What makes muscles grow?

With all the confusion about the best exercises, best routines, best diets, and other advice on how to get mad gains  out there many of us buy into complicated training methods, and forget that sometimes simple is best. This video from TED-Ed breaks down the basics of how muscles grow, and how you can help them grow.

Muscles are made of fibers and cells, muscles respond to unfamiliar tension and stress, like lifting weights, by getting microscopic tears in the muscle fibers, which leads to  soreness in the days after, which leads to  muscle repair. Muscle adapt through repair to become  stronger and bigger to be able to better handle the next time you do something physically grueling.

Not everyone builds muscle at the same rate. Proper nutrition, adequate rest, life stresses, having the right proportion of hormones, smart training, your genetics, your age, and other factors are all at  work behind the scenes to influence your muscle’s repair and growth process.

What makes your muscles grow? | TED-Ed