Body-building It is a rich and historical sport. From First days, athletes have been almost obsessed with the search for the perfect physique. That century-spanning quest has created more than a few popular ideas which, upon inspection, may or may not stand up to scrutiny.
You may have heard of muscle maturity before, but have never taken the time to dissect what it really is. medium. It’s one of those things that makes perfect sense at a glance, but can get more confusing the more you think about it.
Do your muscles really “mature” the longer you use them? Are they biologically different, or is muscle maturity more of a descriptor of how it should be cared for? ten battle-hardened years in the weight room?
The science of muscle maturity
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What is muscle maturity?
In bodybuilding circles, muscle maturity is meant to describe the appearance of your physique. Specifically, it is the “look” of your muscles after a certain number of years of trainingother than the shape and texture of a fresh faced beginner.
Generally speaking, athletes with solid muscular maturity will have a harder, grainier look to their physique, with deeper stretch marks, more apparent dryness, and potentially sharper or more clearly defined angles.
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Rather, there is an implication in this moniker that you may have a softer appearance to your physique early in your lifting career while you are still developing and filling your frame.
what science says
Things that pass as wise advice from coach to athlete between generations may not stand up to scientific scrutiny. As a concept, muscle maturity is difficult to pin down and study in a laboratory. Research on the idea in actual bodybuilders is scant to non-existent.
However, there is some work, mainly on animal muscle tissue, that can make or break muscle maturity as an idea.
Do your muscles change with age?
Your body doesn’t stop changing just because you’re out of puberty. The quality and composition of your muscle tissuethough, May undergo some degree of physiological change as you add notches to your belt.
Some literature examining muscle tissue in animal carcasses has noted certain physiological differences between old and young tissues. For example, muscle from an older animal may possess lower amounts of intramuscular fat (concentrations of fat within the sheath that houses the muscle tissue), (1) contributing to a less “padded” appearance.
Aged muscle tissue is also considered less sensitive than younger tissue, possibly due to different collagen structuring as well as lower concentrations of intramuscular fat. (two)
Do your muscles change with training?
Fortunately, the effects of exercise (specifically Weightlifting) in your muscles is much lighter. Anyone who has struck the iron and held a proper diet given enough time you will notice your body grow and respond in the same way.
On a physiological level, these changes go beyond simply making your biceps either quads a little bigger after enough arm either leg days.
Consistent resistance training creates marked changes in muscle fiber thickness and cross-sectional area, as well as the strength and durability of associated connective tissues. (3)
In particular, training also affects muscle tone. (4) Weather tone has the colloquial definition of shaping or defining a fabric in fitness circles, its scientific definition refers to the level of tension or tightness at rest in a fabric. Your muscles become more tense as you acclimate to regular lifting.
Can you train for muscular maturity?
Unfortunately, there is no clear answer to the question of whether muscle maturity is something that can tangibly impact the your behaviors in the gymoutside of just training normally.
It is worth noting that the literature draws a distinction between what it calls myofiber maturity (the complete regeneration of muscle tissue after experiencing physical trauma) and muscle maturity as considered by bodybuilders. (5)
The first describes a biological process that happens both after a standard workout in the gym and after a traumatic injury. The latter is an aesthetic descriptor.
Training for Toughness
Your muscles are made up of different types of fibers, some of which are better suited to certain tasks than others. (6)
However, that’s about as far as the literature goes as to whether you can train specifically for toughen your muscle tissues with respect to muscle maturity.
You can certainly train to develop athletic qualities like maximum strengthexplosiveness, enduranceor size, but There is no reliable evidence to indicate how exercise will affect the “toughness” of muscles from a visual standpoint.
Reduce body fat
The physiological quality of your muscle tissue is just one facet that contributes to muscle maturity. While you can’t alter the biological makeup of the muscle itself, you can help make it look sharper or more granular by reducing your body fat.
The fat stored under the skin (called subcutaneous fat) is used for energy when you are in a caloric deficit. Much of the “slimming” effect of a fat loss diet comes from reducing this type of fat.
However, fat is also stored (in much smaller amounts) within muscle tissue. Engaging in an effective hypocaloric diet will reduce your fat stores throughout your body, helping to define and emphasize your muscles themselves.
Also note that it can’t really induce targeted fat loss:”point reduction” is an unfortunate but persistent myth. If you’re dieting in an effort to improve muscle definition or apparent maturity, your body will draw from its various fat stores regardless of what you do.
The role of genetics
Any bodybuilder who has been in the game for a while knows the critical role genetics plays in sport, influencing everything from your rate of muscle gain to the shape and proportion of your physique.
Genetics also influence the thickness of your skin. People with thin skin (literally speaking) will generally have a more ridged and defined appearance, while people with thicker dermis may not.
Unfortunately, you cannot change your genetics. If you have thicker skin that obscures some of your muscle definition, even when you have a very low level of body fat, that’s the hand you’ve been dealt.
your food to go
Muscular maturity is less of a tangible physiological phenomenon and more of a concept or “look” in bodybuilding.
there are some evidence in the scientific community that supports the idea that your muscles change over time, especially if go to the weight room on a regular basis.
However, muscle maturity appears to be the culmination of factors, some of which are largely out of your control:
- “training age”, which refers to the number of cumulative months or years you have as a lifter.
- Genetics, specifically thickness of your skin and you propensity to store fat.
- your level of musculature combined with how much body fat do you havewhich can be modified by training or diet.
You can think of muscle maturity as an informal description of a bodybuilder’s appearance, usually in regards to how defined or “edgy” he looks. It is not an authoritative statement about the quality of your physique. (or your gym career), and definitely shouldn’t be considered dismissive or discouraging.
muscular affairs
Bodybuilding is as much about precision, specific physical development since it is about art, symmetry, proportion and esthetic.
From the weight room to the science lab, bodybuilders rely on both the ancient knowledge of the greats of the past and modern, cutting-edge research.
In the right contexts, muscular maturity provides a succinct and apt description of a certain aspect that some physique enthusiasts seek. But that doesn’t mean you should keep your interest in the sport, or that it’s necessarily a real thing in the first place.
The best way to ensure that you properly “mature” your physique is to stick to the basics and exercise patience. If you train hard, eat well, rest and recover properly and are willing to wait to see the fruits of your labor, the gains will speak for themselves over time.
References
- Moon, SS, Yang, HS, Park, GB, & Joo, ST (2006). The relationship of physiological maturity and marbling judged according to the Korean classification system with meat quality traits of Hanwoo beef females. Meat Science, 74(3), 516–521.
- Shorthose WR, Harris PV (1990) The effect of animal age on the tenderness of selected meat muscles. Journal of Food Sciences 55(1), 1-8.
- Haun, CT, Vann, CG, Roberts, BM, Vygotsky, AD, Schoenfeld, BJ, & Roberts, MD (2019). A critical appraisal of the biological construct skeletal muscle hypertrophy: size matters, but so does measurement. Frontiers in Physiology, 10, 247.
- Otsuka, Y., Yamada, Y., Maeda, A., Izumo, T., Rogi, T., Shibata, H., Fukuda, M., Arimitsu, T., Miyamoto, N., and Hashimoto, T. ( 2022). Effects of resistance training intensity on muscle quantity/quality in middle-aged and older people: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia, and Muscle, 13(2), 894–908.
- Yoshimoto, Y., Ikemoto-Uezumi, M., Hitachi, K., Fukada, SI, & Uezumi, A. (2020). Methods for accurate assessment of myofiber maturity during skeletal muscle regeneration. Frontiers in Cellular and Developmental Biology, 8, 267.
- Plotkin, DL, Roberts, MD, Haun, CT, & Schoenfeld, BJ (2021). Muscle fiber type transitions with exercise training: Changing perspectives. Sports (Basel, Switzerland), 9(9), 127.
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