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Lesson #1: Muscle Perturbation
If you want to grow muscle you should understand the concept and feeling of muscle perturbation.
How do you know if you’ve stimulated the muscle enough to grow?
When you resistance train you stress the muscle tissue. Mechanically, metabolically, and neuromuscularly. Through tension, metabolite accumulation, and neural drive and motor unit recruitment.
This causes a disruption to the normal homeostatic state of your muscle which forces your muscle to adapt and grow over time.
There are a few key feelings and sensations to pay attention to which can help you assess whether or not you’re achieving a high level of muscle perturbation.
The first and most important is the feeling of tension. It’s the stretching, the tightening, and the tearing feeling in the muscle fibers as they resist the load.
The second is the sensation of burning in the muscle during the exercise. It’s the deep burn from metabolite accumulation.
The third is a sense of shakiness and instability. It’s the muscle fighting to maintain control under the high demand of the load.
The fourth comes after your training session and is the amount of neuromuscular fatigue that you feel. It’s the feeling of depletion in the muscle. It’s a slight loss of coordination and a disconnection from your usual ease of movement.
The fifth and last sensation is your delayed onset muscle soreness, or your DOMS. It’s a lingering tightness in the muscle. It can occur anywhere from hours to days after the training session.
So how do you know if you’ve stimulated the muscle enough to grow? Well, you pay attention to the feeling and sense of perturbation.
And you maintain this muscle perturbation through progressive overload and exercise variation over time.
Insights In Progress Newsletter
My Insights In Progress Newsletter is all about personal growth – in life, at work, in health and fitness, in relationships and more!
These insights come from my reading and experiences as a paramedic, personal trainer, and progress enthusiast.
I won’t always be right. In fact, I’ll often be wrong. But that’s the point – learning, questioning, and figuring things out along the way.
Join me as I explore deep and meaningful topics with curiosity, humility, and a commitment to growth.
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