Do you think that Bodybuilding makes you stronger ?

If you use to think that bodybuilding makes you stronger, then you might be wrong. A recent research which compared the muscles and power of bodybuilders with some physically active men, found that both have same amount of power in their muscles. However the size of muscles of bodybuilders is larger comparatively but it has nothing to do with actual strength. Sometimes a physically active person with lesser muscle size may be more powerful than a body builder who just looks more powerful.

Bodybuilding increases Size not Strength

If you understand the science behind bodybuilding you will understand that it is an art to make your muscles bigger and make them look better in a desired shape. But the real strength lies behind muscles, i.e. you nervous system. The mechanism of strength lies in your brain and nervous system. Improving this mechanism is not an objective of bodybuilding. However some strength increases in bodybuilding but that improvement is not as much as it appears.

Science behind increasing Muscles Size

There are three types of muscles: cardiac, smooth, and skeletal. Cardiac muscles are located at heart and they are involuntary muscles (that we can't control at will). Smooth muscles are located in walls of hollow visceral organs. Skeletal Muscles are connected to out skeleton and allow us to move different body parts. Skeletal muscles are the main muscles that we target in body building. If we keep these muscles under tension for longer duration then their size increases with time. Some strength also increases with it. But real strength lies in the our nervous system and there are different ways to improve and strengthen your nervous system.

How does muscles size increase by body building ?
When we exercise our muscles consume instant energy called ATP and demand more energy/glucose from body. To provide that energy and oxygen, our breathing and pulse rate increases. But still due to insufficient oxygen, lactic acid is released in muscles which makes tiny tears in muscles and we start feeling pain. These small tears in muscles are repaired by body during resting phase and they grow bigger and stronger. The key to growing muscles bigger lies in keeping your muscles under tension for longer duration, which can done by using lesser weight with more repetition. The weight should go up and come down in a controlled way to fulfill this objective. Proper amount of rest is also necessary to give adequate amount of time to let the muscles heal and grow. 

The motive of this article is not to demotivate you from body building. Body building makes you look better than before and it is better than sitting idle and being overweight. It is a good way to burn calories and living a healthy life. It can make you look like a superhero but in reality it doesn't mean that you will be able to lift weight like power lifters. Body building and weight lifting are two different things and its better to understand them if you want to make anyone of them your career.