Mixed
Mechanical load is sensed by specific proteins including filamin-C, BAG3, titin, and costameres (integrins, FAK), which transduce force into hypertrophic signaling via mTORC1 and Hippo pathway activation.
This node describes the internal biological machinery of muscle growth. For the average exerciser, understanding that specific proteins sense force reinforces the importance of progressive overload and mechanical tension. While you cannot directly control these proteins, ensuring your training provides adequate mechanical stress (via load and volume) is the way to engage these sensors.
Mechanical signals are the prime hypertrophy stimuli candidates, and a filamin-C-BAG3-dependent regulation of mTORC1, Hippo, and autophagy signaling is a plausible albeit still incompletely characterized hypertrophy sensor.
Why this rating
The paper describes these as 'plausible' and 'incompletely characterized,' indicating strong theoretical support but less definitive human proof for all specific pathways.
Source
Stimuli and sensors that initiate skeletal muscle hypertrophy following resistance exercise
Henning Wackerhage et al. · Journal of Applied Physiology · 2018
DOI 10.1152/japplphysiol.00685.2018
More from this paper
- Mechanical load is the primary initiating stimulus for skeletal muscle hypertrophy following resistance exercise, with loads as low as 30% of 1RM being sufficient to trigger near-maximal hypertrophic gains when taken to failure.Good
- Metabolic stress and metabolites may act as hypertrophy stimuli, particularly when combined with blood flow restriction or low-load exercise, but the specific metabolite candidates are poorly characterized.Moderate
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