The relationship between male fitness and muscle gain

Fitness is a necessary but not sufficient condition for men to build muscle. If you don’t practice, it will definitely be difficult to grow considerable muscles. However, if you practice blindly and do not eat or rest after training, it will most likely be in vain. The final muscle-building effect is the result of the combined effects of four variables: training stimulation, own hormone levels, nutritional supplements, and rest and recovery. There is no inevitable equation that “as long as you exercise, you will definitely gain muscle.”

There are two brothers who applied for membership in the same year at the gym I often go to. They are both in their twenties and seventies. They train 5 days a week without hesitation, and the weights of squats and presses are not much different. During the three-month physical test, the difference is jaw-dropping: one lost 2 pounds of body fat, gained 8 pounds of pure muscle, and his shoulder and back lines turned around.； The other gained 12 pounds, body fat increased by 5 points, felt soft when pinched, and had almost no muscle mass. Don't tell me, the difference between the two just exposes the misunderstanding that many people have about "fitness equals muscle gain".

Regarding how to effectively build muscle, the fitness circle has been arguing for more than ten years and there is no unified standard answer. The veterans of traditional bodybuilding will pat you on the shoulder and say that you must use heavy weights to do isolated stimulation. Each group should be 8-12RM, and the eccentric control should be as slow as three seconds. But street fitness enthusiasts will definitely not recognize this set. People can still develop a 45cm arm circumference and a clear inverted triangle by relying solely on bodyweight movements such as pull-ups, parallel bar dips and extensions, and pistol squats, without even entering the gym door. The functional training school that has become popular in the past two years is even more Buddhist. It is said that as long as the three core elements of mechanical tension, metabolic pressure, and muscle micro-damage are combined, you can still grow muscles even if you do squats with a rice bag at home.

In fact, regardless of the fancy training methods, men's own physiological conditions are indeed an innate advantage for muscle gain - the testosterone level of a normal adult male is 10 to 20 times that of women. Under the same training intensity, men can gain muscle at least 2-3 times as fast as women. This is why most of the big-dimensional athletes in the gym are men. But this advantage is not omnipotent. I once met a programmer brother who went to the gym on time for an hour every day after get off work. After practicing for half a year, his arms were still as thin as bamboo poles. When I asked about his diet, I found out that he ate one meat, one vegetarian and one or two rice from the company cafeteria every day. Calculated, the daily calories were only 1,800 calories. Even his basal metabolism was just enough to support his muscles. Where did he get the raw materials to grow his muscles? Later, he was adjusted to 2,800 calories per day and protein supplementation at 1.8g per kilogram of body weight. In just two months, he gained 6 kilograms of pure muscle, and his bench press weight also increased by 20kg.

Another controversial topic is whether to "dirty muscle gain" during the muscle-building period. I think you should eat freely. Make hamburgers, fried chicken, and milk tea as you like. Only by maximizing the caloric surplus can you maximize the muscle-building efficiency. Many professional players will do this before the preparation period. They can pile up more than ten kilograms of muscle in two or three months. ； The other group insists on "cleanly building muscle". The daily caloric surplus is controlled within 300 calories, which is all high-quality carbohydrates and proteins. Body fat increases slowly, and there is no need to suffer from fat brushing later. Unfortunately, when I first started training, I also went through the trap of building muscle. I ate hamburgers and drank Coke every night for a month. I gained 15 pounds in weight. As a result, I lost 10 pounds during fat brushing and my muscles only gained less than 3 pounds. It was like suffering for two months. Later, I changed to a clean muscle-building diet. Although the increase was slow, my body fat did not move much in half a year. My muscles actually increased by 10 pounds. It is obviously more cost-effective for ordinary enthusiasts.

One thing that many people tend to overlook is that muscles never grow in the gym, they grow while you sleep. In the past two years, I loved to stay up late and play games. I often didn’t go to bed until two or three o’clock after training. During that time, even if I was training and eating, the training weight would not move at all, and my muscles would not change at all. Later, I forced myself to go to bed before 11 o’clock every day, ensuring 7.5 hours of sleep. Only half a month later, the deadlift weight increased by 15kg, and the recovery speed of muscle soreness was much faster.

To put it bluntly, the relationship between fitness and muscle gain is actually more like when you take the college entrance examination: fitness is your admission ticket to enter the examination room. It will definitely not work without it, but the final score depends on whether you have reviewed enough (whether the training is in place), whether you have a good foundation (hormone level), whether you have brought enough stationery (whether you have enough nutritional supplements), and whether you have rested well before the exam (sleep recovery). There is no need to stick to someone else's successful experience. After all, everyone's physical condition is different. Being able to persevere and slowly see changes is better than anything else.