Makes Muscles develop through or by a process called hypertrophy. The aim of both Bodybuilding and weight training is to achieve maximum hypertrophy or maximum muscle .And there are two sorts of hypertrophy though, and they both achieve different sorts of muscular development. One of these is favored by bodybuilders, the other is favored by competitive weight lifters. So lets look at the difference between the two.
The sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is the technical name for when a muscle grows in size and this is what most bodybuilders are ultimately looking to achieve. It is believed that this size increase in muscles is caused by an increase in the amount of sarcoplasmic fluid in the muscle. To encourage this type of muscle development the bodybuilder will aim to lift weights which are not to heavy but which allow for around 8 to 12 reps of the exercise to be done in a set. (This is thought to be the optimum repetition range for encouraging sarcoplasmic fluid to grow in the muscles.) Performing more reps than this causes the muscles to become hardened and strong, rather than to increase in size. The sort of muscles produced by increased reps are similar to those seen in endurance athletes. Strong but not bulky
If you are wanting to gain strength, more than you are wanting to bulk up, your best bet is to do less reps and use heavier weights. This is what strength athletes do, focusing on just 2-6 reps and pushing to always lift more. This produces myofibrillar hypertrophy, which is where the muscles increase in strength but only minimally increase in size. This is the type of hypertrophy that makes the most effective use of protein and with the right diet increases the amount of actin and myosin proteins in the muscle.
Any correctly done weightlifting will increase size and strength of muscles because both types of hypertrophy naturally take place in any form of weight lifting. However it is important to know which you are most wanting to achieve. Knowing this will help you to tailor your workout to promote the growth of the muscle type you most wanting. A bodybuilder wants to increase muscle size, while a competitive weight lifter wants to increase the overall strength of his muscles so that they can lift more total weight. This end goal greatly affects how you plan and approach your workouts.
Another point to note in closing, is that muscles grow when they are resting, so it is important to allow a period of rest between exercising the same muscles when using weights. It is thought that it takes about 48 hours or more for the muscles to recover and achieve maximum hypertrophy. This is particularly important for bodybuilders as they are looking for muscle growth not muscle hardness, endurance athletes on the other hand may wish to exercise more often than this in order to promote hardening of the muscles.
