Isaiah Whitten

COM 231-67

The Process of Muscle Growth

General Purpose: To inform

Specific Purpose: To inform the audience about the development of
muscles and how to build muscles.
Thesis: The mechanisms behind muscle growth are easy; the work you
have to put in is the hard part.

Introduction
I. Attention-Getter: *Ask the audience to flex an arm*
II. Listener Relevance Link: Regardless of the size of your arm, you
see a mass layer of skin covering the muscles.
III. Credibility: Over the last two years I have dedicated two hours a day,
four times a week to going to the gym to workout in efforts to gain
weight and increase my muscle mass.
IV. Thesis: Scientifically, building muscle is an easy process, but all the
work that you have to put into it is the difficult part.
V. Preview of Points: To give you a better understanding of this
process, I will go over the basic mechanisms, the workout routine an
individual must follow, and ones diet that contribute to the growth of
muscles.

Transition between intro and body: Ill begin by going over the basic
science of the muscle and how they grow.

Body
I. Your body consists of multiple layers of tissues. The skeletal muscle is
the sight of where muscles builds and construct the foundation of ones
body structure.
a. The skeletal muscle is divided into different compartments each
contributing to the basic structure of your muscles but the
muscle fibers are the important thing to be concerned with when
it comes to growth.
i. Muscle fibers are composed of actin and myosin, which join
together during contraction, as your bicep would when
curling your arm.
ii. This contraction releases chemicals and proteins and cause
the fibers in your muscles to tear and become slightly
damage.
b. Lifting weights is a mixture of muscle contractions and stress
from the weight youre lifting, causing muscle damage to
whatever muscle group youre working out (chest, arms, legs,
etc.).
i. The sight of the damage is where proteins will rebuild and
in turn, develop a stronger, bigger muscle.
Isaiah Whitten
COM 231-67

Internal transition: This process goes on every time youre lifting

something that causes a stress on your muscles, but Im sure youre
wondering what a typical workout routine one must perform to achieve
noticeable muscle growth.

II. Your body is different from another persons but regardless, if your goal
is to increase muscle mass, your daily workout routine should follow
basic guidelines that weight lifters go by.
a. A workout should consist of performing an exercise in multiple
sets with a variable amount of repetitions in each set.
i. To increase your overall muscle mass, a general rule of
thumb is to perform multiple sets (3-5) of an exercise using
heavy weight at a low number of repetitions (4-6).
ii. Performing the same amount of sets using moderate to
light weight at a high number of repetitions (8-12) also
helps with muscle building but primarily contributes to
muscle endurance which gives your muscles more energy
to perform workouts.
iii. Mixes of these two types of lifting are crucial in
development of muscle growth.
b. Cardio is vital to good cardiovascular health but could hinder or
even take away from muscles in your body
i. While cardio gives your muscles more oxygen, high
intensity cardio consumes calories (energy), energy from
the protein in your muscles is burned before the energy
stored in your fat.
ii. 30 minutes of moderate cardio is beneficial for health and
doesnt negatively affect muscle growth.
iii. Another crucial key for building muscle is to take at least
one day of rest from working out to allow time for fibers in
the muscles to rebuild.

Internal transition: Working out and how you workout is very crucial and a
basic step in getting big, but diet is just as important. Ill now go into
further detail on what you should feed your body.

III. You can be going hard in the gym consistently and still only see
minimal gains. What you do when youre not in the gym matters just
as much if not more.
a. It is extremely vital that youre feeding your body properly in
order to maximize muscle growth.
i. Protein is the building blocks of muscles, you need to
consume a high amount of this throughout the day and
within the first hour after finishing a workout
Isaiah Whitten
COM 231-67
ii. Calories give you energy to perform daily task, they are
burned off when working out so its also important to get a
lot of these
iii. You can get protein and calories out of virtually anything
you eat everyday but it shouldnt be junk (fast food,
extremely fatty foods, fried food, etc.).
b. To effectively increase your muscle mass, you must know your
body and how many calories and how much protein you need to
eat day to day
i. For protein, you should be eating a gram of protein for
every pound that you way, split out over at least four
meals throughout the day in the form of lean meat, fish,
and/or protein powder.
ii. Calorie intake is very important as well, in the process of
adding muscle mass one should be adding at least 500
extra calories to your daily intake.

Transition between body and conclusion: So thats all the basics in

getting those massive gains, doesnt sound too hard to do right?

Conclusion
I. Summary of points: Building muscle is the combination of a
scientific process going on in your body, working out, and eating right.
II. Thesis Re-statement: Its an easy process that anyone can do, but it
requires discipline, hard work, and knowing your body.
III. Clincher: The process is very gradual and demanding on your body
but the results are inevitable as long as you keep up the hard work.

Court, Ben. "Q: How does My Body Build Muscle?" Men's Health, vol. 26, no. 3, 04, 2011, pp. 16,

Research Library, http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?

url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/912010107?accountid=10008.

Aceto, Chris. "FAQs: Building Muscle." Joe Weider's Muscle & Fitness, vol. 59, no. 6, 06, 1998, pp.

152-153+, Research Library, http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?

url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/216376866?accountid=10008.
Isaiah Whitten
COM 231-67
"Strength Training, Part I: Building Muscles to Improve Health." Harvard Health Publications.Harvard

Men's Health Watch, 10, 2009, Research Library, http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?

url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1370667011?accountid=10008.

Fritz, Timothy C. "Too Much Cardio?" Joe Weider's Muscle & Fitness, vol. 61, no. 6, 06, 2000, pp. 175,

Research Library, http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?

url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/216390702?accountid=10008.

Street, Chris. "How Muscles Grow." Joe Weider's Muscle & Fitness, vol. 60, no. 1, 01, 1999, pp. 103-

106, Research Library, http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?

url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/216372808?accountid=10008.