The difference between male fitness and muscle gain

Fitness is the general term for all sports activities with the goal of improving physical condition and improving physical fitness, while muscle gain is just a subdivision within the category of fitness that specifically focuses on improving skeletal muscle content and shaping muscle dimensions and lines. The two are included and included, but they are almost completely different from goal setting, execution path to final evaluation criteria.

If you just go to a gym on a weeknight and go around, you can tell at a glance which one is for ordinary fitness and which one is for muscle gain: wear a loose, quick-drying suit, run for half an hour, touch the equipment twice, and take a shower after training. Most of them are ordinary fitness. When asked, they either want to lose weight, or they have shoulder and neck pain after sitting all day, and it feels comfortable to move.； On the other hand, he holds a well-edited training book. He holds a stopwatch to count the reps for each set of exercises. He sits on the bench and breathes heavily between sets without forgetting to stuff in two bananas. Most likely, he is in the muscle-building phase. He has even calculated in advance how many grams of chicken breasts he will eat when he goes home tonight.

To be honest, there is really no unified standard for general fitness goals, and they vary from person to person. Some people work out so that their blood lipids can return to the normal range during physical examinations, some people do it so that they can wear slim-fitting shirts without having to wear three layers of swimming rings around their waists, and some people simply want to find a place to sweat and dispel the negative energy accumulated at work. I even met an older brother before who worked out just to be able to play with golfers on the table tennis table in the gym without even touching the equipment. Can you say that he is not working out? Of course it counts. As long as your purpose of moving is to improve your own condition, no matter the intensity or the project, it belongs to the category of fitness. In the end, as long as you achieve your own small goals, it will be considered effective.

But muscle building is different. Its goal is extremely clear, and can even be said to be "utilitarian" - all actions revolve around the core of "increasing skeletal muscle content". Other improvements in cardiopulmonary and lung improvement, better sleep, and mental and physical strength are all side benefits and are not counted as core assessment indicators. There are even differences between different schools here: Bodybuilding-style muscle building pursues the fullness and separation of muscle shape, and the proportion and coordination of chest, shoulders, back and legs. ； The muscle gain of powerlifting enthusiasts is more focused on improving absolute strength. Whether they are big enough and secondly, whether they can increase the weight of squats and deadlifts is the core. ； The natural fitness school also requires that it does not rely on anabolic drugs and relies entirely on diet and training to build muscle mass. Regardless of which school, the core cannot avoid the four words "muscle growth."

The goals are different, and the paths taken are naturally far different. There are basically no thresholds for ordinary fitness, and there are no taboos. If you love running, you can run, and if you love playing ball, you can play ball. Even if you only practice once a week, and walk briskly around the community for half an hour each time, as long as you persist, you will see results. My former colleague walked three kilometers every day after work for half a year, and his moderate fatty liver became mild. He no longer has to turn in bed for half an hour to fall asleep at night. It is extremely cost-effective.

But if you want to build muscle, it’s not so casual. Let’s talk about training first. No matter which training method you believe in, progressive overload is an unavoidable iron rule - you have to slowly add weight and capacity to the muscles, and always train with the same weight. At most, it will increase muscle endurance, but it will not stimulate muscle growth at all. Bodybuilding-style training likes to be divided. Practice one part a day, each group is 8-12RM, rest for about one minute between groups, and emphasize the stimulation of eccentric contraction. ； Powerlifters prefer to rely on heavy compound movements, practice three times a week, and do squats, deadlifts, and bench presses one by one each time. Each group is 3-8RM, and the interval between groups is three to five minutes. They rely on absolute strength to grow muscles. Both methods are effective. There is no need to argue about who is right and who is wrong. Just do what suits you.

In addition to training, eating and sleeping requirements are also very strict. The muscle-building period requires a protein intake of at least 1.6-2.2g per kilogram of body weight. Calculated, a 70kg man must eat at least 112g of protein every day, which is almost the amount of 5 eggs plus 200g of chicken breast and a carton of milk. If you don't eat enough, no matter how hard you train, it will be in vain, and muscles will not grow at all. There is also sleep. Muscles grow during rest. If you stay up until one or two o'clock every day, the secretion of growth hormone will be insufficient, and the training effect will be directly reduced. Many people think that they are building muscle by going to the gym and lifting weights every day. However, after practicing for half a year, their arm circumference has not increased at all. Looking back, they eat less than 60g of protein every day. After training, they go out to drink supper beer with friends. It is strange that they can build muscles. In essence, it is ordinary fitness, but they just chose the project of lifting weights.

The most obvious difference in the end is actually the tightness of the judging criteria. The criteria for judging general fitness are all up to you. If you feel that you can no longer breathe when climbing the fifth floor, your shoulders and neck no longer hurt, and your waist is no longer tight when wearing pants, no one will judge you even if you meet the standards. However, the criteria for judging muscle gain are all hard indicators, which cannot deceive people: how many centimeters the arm circumference has increased, how many kilograms the skeletal muscle content has increased, how much the bench press weight has increased, how much the body fat percentage should be controlled, and whether there are obvious muscle lines when taking comparison pictures. These can all be measured in real life. No matter how hard you train, if the indicator does not move, it means there is no effect. What’s interesting is that many novices have just practiced for a month and feel that they have been much better recently, so they think that they have an effect on gaining muscle. In fact, it is just an improvement in cardiopulmonary function and has nothing to do with muscle growth. If you really want to measure the effect, you have to look at the data of circumference and body fat composition.

In fact, there is really no need to worry about whether you are working out or building muscle. Think clearly about what you want most. If you just want to be healthy and live comfortably, there is no need to force yourself to eat tasteless boiled chicken breasts, and there is no need to hurt yourself by pushing heavy weights. It is good to move and sweat. ； If you really like muscle lines and want to be able to wear clothes to hold them up, then honestly follow the logic of muscle gain, control your diet and sleep well, and you can get the results you want. There is no right or wrong between the two choices. The most important thing is to be happy with yourself.