Mitochondria increase?

Is there any way to increase the number of mitochondria in muscle cells? Does mere exercise do it or are they fixed in number forever? Any research on this? Thx.

Hi,

More exercise and weight lifting increases the number of mitochondrian in muscle cells and also increases the number of muscle cells! Just workout and exercise and your mitochondria go up.

your mitochondria go up but the research on number of muscle cells is still undeterminded some say that the muscles cells in increase in size called hypertrophy and othere have the theroy of hyperplasia which is the increase in the number of muscle cells.

u cant increase the number of muscle cells, they can only get bigger.

[QUOTE=ChiefsWRASTLIN;41911051]u cant increase the number of muscle cells, they can only get bigger.[/QUOTE]
that's not true, when you force your body into anerobic resparation through going deep in sets(when it starts burning), your body produces more mitochondrias in reaction to this because mitochondrias are powerhouse of the cell.
Mitochondrias are one of the main reasons your muscle's get bigger because they are larger than other cells.
So, to answer your question, working out, and working out HARD, increases mitochondrias.

You can increase mitochondria through exercise. I believe the festest way to do it is through anaerobic-lactic training, but it happens as a result of resistance training as well.

From what I am learning in all of my kinesiology classes, the majority of muscle growth is from hypertrophy. Hyperplasia only accounts for about 5% if ANY of muscle growth. This is somewhat debated. That is what they are teaching theses days. Hope it helps.

There are few, if any, muscle cells added on to you during workouts. The majority IS from hypertrophy. That is one of the things that makes HGH so highly sought after, as it is one of the few substances that can increase the number of muscle cells. However, I am just using HGH as an example, I am not condoning a discussion on it.

good god you guys are putting way too much thought into this

[QUOTE=elykdogg;42058521]good god you guys are putting way too much thought into this[/QUOTE]

If you don't like it then stay out...this is a forum for discussion, and this is the topic people are talking about.

Aerobic-type exercises, including weight lifting with light weight and high repetitions, will increase the number of mitochondria in muscle fibres.

As a matter of interest, WHY do you want to do this?

lol this is like real exercise physilogy class but its good.

[QUOTE=Environ;42084631]Aerobic-type exercises, including weight lifting with light weight and high repetitions, will increase the number of mitochondria in muscle fibres.

As a matter of interest, WHY do you want to do this?[/QUOTE]

Thanks for all the replies. I am not really interested in the hypertrophy vs. hyperplasia debate (even though the more cells you have, the more mitochondria you must have).

I have assumed the the more mitochondria you have PER muscle cell, the better muscle cell performance (for whatever sport you are interested in) (assuming you keep the number of cells constant). I have not seen any studies though comparing muscle cells with lots of mitochondria vs. those with less. I believe it is still a theory that follows from the role of these organelles. Thus if you could increase the number of mitochondria per cell, you should outperform someone with fewer mitochrondria per cell (other things being equal). I want to do that for sports trainng purposes.

[QUOTE=Earl10022;42160281]Thanks for all the replies. I am not really interested in the hypertrophy vs. hyperplasia debate (even though the more cells you have, the more mitochondria you must have).

I have assumed the the more mitochondria you have PER muscle cell, the better muscle cell performance (for whatever sport you are interested in) (assuming you keep the number of cells constant). I have not seen any studies though comparing muscle cells with lots of mitochondria vs. those with less. I believe it is still a theory that follows from the role of these organelles. Thus if you could increase the number of mitochondria per cell, you should outperform someone with fewer mitochrondria per cell (other things being equal). I want to do that for sports trainng purposes.[/QUOTE]
You can increase the number of mitochondria. It will improve sporting performance but I do not think it will derectly improve performances in anaerobic-alactic dominant sports.

you only increase the number of mitochondria through Aerobic training. Weight lifting is anaerobic and does not use the aerobic energy system, therefore you do not get increases is mitochonrdrial content from a weight lifting regiment. However, you do get greater expression of the genes that code for actin and myosin (muscle fibers) so you get hypertrophy of muscle cells (not hyperplasia).

[QUOTE=Earl10022;42160281]Thanks for all the replies. I am not really interested in the hypertrophy vs. hyperplasia debate (even though the more cells you have, the more mitochondria you must have).

I have assumed the the more mitochondria you have PER muscle cell, the better muscle cell performance (for whatever sport you are interested in) (assuming you keep the number of cells constant). I have not seen any studies though comparing muscle cells with lots of mitochondria vs. those with less. I believe it is still a theory that follows from the role of these organelles. Thus if you could increase the number of mitochondria per cell, you should outperform someone with fewer mitochrondria per cell (other things being equal). I want to do that for sports trainng purposes.[/QUOTE]


Well, that would mean that you could only (possibly) improve sports performance in events that use the oxidative energy system (i.e. aerobic-type work). So, if you play football, it is unlikely to help you with sports performance.

[QUOTE=Environ;42209911]Well, that would mean that you could only (possibly) improve sports performance in events that use the oxidative energy system (i.e. aerobic-type work). So, if you play football, it is unlikely to help you with sports performance.[/QUOTE]

Yes. Thanks Environ, A-man and KiloNewton. I was thinking aerobic sports.

actually, i just read an article about this in espn the magazine...supposedly, some red wine extract (i forget the name of it) shows great promise in increasing mitochondria and as an endurance enhancer, with supposedly no recorded side-effects

Earl10022:The best way to increase mitochondria is through aerobic exercise. I don’t know what your knowledge level is in physiology so I will keep it simple if you want a more complex answer then I can provide one for you.
The cell uses to forms of energy one is aerobic respiration the other is anaerobic respiration.
Aerobic respiration is for any activity that requires non maximum efforts.
Aerobic respiration is the energy path way used for maximal efforts.
Only two athletic events I can think of that don’t have to worry about both systems are body building and power lifters.
Body building is concerned with hypertrophy, so they have little consern with energy out put.
The power lifter is concerned with neural innervations and mass. The only energy need they have is very short intense out put.
All other sports should pay attention to both and train them accordingly.
The football player needs to be aerobically fit so his body can clear metabolic waste as quickly as possible. He also needs to be anaerobic fit since most of the time he is involved in short periods of maximal output.
Even the marathon runner benefits from training both. Several studies have shown that endurance athletes improve their performance at the end of their events when they do anaerobic training.