What is the difference between men’s fitness and muscle building?

In essence, it is a relationship between inclusion and being included - muscle gain is only one of the subdivisions among the many goals of male fitness. The gap between the two from the underlying logic to the implementation requirements is wider than the gap between the coach in your downstairs gym who likes to sell classes and the man who practices horizontal bar every day in the community park.

Last week, I met my programmer brother who I worked with before. He plays field games three times a week and runs 3 kilometers around the park near his home after get off work. His body fat is stable at 15% all year round. After playing the whole game, he can recover by drinking half a bottle of water. Do you think he is not exercising? It definitely counts, but he never deliberately bench presses weight, nor does he always think about whether he has eaten enough protein. He works out just to feel good, and by the way, he has eliminated the mild fatty liver disease that was detected in last year's physical examination. This is the most typical fitness state of ordinary men, and it is completely different from building muscle.

The two opinions that are currently quarreling on the Internet are actually quite extreme. They either say "what's fitness if you don't build a big body", or say "building muscle is just dead muscle and is not as practical as running two kilometers." In fact, they are all judging others based on their own needs, which is unnecessary.

If you work out, you want to be physically comfortable. You can usually climb five or six floors without getting out of breath. After a late night, you won’t be so dizzy the next day that you can’t lift your head. Wearing a T-shirt in the summer can show off your shoulder lines without looking bloated. How can you be happy? If you love playing ball and aerobics, even if you do 20 minutes of freehand strength every day according to the video, you don’t have to be too strict with your diet. Drinking two cups of milk tea and a barbecue a week is not a problem at all. As long as you don’t eat too much and drink too much.

But if your goal is clearly to gain muscle, then all arrangements must revolve around "excess muscle fiber recovery". When training, the effective capacity must be calculated. The same part must be effectively stimulated for 10 to 20 sets a week. You cannot chat and watch short videos during the rest between sets. You must leave 1 to 2 minutes to allow the muscles to recover. When exerting force, you must accurately find the contraction of the target muscle. If the bench press relies solely on the strength of the arms and waist, even if the set is exhausted, it will be basically useless. Diet is even more troublesome. You have to eat 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, and you have to give enough carbohydrates otherwise you won’t be able to train hard. Don’t touch too much fat, otherwise you will gain too much fat during the muscle-building period and it will be troublesome to clean off the fat during the muscle-building period. I used to follow a friend for a three-month muscle-building period. I had to bring my own portions of boiled chicken breasts and brown rice to friends’ dinner parties. They laughed for half a month and said that I lived like an ascetic.

To put it bluntly, it's like playing with a car. Some people buy a car to commute to and from get off work, and occasionally drive in the countryside on weekends. Regular refueling and regular maintenance are enough. Some people buy a car just to set lap times on the track. They need to adjust the suspension and add No. 98 oil. The former is for ordinary men to exercise, while the latter is like running to gain muscle. You can't require those who drive a family SUV to have to maintain it according to racing standards, right?

Two days ago, I met a kid who had just entered college at the gym. As soon as I applied for the card, the coach tricked me into buying a muscle-building class worth more than 10,000 yuan. After a week of training, I was so painful that I trembled when walking down the stairs. He said that he just wanted to lose weight, but he never expected to suffer this. In fact, it was really unnecessary. Yes, it’s more important to figure out what you want first. If you just want to be healthy and comfortable, you don’t need to follow the muscle-building standards at all. If you really like clear muscle lines and want a big-dimensional figure, it’s not too late to calm down and practice slowly according to the logic of muscle-building.