How Do Muscles Get Bigger and Stronger?

The other day I was thinking about trials and challenges that we all face in this life. As I contemplated this subject, the idea that a trial is not wasted if we allow it to help us grow spiritually rang true to my heart. I personally do not like adversity and affliction, but I do wonder what I would be like today without some of those growing experiences.

 Thinking about this I recalled some information that I learned about physical stress on the body. The relationship of building our body and building our spirits use the same concepts. As we experience those things in life that are hard, we grow.  We become bigger and better.   

Physically:

 A few months ago I decided I wanted to increase my distance as I walked so I hit the road and did 5 miles every day for a week.  I had not been walking consistently as I had been doing in the past but felt like I was capable of walking this distance every day.  Towards the end of the week I began to have pain in my knees, but I was determined and pushed forward.  Unfortunately, that was not a good decision.  As I got up on the 6^th day to walk, I couldn’t even stand.  The pain in my knees was incredible.  So I looked down at my knees and the inner side of each one was black and blue.  I had definitely torn something.  So for two days, I had to crawl around the house (crutches were too uncomfortable for me).

I was very interested in understanding what had happened that caused my knees to let me down.  I guess I let them down is the real truth because I came to understand I had over worked them.  I needed to work up to the 5 miles to give my knees time to adjust and build strength. I had created a habit of walking daily, but had lapse in this routine when I took on the 5 mile goal.

Having this happen began me wanting to understand more about the muscles in our bodies. I wanted to focus on the science of how the human body actually works. How do our muscles get bigger and stronger? After searching diligently for the answers I finally found what I was looking for. 

The first and key element required for our muscles to get bigger or stronger is stress. Physiologist Walter Cannon came up with the term ‘homeostasis’ to explain the way in which our body does its best to always stay within a comfortable operating range where our cells can function optimally. The concept is that while external forces can sometimes bring about drastic changes in our body, it always reverts to a default position. Your heart rate is a good example of homeostasis as it beats constantly within a set range under ordinary conditions, but that rate can either go up or down depending on what type of activity you are doing. In spite of these fluctuations, as long as you are healthy, your heart rate will always return to its regular resting rate. Stress is a key reason for your body to change

As negative a connotation that the word ‘stress’ carries for us today, the reality is that it is an extremely important stimulus in our daily lives as it allows us to adapt to our surrounding environment. Without stress, we wouldn’t exist and in many ways it can be a very positive thing as it is how the body acts to remove or minimize the effect of a stressful stimulus. A common example of stress at work is a callus. If you wear shoes that are a bit too tight and it rubs repeatedly against a part of your foot, if the action isn’t so strong as to form a blister (the exhaustion phase) As long as the action is not strong enough to create a blister (exhaustion stage) over time the layers of skin that rub against the inside of your shoe will begin to harden. The skin will continue to get thicker and harder until a callus is formed. The callus then, serves as a way your body protects the deeper layers of skin tissue from being destroyed by the action of rubbing against your shoe. In essence adaptation works to minimize the effect of stress on the body.

 Using the bicep muscles as an example we can better understand. Your biceps are responsible for any movement involving elbow flexion such as a biceps curl. Now your body, over the years is already adapted to the weight of your arm and the regular activities that you do on a daily basis, so you could do lots of biceps curls with no weight and your arms would not get bigger or stronger. You’d get tired, the way you would by performing any kind of calisthenics, but your muscles wouldn’t increase in strength. In order for your muscles to get bigger and stronger, you would have to apply overload. To overload means that the muscle experiences a load above and beyond what it previously adapted to in order to trigger the sequence of a new adaptation.

Now there is more to this.  If you continue the process with the same weight, your body forms a new adaption and to continue to build, you now need to increase the demands on that muscle.  

The other side of this is overuse. If the action is too great and the organism is unable to adapt to the stress, it results in the exhaustion phase, where on a cellular level instead of a building (or anabolic) action, there is a destructive action (catabolic). This, in terms of exercise stress, is what is called overtraining and is defined as a physical, behavioral, and sometimes emotional condition that occurs when the volume and intensity of your exercise exceeds your body’s capacity to recover. You stop making progress and in many cases find yourself getting weaker more fatigued and generally less motivated as time goes on.  Overtraining can also lower your immune system and increase the incidence of injury 

Spiritually:

I have a lot to say about this and the relationship between building our physical muscles and our spiritually muscles but in my studies, I came across a blogger that said it so much better than I could. I found myself writing the same things so it seem well to just include that message here.  It was worth reading and illustrates my point well.  I don’t think they touched on the growth we get from adversity and opposition, but if you have looked back on your life hopefully you can see the blessing and growth that has come from those tribulations and how we make it through the hard times because of the spiritual muscles that have been built prior to each new experience. (There are several great analogies to draw from the physical and the spiritual that are not included here. Maybe you will find some on your own.)

http://ldsessays.blogspot.com/2011/03/spiritual-muscle.html

The Spiritual Muscle

The conversion process to the restored gospel can be a thrilling and riveting spiritual journey.  For each individual it is different, but for each individual they have at times felt the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.  These experiences are testimony builders, and they initially seem to propel us from one spiritual event to the next.  Our prayers become sincere, our actions become genuine, and even our regular church attendance if wrought with spiritual insights.

As life continues on, there seems to be a time when the spiritual insights begin to dwindle, and the actions of activity in the church become nothing more than actions.  There are times when we ask ourselves, questions in regarding our spirituality and where it might have gone – and for some, such questions even raise inquiries about the reality of the initial events at their conversion.  

They seem to be doing the same acts that they were doing before, but now without the same results.  They are reading their scriptures, praying, attending the temple regularly, and serving in their calling as faithfully as expected.  And yet, the same feelings that were there in the past are nowhere to be seen.  I have had people confide in me and ask, “Where did the spirit go?”

Many missionaries see this very same thing in their rankings.  When a new missionary is sent into the Missionary Training Center, they are spiritually primed.  They are then sent out to the field, and they begin to have experience after experience which testifies to them the reality of their mission.  They begin to feel the spirit constantly, and they rejoice in the converting power – not just to new members of the church but to themselves.  

But what takes place next is inevitable.  There comes a point where the missionary wakes up, goes to Zone Conference, and questions why he no longer feels that rush, that spirit, and that confirmation every day that he once felt so strongly.  This happens to every missionary in the field, and arguably to every member of the church.

Allow me to propose a hypothetical solution to this question.  I call this hypothetical because it is only theory, but the logic has potential.  And by no means do I currently propose that this is doctrine or theology – but maybe just an applicable explanation.

Let’s draw from three events in the life of Joseph Smith.

First, imagine the Sacred Grove, 1820 – the fourteen year old boy having the theophany which would change the understanding of God and man thereafter.  According to his own record at the close of this remarkable event, the next thing he remembers is regaining consciousness in the Grove.  He remember waking up on the ground, having been absolutely (as far as I can assume) physically drained from the experience.  

Second, a few years later that same boy, is visited by an angel in the night – three times.  At the conclusion of these “interviews” the boy goes about his daily duties.  Sometime in the morning, his father notices that he is physically exhausted and directs to boy to go home.  On his way home he is so exhausted, apparently more so than just by having a late night – he passes out as he tries to cross a fence.  

Third, in the upper room of a building in Kirkland, Ohio, the prophet is surround by his colleagues in the school of the prophets – when a remarkable vision is opened to Joseph and Sidney Rigdon.  The accounts of this event are remarkable, and depict both of them sharing in the same experience which we later would call Section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants.  At the conclusion of this event, the Prophet Joseph Smith would jump out of his seat – thrilled with the experience; while Sidney Rigdon would remain in his seat, ill and physically warn out.  This is the moment, when the Prophet, noticing Sidney’s physical reactions states, “Never mind him, he is not as used to it as I am.”

These three experiences reveal something about the impact the spirit can have on our bodies, and that is that it can have a physical impact. 

When people talk about feeling the spirit that is exactly what they are referring to, feeling the spirit.  Grant it, there are many circumstances and many people, who experience the spirit in a different way, but for the most part even the most novice participant in spiritual things can say that they feel something - that there is a physical response to the influence and impact of the Holy Spirit.  

For those who are not as used to it as others, this feeling can create excitement.  It creates a sense of awareness in part of our souls (body and spirit) that we formerly were not aware was even present or possible.  We feel something where we didn’t feel something before and it makes us learn that we are more alive than we ever imagined before.  And there are times when this knowledge, in and of itself, can give use a feeling of joy – joy that there is more to life than we previously anticipated.

But there, as always, is something more to this lesson.  There is more to it than just identifying that the spirit has a physical effect upon our bodies.  As with anything physical, there is a point where the action can still take place, but the reaction goes unnoticed.  We can grow accustom to such feelings, and they no longer noticeably affect us as before.

Take into consideration the use of caffeine (the author acknowledges the crude correlation that is about to take place, but requests the open mind of the reader to learn the principle).  When someone consumes caffeine for the first time there is a surge of energy, a physical response, and a reaction that hadn’t been felt before.  As consumption becomes regular, the noticeable effects diminish over time.  Dependence is created, and the consumer no longer feels the same affects as they did before.  In this circumstance it is not that the caffeine is not being consumed, and the reactions are not taking place – the body grows insensitive to the common place chemical reactions within the body.  This usually means that the only things that will become physically noticed in this circumstance is either the increase in the consumption amount (to heighten the response) or the decrease in consumption (to reveal just how dependent the consumer really is on the ingredient).

This is a viable explanation of what might happen with the spirit.  As we gain more regular, common, and frequent contact with the spirit – we physically grow accustom to it.  We no longer respond as we once did having become dependent upon it.  In these circumstances it is not that we are not feeling the spirit, we are only feeling the same amount of spirit that we usually feel; and the only thing that may change how we feel is either an increase of the spirit, or a decrease of the spirit to reveal to us exactly how dependent upon it we have become and exactly how much it really as with us all along.

As stated earlier, this happens every day.  I believe there is someone everyday wondering why they are not feeling the spirit as they once were.  The answer isn’t that there is an absence of the spirit, but an increase in our ability to process the spirit.  This stage is a reflection of just how much the spirit is around us.  

When you question to yourself why you don’t feel the spirit as you once did, the most important question to ask is – what am I not doing?  “Is it I?”

Be honest with yourself, and evaluate what actions and steps you may be neglecting: personal scripture study, family time, temple attendance, sincere participation in the sacrament.  If all of these things are genuinely completed, it may just be that you are surrounded with the presence of the Holy Spirit, you have become dependent upon it, and you have therefore become accustom to it.

When a missionary asks himself, his companion, or his mission president, “Why don’t I feel the same as before?”  Is it that they have just become accustom to living in the light of the gospel?

The example that Joseph Smith gave us was that of the spiritual muscle; something that is impacted through the experiences of the Holy Spirit.  And although it may begin weak at first, it can grow stronger and stronger, brighter and brighter, until the perfect day.  And as with any muscle the more it grows, the less it is impacted with the former exercises.