The difference between male fitness and muscle gain

Fitness is a general term for all sports activities with the purpose of improving physical fitness and physical condition, covering a wide range of； Muscle gain is a subdivided training direction under fitness that specifically aims to achieve muscle hypertrophy and improve muscle circumference and shape. The essence of the two is the relationship between inclusion and being included, and they are not concepts of the same dimension at all.

Last week, I met a young man who had just graduated at the front desk of the gym. Holding his newly issued annual card, he asked the coach, "I come to exercise every day. Can I make my arms 40 centimeters in three months?" ”, and when asked further, his plan for "fitness" is to run for 40 minutes a day, dance for half an hour in an exercise class, and touch dumbbells at most twice - this is a typical example of confusing the two. According to his training method, let alone three months, one year of training may not make his arms one centimeter thicker. At most, he will be in better physical condition and can climb stairs without breathing.

The reason why many people confuse the two is that they default to "building muscles" as the only goal of fitness, but in fact the goals of fitness are too complex. Some people exercise in order to lower their three-dimensional high. The doctor tells them to exercise for half an hour every day, so walking around the park is considered exercise. ； Some people practice interval running and core strength every day in order to run a half-marathon in the second half of the year. This is also fitness. ； There is even a brother who has a sore back and back after sitting all day at work. After get off work, he goes to the gym to stretch his shoulders and neck with elastic bands for 20 minutes, and then walks away after sweating a little. This is still considered fitness. These behaviors all belong to the category of fitness, but they have nothing to do with building muscle.

If you really want to build muscle, the requirements are much more demanding than ordinary fitness. If you compare fitness to learning to sing, ordinary fitness is when you have nothing to do and hum a few songs to entertain yourself and just be happy. ； To build muscle, you are going to be a professional singer. You have to practice your voice, breath, and articulation. Every step has clear requirements, and you almost fail to achieve the goal. Let’s talk about the most basic principle of progressive overload. This time you bench press 40 kilograms. Next time you have to find a way to press 42.5, or do two more of the same weight to continue to give new stimulation to the muscles. If you use the same weight for the same number of sets every time, you won’t grow muscles after a year of training. There is also food, which can be made casually for ordinary fitness. If you want to lose fat, eat less. If you just stretch your muscles and eat burgers, no one cares. But to gain muscle, you have to make sure you have a calorie surplus, at least 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. If you don't eat enough, even if you practice until you vomit, it will be in vain. I used to take care of a brother who worked in Internet operations. He squeezed in time to practice for 40 minutes every day after get off work. His movements were quite standard. He had not gained any weight after practicing for half a year. Later, when I asked him, I found out that he ate a light salad downstairs in the company every day and only had a chicken breast for one meal.

Interestingly, there are actually different opinions on the boundary between the two in the fitness circle. Veterans of traditional bodybuilding often believe that exercises that do not have clear muscle hypertrophy goals and do not follow the logic of strength training are considered "activities" and cannot be considered serious fitness. To put it bluntly, they believe that muscle gain is the core of fitness. ； But practitioners who promote mass fitness don’t think so. They feel that as long as active exercise can improve physical condition, even taking a half-hour walk after meals every day is considered fitness. There is no need to apply strict standards for muscle gain to everyone. On the contrary, ordinary people who want to exercise are discouraged. In fact, there is nothing wrong with both statements. The former is from the perspective of special training, while the latter is from the perspective of popularizing national fitness. They are just different positions and cannot be quarreled.

I have been practicing by myself for almost six years. The first two years were just blind fitness. Today I will follow the blogger to do 15 minutes of fat-burning exercises, tomorrow I will run 10 kilometers on a whim, and the day after tomorrow I will watch other people’s deadlifts and beat two groups. Later, I figured out that I wanted to gain muscle, and made a plan honestly. I ate 180 grams of protein every day, paused for 90 seconds between sets, recorded my volume for each training session, and slowly added weight. Within a year, my weight increased to 78 kilograms, and my body fat was still stable at around 15%. It was then that I really understood that if the goals were different, it seemed like I was just spending time in the gym, but in fact I was doing two completely different things.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that building muscle is more advanced than ordinary fitness. It all depends on what you want. If you just want to sweat and be comfortable after get off work, there is no need to rely on protein powder, progressive overload, etc. It is better to move and be happy than anything else. ； But if your goal is to be able to hold up your shoulders and cuffs when wearing a size M T-shirt, and to have obvious muscle lines when you take off your clothes, then don’t wander around in the gym every day and follow the logic of muscle gain, otherwise your whole day of training will be in vain.

In the final analysis, the biggest significance of distinguishing between the two is to help you not to confuse your goals. Don't lose muscle by doing aerobics every day if you want to gain muscle, or hurt yourself by hitting heavy weights every day if you want to relax. The gain outweighs the loss.