Do veins grow??

[MindZiper]

i've noticed (and you probably have too) that my veins in my arms, and other places start to show more easily, and at all times even when working out. this is obviously because of weightlifting... but is it because the vein grew? literally, more vein cells??

[LargeWill]

i've noticed (and you probably have too) that my veins in my arms, and other places start to show more easily, and at all times even when working out. this is obviously because of weightlifting... but is it because the vein grew? literally, more vein cells??

Well more blood flows through them, so they get wider. No they do not gain more vein cells to the best of my knowledge.

[anonymous]

Don't quote me on this but I think the reason is: when you build up muscle it forces the vein towards the surface and makes it more visible. Its "pushing it up". I'm not for certain, but I think thats the answer.

[nedrud relyt]

Don't quote me on this but I think the reason is: when you build up muscle it forces the vein towards the surface and makes it more visible. Its "pushing it up". I'm not for certain, but I think thats the answer.

wut

[neverbsatisfied]

Don't quote me on this but I think the reason is: when you build up muscle it forces the vein towards the surface and makes it more visible. Its "pushing it up". I'm not for certain, but I think thats the answer.

yeah thats right

[nedrud relyt]

yeah thats right

???

[yoj]

It is possible to grow new capillaries... in fact cancerous tumors only get really dangerous if they start releasing hormones that promote blood vessel growth... because then a tumor's size is not limited by the small amount of blood it can get from nearby blood vessels... rather it gets a whole whackload of new ones built right into it delivering all the nutrients needed to grow infinitely.

I figure it could work the same way for muscles. If you have muscles that have increased twice in size, then there is no way that there are enough blood vessels or they are big enough to support the new muscle cells under high activity, so some level of blood vessel growth must happen. However, I don't know if it would promote enlargement of already present vessels, or already large main arteries/veins. It might just be more capillary growth.

Of course, low bodyfat also exposes your vascularity!

[DatsunKing1]

no, there is vein tissue which stretches and dialates according to your blood pressure and where the blood needs to go. (working muscle etc, thats why you get a pump)

[jejunum]

Congratulations, you have stumped me on an anatomy question.
So I used google. There's research ongoing about this, so they're not sure, but here's one abstract:

There is evidence that physical training is effective as a treatment in patients with chronic heart diseases and type 2 diabetes. With excessive repetition of the training stimulus, local inflammation can generate a systemic inflammatory response. Cytokines play an important role in these processes. Our data confirm that cytokines that are considered to induce systemic bioactivity following exercise are not alone, but also growth factors and chemokines, which are secreted in exercise without the involvement of traditional proinflammatory cytokines, could be potent angiogenic factors.

Clin Chem Lab Med 2008;46:250?2.

Angiogenesis=growth of blood vessels.
So who knows, maybe they do grow?

[hockeybuilder]

Don't quote me on this but I think the reason is: when you build up muscle it forces the vein towards the surface and makes it more visible. Its "pushing it up". I'm not for certain, but I think thats the answer.

even if you had less muscle your vein would be the same distance from the skin, so i dont think thats correct, but i could be wrong, but i also know that the vein does get wider for sure

ps check out ronnies bicep vein

[jejunum]

Oh I read the research I posted and it's for heart diseases and stuff. Don't know for normal people.

Otherwise, All the tissue in blood vessels can for sure multiply, so yeah I'm pretty sure new vein cells can grow, making veins wider (just like skin can get wider)

[Gimme50Feet]

is it normal that my bicep vein on my left arm runs horizontally?

[Mass08]

The veins you see are carrying blood away from wherever they are, not to it. So you gotta think about that too...i would think an artery would grow more so then a vein...also i think they can grow because look at pro bb they are have gigantic veins, like ropes!

[MindZiper]

wow.. nice responses. i'll rep most of you guys as I can. =]
idk, i was wondering, cuz some ppl i know don't lift a pen and they have one huge vein running down their bicep. and me, just now i've started noticing a "matrix" of small veins on my bicep, and a few large veins down my forearm when the arm (gravity)

[codyistheman]

seems like building up your muscle would pus the veins to the surface

[cmmudd99]

This could be part of it but I also believe the more body fat % you go down the less fat there is too cover veins. I started body building 3 years ago and never saw veins too much but I was fat, so I dropped 30lb and started noticing veins in my feet and hands, now I do insanity along with strength training I have lost 10lb in a month and now have veins in my hands 24/7 and now in my arms. The weird thing is sometimes the veins are big and I can feel them enough to move them other times there just there visible but there. So loosing fat could be one reason buy don't take my word for it I'm no doctor, I bet there's a lot more too it.

Don't quote me on this but I think the reason is: when you build up muscle it forces the vein towards the surface and makes it more visible. Its "pushing it up". I'm not for certain, but I think thats the answer.