We talk a lot on this show about one of the most basic principles of training—you do a workout that puts a stressor on your body, then yada, yada, yada, a bunch of stuff happens, your muscles adapt, and you become stronger and faster.
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We tend to skip over the “yada yada” part, but today’s guest, Dr. Brendan Egan, a professor at Dublin City University in Ireland, wrote a 2023 review paper all about that. It was a 118-page review with over 1,200 references. There are books that are shorter—and yet he still started the review by saying they didn’t have the space to go into all of the details!
In other words, what happens in our muscles to make us stronger and faster is miraculously complex. No one, not even Dr. Egan after writing his review, could remember it all. Fortunately, we’re not going to ask you to, either. This is not an episode about all those biochemical terms; instead, we’re going to help you understand at a high level how our muscles adapt to a training stress and turn it into power.
What we actually talk about, believe it or not, is proteins. At its simplest, stress from physical exertion creates signals that cause our cells to produce more proteins—very specific proteins that serve as the signalers, transporters, and raw materials of our muscles that make us stronger and faster.
We also talk about how even though weightlifting and endurance exercise are both forms of muscle contractions, they lead to very different adaptations. Again, it comes down to producing a different mix of proteins.
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You can be a good athlete or coach just by knowing what interval session or weight workout will produce the benefits you want. But understanding how that training impacts the body on a molecular level can help you make even better decisions.
So, get ready for some molecular fast talk (no, I didn’t say PGC-1a) and let’s make you fast!
References:
- Coffey, V. G., & Hawley, J. A. (2007). The Molecular Bases of Training Adaptation. Sports Medicine, 37(9), 737–763. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200737090-00001
- Egan, B., & Sharples, A. P. (2023). Molecular responses to acute exercise and their relevance for adaptations in skeletal muscle to exercise training. Physiological Reviews, 103(3), 2057–2170. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00054.2021
- Egan, B., & Zierath, J. R. (2013). Exercise Metabolism and the Molecular Regulation of Skeletal Muscle Adaptation. Cell Metabolism, 17(2), 162–184. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2012.12.012
- Laursen, P. B. (2010). Training for intense exercise performance: high‐intensity or high‐volume training? Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 20(s2), 1–10. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0838.2010.01184.x
- Laursen, Paul B., & Jenkins, D. G. (2002). The Scientific Basis for High-Intensity Interval Training. Sports Medicine, 32(1), 53–73. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2165/00007256-200232010-00003
