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Muscle HyperplasiaMuscle HyperplasiaMuscle hyperplasia increases the number of cells in the muscle. Muscle growth can occur by means of two basic mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and muscle hyperplasia. Muscle hypertrophy deals with increasing the individual cell of the muscle by increasing its diameter i.e. its size. To gain weight both the mechanisms are highly helpful. In infants the percentage of hyperplasia has been seen to be very high, which keep reducing along with age. In adults, the damaged cells during workouts can be repaired by triggering growth of new cells by means of muscle hyperplasia. Muscle hyperplasia has been studied using various hypertrophied muscles. Muscle hypertrophy following muscle hyperplasia has been seen to be happening only with prolonged training. One way to induce hypertrophy is heavy resistance training for long duration of time. Studies indicate that hypertrophy is a more important adaptive response to exercise training than muscle hyperplasia. Muscle hyperplasia and hypertrophy has been observed in studies in the laboratory on instances like ‘prolonged weight-lifting exercise of rats and cats and bodybuilders who have extraordinarily big muscles’. Hyperplasia in rats and cats have been taken by direct counting using the nitric acid treatment method, whereas in humans it has been obtained from analysis of the biopsy tests. The main problem with human studies to determine if muscle fiber hyperplasia contributes to muscle hypertrophy is the inability to make direct counts of human muscle fibers. The basic reason because of which hyperplasia occurs is due to excessive weight lifting. Bodybuilders use heavy weights and increase the number of reps to induce hyperplasia. Additionally, couple of exercises known as “muscle pumping up” is done to target one particular muscle with 16 to 20 consecutive sets for 30 to 40 minutes. In the study on rats, cats and humans, the cats had a workout training with weights which is different from that of the ones for rats and humans. It has been observed in biopsy studies in the case of swimmers and kayakers that they develop hypertrophied deltoideus muscle even though their muscle fiber is relatively small. Both the sport follows a pattern of extended high intensity and endurance training to stimulate muscle hypertrophy following muscle hyperplasia. Muscle hyperplasia is induced during extended heavy weight training and is related to the damages of the fibers. Proof of that can be seen from the biopsy study of bodybuilders, who develop features like central nuclei and degenerative changes which indicates that there has been damages to the fibers when they exercise to gain weight and build muscle. Muscle hyperplasia is triggered by two possibilities. One is that the muscle fiber can split into two or more smaller fibers and the second possibility which contributes to muscle hyperplasia is that the satellite cells can be activated. These types of damages in the muscle fiber contribute to muscle hyperplasia. |