulting energy is released and forms into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Normally, the pyruvic acid merges with mitochondria and undergoes the oxidation process, which produces more ATP. The working muscle cells can continue this type of anaerobic energy production at high rates for one to three minutes, during which time lactate can accumulate to high levels.

Lactic acid has always been thought of as only the result of metabolizing of glucose for energy and considered a waste product that causes the burning sensation in muscles. Recent studies have shown different, its instrumental in avoiding hypoglycemia, which is basically weakness and fatigue related to low blood sugar. It helps in the “fight” or “flight” survival instinct and serves as an energy source. Now, that’s not all that happens with the formation of lactic acid. Contrary to popular belief, lactate or, as it is often called, lactic acid buildup is not responsible for the muscle soreness felt in the days following strenuous exercise. Rather, the production of lactate and other metabolites during extreme exertion results in the burning sensation often felt in active muscles, though which exact metabolites are involved remains unclear.

Here are the facts about this lactate hormone:

1) When you perform tough work out, this agent helps you to grow stronger.

2) Approximately 80% of the energy is prepared from building muscles but when this energy is required to power muscles, it is lost as heat.

3) Foods are converted into energy by the help of these enzymes. But these enzymes have need of oxygen to carry out this process. The trouble is that when you are performing workout, you are not able to obtain the essential amount of oxygen to metabolize food and release energy.

4) When this hormone accumulates in muscles and spread all over the blood stream, it makes all the muscles acidic and cause them to burn. This process has negative influence on your performance, and causes your muscles to build slowly.

5) Small amount of energy is required to convert this ingredient into energy. From this we have found that those muscles produce a lot of lactic acid, which need less oxygen.

The BIGGEST point to understand is this lactic acid formation will help you gain muscle mass. This is going to throw you for a loop…… The more lactic acid that forms (…in other words, the greater the burning sensation and pain…), the greater the amount of growth hormone (HGH) and IGF-1 forms as a response to that. Those two key hormones are big players in muscle mass growth and need no introduction...

In addition, when lactic acid forms in a muscle being trained, two processes called muscle satellite cell proliferation and muscle satellite cell activation come into play as a result. These two processes are also important pieces of the muscle gaining process. What happens is in response to mechanical strain, satellite cells become activated. Activated satellite cells initially proliferate as skeletal myoblasts before undergoing myogenic differentiation. This in simple terms means growth and repair.

Also, a result of lactic acid formation and low levels of blood oxygen within the muscle being trained, all muscle fibers are called into play to help out….slow-twitch, fast-twitch, etc. Meaning more muscle recruitment and contraction.

Ensuring that you are triggering specific feedbacks from the trained muscle, such as the burning feeling, aka lactic acid formation, is crucial in making sure that you are stimulating muscle weight gain from your workout program.

The hormonal, metabolic, and muscle fiber responses to the increase of muscular lactic acid and the lack of fresh oxygen in the area all play a huge role in building a muscular physique. This is the part where you have to be in tune with your body. Feel your muscles contracting and “feel” the burn. Know your limitations because you can cause injury if you do overdo it, but your body will definitely let you know when you have reached your limit.

The key to this approach is going to be higher reps and slower concentrated movements. Meaning lowering the weights slower and pushing it up slower. Thus, maximizing the contractions and muscular pumps. In turn, increasing lactic acid which activates the release growth hormone (HGH) and IGF-1. Leading ultimately to increased muscle mass.

This was brought to you by G&C Productions. I want to give credit to GS9902 for the idea, the title, and for the teamwork we did together in bringing this information to the community. We will be brainstorming more topics to help educate the community in the future. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did putting it together. I hope we helped someone…