How to Become Stronger

Report #7088

To become very strong, you have to exercise your muscles against resistance to the point where your muscles start to burn. The only stimulus that makes muscles larger is to stretch the muscle fibers while the muscle shortens. To help you picture how muscles shorten, think of two toothpicks lying end to end. Then, slide the toothpicks along each other, so that the toothpicks end up beside each other. Your muscle fibers function in a similar manner. When you lift a heavy weight, the fibers are stretched as the fiber filaments slide along each other.

The first time that you lift a heavy weight, you use only a small percentage of your muscle fibers, perhaps 3%. As you continue to lift and lower a weight, you bring in more and more fibers, until 30 to 50 seconds have elapsed, and lactic acid starts to accumulate in the muscle. This reduces the number of contracting fibers. You use the most muscle fibers when you exercise them against heavy resistance for 30-50 seconds, the time that it takes to lift and lower a heavy weight slowly 8 to 12 times.

This stimulus of exercising against heavy resistance is so strong that a person can enlarge a muscle while he is fasting, losing weight and all other muscles are getting smaller. Pick the heaviest weight that you can lift and lower slowly 10 times in a row. Stop lifting if you feel pain or start to lose control.

A study from the University of Florida in Gainesville showed that most people will become as strong by lifting weights in one set of ten as performing three sets of ten for the same weight.
More

By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News
Checked 11/2/09