4 ms·

I think general strength-training folk-wisdom is that it's easier to build muscle if at some point in the past you had built muscle, even if it had withered in

I think general strength-training folk-wisdom is that it's easier to build muscle if at some point in the past you had built muscle, even if it had withered in the meantime. I don't understand the science here, but I think they're saying the initial muscle-building efforts do something to the genome that allow future hypertrophy efforts to be more fruitful.

AstralStorm 7y ago
Mind you, n=8 pilot study. The most interesting tidbit is related to aging, but they didn't check if old muscle responds similarly, or how the profiles are different in older individuals. Epigenetics is fascinating and can hold another key to fixing aging...
- baxtr 7y ago
  Small n is not always a deal breaker, IF the small sample resembles the greater population (which I can't judge in this case). https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2008/11/9/656465/- https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2008/11/9/656465/-
  - darawk 7y ago
    That and if the effect size is sufficiently large, though I can't imagine n=8 is enough to detect an effect size of the type we're likely looking at here reliably.
amval 7y ago
Simplified and probably somehwat inaccurate explanation: The currently believed theory about this effect it's that the number of nuclei in your muscle cells increase, along with the actuall volume of the cell. Cell volume decreases quite fast, but the number of nuclei stays more or less constant, allowing you tor egain cell volume quite fast. Anabolic drugs push the natural upper limits of myonuclei per cell, which can remain higher than natural even years after stopping exercise/dosing. So once you have reached a certain level of hypertrophy
- lawlessone 7y ago
  our cells can have multiple nuclei?
  - raverbashing 7y ago
    Yup, muscle cells do Some have no nuclei, like (mature) red blood cells
  - burfog 7y ago
    Yes, in long muscle fibers and in the syncytiotrophoblast of the placenta. This involves repurposed viral DNA. Viruses use that DNA to spread directly from cell to cell. The placenta makes a giant multi-nucleated cell to block any gaps.

AstralStorm 7y ago

Mind you, n=8 pilot study. The most interesting tidbit is related to aging, but they didn't check if old muscle responds similarly, or how the profiles are different in older individuals. Epigenetics is fascinating and can hold another key to fixing aging...

baxtr 7y ago
Small n is not always a deal breaker, IF the small sample resembles the greater population (which I can't judge in this case). https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2008/11/9/656465/- https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2008/11/9/656465/-
- darawk 7y ago
  That and if the effect size is sufficiently large, though I can't imagine n=8 is enough to detect an effect size of the type we're likely looking at here reliably.

amval 7y ago

Simplified and probably somehwat inaccurate explanation: The currently believed theory about this effect it's that the number of nuclei in your muscle cells increase, along with the actuall volume of the cell. Cell volume decreases quite fast, but the number of nuclei stays more or less constant, allowing you tor egain cell volume quite fast. Anabolic drugs push the natural upper limits of myonuclei per cell, which can remain higher than natural even years after stopping exercise/dosing. So once you have reached a certain level of hypertrophy

lawlessone 7y ago
our cells can have multiple nuclei?
- raverbashing 7y ago
  Yup, muscle cells do Some have no nuclei, like (mature) red blood cells
- burfog 7y ago
  Yes, in long muscle fibers and in the syncytiotrophoblast of the placenta. This involves repurposed viral DNA. Viruses use that DNA to spread directly from cell to cell. The placenta makes a giant multi-nucleated cell to block any gaps.