Is It Possible To Gain Muscle Through Running?

whouwannab

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liftingbro

In order to understand building muscle you need to understant the types of muscle:

#1- Slow Twitch Muscle Fiber (ST): ST is muscle that is used for movements that are repetitive, low resistance, and requires endurance. ST muscle fibers do not hypertrophy very much at all. ST muscle fibers are the type of muscle fibers used for running and other endurance exercies.

#2- Fast Twitch Muscle Fiber (FT): FT is muscle that is used for fast, explosive movements or movements that place a significant load on the muscle. Generally speaking in order to maximize FT activation you have to load the muscle(s) being used with a minimum of about 60% of it's maximum ability. So, if you can bench 200, you'd probably need to lift at least 120lbs to activate a significant amount of FT muscle fibers. FT muscle fibers are the fibers largely responsible for muscle growth (Hypertrophy)

How that applies to running:

Running does not exert enough resistance on the muscle to cause a significant amount of hypertrophy because running activates slow twitch fibers and not fast twitch fibers. However, strength gains can be made without hypertrophy because as you become trained at an activity your body will be more efficient at recruiting muscle fibers. When you are untrained you simply have a lot of muscle fibers that your body cannot recruit efficiently. With repeated exercises and training you can make huge strength gains without gaining any muscle.

So, the short of it is that it's highly unlikely that you will build much, if any, muscle by running though your legs will no doubt become stronger and more solid.

watchmeshrink16

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JMCade

Glad I read this. Thanks to all for your opinions!