What is the difference and connection between male fitness and muscle gain?

The core logic is actually very simple. Muscle gain is a subdivided branch among the many goals of male fitness. The two are included and included. There is no either/or opposition, but the exercise choices are different under different needs.

I had a meal with two friends who often go to the gym a while ago. The 38-year-old Zhang Ge has been working out for almost five years. His daily routine consists of two outdoor games a week, plus two training sessions with fixed equipment to relieve shoulder and neck strain. His body fat hovers around 20% all year round, and he has no clear abdominal muscles. However, his previously high blood fat has returned to the normal range, and he can climb mountains with his children for a whole day without feeling tired. This is the most common fitness state. Another 24-year-old boy went to a bar just after graduation. He brought a lunch box every day that was accurate to the gram, including 120g of chicken breasts, 250g of brown rice, and even the seasonings were counted as calories. He even fell down the company steps on the second day of leg training. His arm circumference has increased from 32 to 37 this year. His goal is to compete in the rookie group of a local bodybuilding competition next year. This is a typical goal orientation of gaining muscle.

If we really want to break down the differences, the core actually lies in goals and execution thresholds. The boundaries of fitness are endless. Even if you walk around the community twice after get off work every day or go hiking in the countryside on weekends, as long as it is an active exercise to improve your physical condition, it can be considered fitness. There are no hard and fast standards, as long as you are comfortable and can achieve the desired results. However, there is a clear quantitative logic to building muscle. It is necessary to rely on resistance training to create progressive overload and give the muscles enough micro-damage stimulation. This is combined with a protein intake of at least 1.6g per kilogram of body weight, an appropriate caloric surplus, and 7-9 hours of sleep. Only in this way can the muscle fibers be repaired and thickened. Without any link, it will be difficult to increase the size no matter how long you practice.

Many people never thought about building muscle when they first got into fitness. I was diagnosed with mild fatty liver disease in my physical examination, so I started using the elliptical machine every day. After running for three months, I lost 10 pounds of body fat. When I put on a T-shirt, I found that my chest was empty, and my arms were too thin to hold up the cuffs. Then I slowly started to get involved in resistance training, and I started to build muscle. For many men, gaining muscle is actually a natural choice for fitness at a certain stage - when basic health needs are met, they will naturally want a better shape and stronger strength, and building muscle is the most direct way to achieve this.

Nowadays, two groups of people are quarreling fiercely on the Internet. One group holds the argument that "men who don't build muscle during exercise are in vain, and those who run aerobics are weak chickens without perseverance." The other group mocks "those who build muscle are crazy people. They live a hard life eating boiled chicken breasts every day, and all they build are dead muscles." In fact, both opinions are quite outrageous. Fitness is an extremely personal matter. Some people want to build a suit with wide shoulders and narrow waist, while others want to move around and sweat to lower their blood pressure. There is no distinction between high and low. Muscle building itself is just a subset of fitness. There is no need to step on each other.

To put it bluntly, it's like buying a thermos cup. Some people use it to hold hot water for daily drinking, and some people buy it specifically to collect limited editions. They are essentially one of the usage scenarios of the cup. There is nothing right or wrong. One day you no longer want to join in the fun of building muscle, and if you put down the dumbbells and play ball for two hours, no one can say that this is not fitness.