Most of us think that increasing our workout intensity and doing as many reps as we can is the only way to build our muscle any faster, however there is one factor to weight training that a lot of us don’t recognize. This factor is our genetics.
Genetics alone usually won’t have a large impact on muscle growth but altering our workout program to encompass our genetics can make it far easier to accelerate this process. It’s also good to know how our genetics effect us every day and what we can do to build muscle as fast as we can with the genetics we have.
In today’s blog I’m going to talk about how genetics have an impact on muscle building and how each person can take advantage of their physical genetic makeup.
Hormones:
During teenage years, hormones are firing, and growth spurts appear everywhere, creating random bursts of muscle growth. The chemical that promotes this rapid weight gain is called testosterone and is a hormone released by the sex organs during puberty.
While all people are affected by this chemical at specific points in their lives, the amount of testosterone produced and released is partly dependant on genetics. If you tend to have larger and longer testosterone spikes, muscle tissue will be generated much more quickly within your body during puberty.
Of course, if you have lower testosterone levels, you may have to rely more on weight training to earn a majority of the results you wish to get.
Body Composition:
Body type is one of the biggest genetic traits that dictate your muscle growth and will likely be the foundation of how your body responds to exercising and weight training.
Body composition is made up of multiple factors including height, bone composition, fat capacity and far more. These elements are all organized into three separate categories of body types. Endomorph, mesomorph and ectomorph.
Endomorph:
When comparing body figures, endomorphs are usually going to be on the shorter end of the spectrum. Due to their lower metabolism levels, endomorphs are also pretty vulnerable to fat gain. While it’s fairly easy for endomorphs to gain fat, they commonly have little to no problems with muscle growth and can use this to their advantage in order to start shedding some weight.
Weight training for endomorphs is generally a good idea as it helps to raise the metabolism both during the workouts and in the long run from increased muscle mass. This can help to burn fat and give the body a leaner profile.
Some people suggest combining cardio and weight training for that accelerated fat loss, but it’s completely up to you.
Mesomorph:
Mesomorphs are sort of the middle ground for body figures. While they still have potential to gain some fat, their bodies are most abundant in muscle tissue instead. Mesomorphs have naturally strong and athletic features along with a firm bone structure.
Muscle growth comes easiest to people with this body type but will still have to be worked for.
Ectomorph:
People that share the traits of an ectomorph are commonly very tall and thin and contain very delicate features. These body types are usually a result of a higher metabolism and can very easily lose muscle along with fat. Alternatively, the high metabolism also makes it very hard to gain muscle and fat rather than just losing it although there is a solution to this so don’t worry!
Workouts for ectomorphs are suggested to be short yet very intense to create large muscle tears but reduce a long-lasting metabolism spike. Ectomorphs should be eating a large quantity of carbs along with light snacks before bed to ensure the body has an external source of energy to feed off of during rest.
Muscle mass is harder to come by within these sorts of people but can and will be produced if they use the tips given above. A blog targeting this body type will also be posted soon which I highly recommend reading.
Muscle Fibers
Muscle tissues are made up of two separate kinds of fibers that have vastly different purposes. While both are used to contract and loosen in order to move the body, their characteristics and processes are very unique in comparison to one another.
Before analyzing the differences between each muscle fiber, you must first understand the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise as I use these terms a lot within my description of muscle fibers.
Anaerobic exercise is exercise that involves limited to no oxygen supply and commonly depends on other energy resources such as food and carbohydrates. During anaerobic exercise, the body tends to tire a lot quicker because when the body has no access to the energy conversion system fueled by oxygen, the supply of energy is a lot more limited meaning the body can be exhausted far faster.
Aerobic exercise on the other hand does require oxygen and can sustain its supply for a very long time. Aerobic exercise is able to sustain its energy for a longer period of time because of the multiple energy systems supplying the body along with the slow yet consistent muscle contractions used during aerobic exercises.
Slow twitch muscle fibers:
Slow twitch muscle fibers are more effective for activities that involve endurance and consistency in movement such as a long jog or a marathon. This long-term use is a result of the more regulated and continuous production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) energy that is used to fuel the cells because of its relation to aerobic exercise and heavy use of oxygen.
Slow twitch muscle fibers expand and grow but at a slower rate than fast twitch muscle fibers. If you’ve ever compared the muscles of a professional marathon runner to those of a professional sprinter, you will see how the size of each muscle compares and how the marathon runner seems to be thin and lithe compared to the sprinter.
Fast twitch muscle fibers:
Fast twitch muscle fibers are far more effective at exercises that involve short bursts of energy. Due to their anaerobic nature, fast twitch muscle fibers are able to fire very rapidly and create huge bursts of energy and movement, but the cost is faster fatigue.
When doing anaerobic activities such as weight training or sprinting, the body is only able to supply oxygen for an extremely short duration of time causing the body to rely primarily on alternative energy sources such as carbs, protein and fat.
Unfortunately, when the body’s demand of energy is so high and it only has access to one energy generation system, it quickly loses energy and crashes. This is why we can’t sprint for longer than a minute at most.
Unlike slow twitch muscle fibers, fast twitch fibers are able to expand and multiply at a much faster rate resulting in more bulk and muscle mass when trained consistently.
How This Relates to Genes:
While expanding these separate muscle fibers in order to gain muscle mass can be done separately through exercise, the ratio of slow twitch to fast twitch muscle fibers present within a body is completely reliable on the genetic makeup of the person. This means that if an individual has more fast twitch muscle fibers, muscle growth will be more successful than those with less.
Of course, if someone were born with more slow twitch muscle fibers, they will be put at a small disadvantage. Weight training to build muscle for those with slower twitch muscle fibers will be slightly slower than those with a ratio in favour of fast twitch muscle fibers.
Anyone Can Achieve Muscle Growth
As you may have already discovered, genes play a very large role in the development of muscle. Not everyone builds muscle at the same pace no matter how similar each schedule is, but we can still all build the muscle we want if we try hard enough.
Some of us will be forced to grow muscle at slightly slower rates in comparison to others but that’s totally fine. As long as we eventually get to where we want to go, nothing else really matters.
Relates Topic: Increase Your Workout Intensity and Endurance
Thank you for visiting today’s blog and I hope you get a general understanding of your genetic makeup to possibly help you out with your weight training. If you are new to the blog, you can show your support through email subscriptions below or you can leave a comment which I will happily respond to. See you soon!
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