What is the relationship between male fitness and muscle gain?

For men, scientific fitness is the core and necessary prerequisite for achieving muscle gain, but muscle gain is only one of the many goals of male fitness, and the two are by no means bound to an equal relationship.

Many people who are new to fitness will assume that "men's fitness is to build big muscles", and even use muscle size as the only criterion for judging male fitness results. There is also another school of thought that fitness is useful as long as it moves, and it doesn't matter if it builds muscle or not. Both views are actually a bit biased. I have met two completely different fitness enthusiasts before. One is Xiao Yuan, a newly graduated college student. He was only 108 pounds at a height of 180cm. He was shaking when the wind blew. He practiced blindly for two months at first. He followed the video aerobics and ran 3 kilometers at night every day. Instead of gaining weight, he lost 2 pounds. Later, he adjusted his plan and made it four days a week. The sub-differentiation training focused on compound movements such as bench press, deadlift, and squat, and included 1.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight to maintain a small caloric surplus. I gained 14 pounds in more than three months. The shoulder line of the sweatshirt I wore before was fully stretched, and my whole person's mental state was different. This is a typical situation where scientific fitness points to muscle gain.

But not everyone focuses on building muscle. The other one is Lao Chen from the gym I often go to. He is 45 years old and has been working out for almost 8 years. He plays badminton three times a week and exercises core and joint stability twice with light weights. His muscle dimensions have not changed much, but his body fat has remained stable at around 14% all year round. Last year’s physical examination did not show high blood fat or fatty liver, which are common among many middle-aged people. He can climb five stories without being out of breath. His goal in fitness has never been to build muscle, but to be able to play comfortably until he is 60 years old.

As for why everyone always subconsciously equates male fitness with muscle gain? In fact, it is easy to understand. Men’s natural testosterone secretion level is 10-20 times that of women, and they have an innate advantage in muscle protein synthesis efficiency. As long as they do resistance training regularly, they will see positive feedback of increased muscle size and strength in a month or two. Unlike women, who have to work hard to gain pure muscle mass, it is naturally easy to give people the impression that "men will grow muscles if they exercise."

Don’t think that you can build muscle just by working out. If you only do aerobics every day, practice to the point of overdraft every time, and can’t eat enough to keep up with your consumption, let alone building muscle, it’s normal for your muscle mass to decrease after practicing for a long time.； There are also those who rush the weight blindly and move awkwardly. The pain will not be relieved for a week after training. They have not kept up with rest and nutrition, and they can't even hope to touch the threshold of muscle gain. To put it bluntly, it's a bit like planting crops. Muscle gain is the wheat harvest you want, and fitness is the process of working in the fields. You have to choose the right seeds (systemic resistance training), apply enough fertilizer (enough protein + calorie surplus), and manage the field well (regular rest) to get a harvest. If you originally wanted to plant some flowers and plants (for leisure and fitness, fat loss, and improved sports performance), then naturally there is no need to compete with the wheat yield.

In fact, to put it bluntly, there is never a fixed answer to the relationship between the two. It all depends on your own fitness needs: if you want to gain muscle, just stick to the muscle-building training and dietary framework. If you don’t want to gain weight, you don’t have to feel any psychological burden at all. When it comes to fitness, it’s better to practice comfortably and achieve your goals than anything else.