The difference between male fitness and muscle gain

What we call male “fitness” every day is a general term that covers all exercise goals such as muscle gain, fat loss, cardiopulmonary improvement, and functional recovery. Muscle gain is a vertical subdivision goal in fitness that single-points to skeletal muscle hypertrophy and simultaneous improvement in strength dimensions. The two are included and included. However, the training logic, dietary requirements, and recovery standards at the practical level are very different, and they are completely two ways of playing.

Some people will definitely say that this is just a word game? Building muscle is inherently fitness, so why should we talk about it separately? Hey, don’t think you’re being pretentious. Too many people around me have fallen into this trap: I originally just wanted to move casually to lose belly fat, but I was fooled by bloggers into buying a bunch of supplements to increase my weight. In the end, my muscles didn’t increase much but my body fat increased first. ； There are also people who pursue the goal of wearing T-shirts to hold up their sleeves and follow their colleagues to run the elliptical machine for 40 minutes every day. After running for two months, their arms become thinner, and finally they criticize fitness as useless. If we separate these two things clearly, we can really save half a year of unnecessary mistakes.

I also got confused when I first joined the gym. At that time, I practiced blindly with my brother who was in the same dormitory and wanted to lose weight. I would run 5 kilometers every day and then touch the dumbbells twice. After training, the two of us pooled our money to buy a fried chicken drumstick to share. It was called protein supplement. After running for two months, I lost 4 pounds. The shoulder line of my shirt that fit me well before was all collapsed. After complaining to a familiar coach, I realized that the kind of effect I wanted of "no shoulder slipping when wearing a shirt and obvious lines when taking off clothes" required me to gain muscle, which was completely inconsistent with the ordinary fitness logic of running around at the time.

In fact, ordinary fitness does not have that many rules at all. The essence is "as long as you move, it is not in vain." If you want to run a couple of laps early after get off work today, it’s okay. It’s okay to meet up with friends to play ball for two hours on the weekend. Even if you’re too lazy to go to the gym, a half-hour bath in a hot spring doesn’t count. The goals are also very flexible: If you have back pain after sitting for a long time, do two more core exercises. If you eat too much recently and your stomach feels bloated, do aerobics for half an hour. It all depends on your current state and mood. There is no need to add KPIs to yourself. As for the training content, it is even more casual. If you want to practice your shoulders today, you can practice your shoulders. If you don't want to practice, just fish and browse your phone. No one will say you are wrong. There has been a debate on the Internet about whether strength training should be added to ordinary fitness. One group says that it is necessary to do it otherwise you will lose muscle mass and your metabolism will collapse. The other group says that it is enough to move and there is no need to make yourself suffer. In fact, both opinions are correct - the core appeal of ordinary fitness is "health + happiness", and you can do it however you feel comfortable.

But building muscle is a completely different set of logic, and the core is "precise control." The first thing that cannot be avoided is progressive overload. This month you can bench press 40kg for a set, and next month you have to find a way to push 45kg. Even one more press is considered progress. If the weight does not increase for half a year, it is basically a waste of training. The training plan also has to be very tight. The chest, shoulders, back, legs, and arms must be circulated separately. Each part must be stimulated 1-2 times a week. The rest between groups must be scheduled: 1 and a half to 2 minutes for the hypertrophy group, and a maximum of 3 minutes for the strength group. I have seen too many brothers who are shouting about building muscle. They watch half-hour short videos between bench presses. They are still here to fish for fitness, and they are not serious muscle building at all.

It’s not just training alone, the difference in food is even greater. After a normal workout, it’s perfectly fine to meet up with friends and drink cold beer. Even if you want to lose fat, you just need to control the amount of heavy oil and salt a little, and you don’t have to count it in grams. But to gain muscle, you need to have a caloric surplus. You need to eat enough 1.6-2.2g of protein per kilogram of body weight. You need to consume 300-500 calories more than you consume every day. Any more or less will not work. There has always been a debate in this circle about clean muscle building and dirty muscle building. Novice welfare enthusiasts think that muscles will grow quickly anyway, and they can just eat hamburgers and fried chicken as long as they have enough protein, which saves trouble and makes them happy. ； Advanced players are more likely to eat clean foods such as oats, chicken breasts, and salmon to control body fat steadily. They don’t have to work hard to brush fat later. Both methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. It all depends on whether you can accept the increase of muscle and a little fat at the same time.

There is also recovery that many people ignore, and the requirements of the two are not at the same level. Generally, you can take a break when you are tired after working out. No one will care about you if you take a week off. Even if you stay up late playing games, it won't affect you at all. But muscles grow during rest. People who want to build muscle must sleep 7-9 hours a day, and leave enough rest time for 48 hours for the parts they have trained. They cannot focus on one part every day. I once had a friend who was anxious to do chest training and went for chest compressions every day. After half a month of chest compressions, not only did the size not increase, but he also injured his rotator cuff. It took him two months to heal, but he suffered the loss of not knowing how to recover.

To be honest, there is no difference between the two things. If you just want to move around regularly, avoid getting sick less often, wear clothes that are neither fat nor thin, and there is no need to gain muscle, you can spend three or four hours a week running, exercising, and eating whatever you want, and you will be very comfortable. But if you just want the effect of having an arm circumference of 40cm, deadlifting twice your body weight, and being able to hold up any T-shirt you wear, then you have to follow the rules of muscle growth, be willing to spend time and thought, and don't practice casually, otherwise it will be a waste of time.