Muscle and Science
In many areas people these days seem to lack the ability to think critically and logically, instead they cling to irrational views. Specifically, in the arena of body building there seems to be little reason behind the methods most people employ in their attempts to build muscle, reduce fat, and shape their bodies.
The reality is that when dealing with the human body it does not react to what we WANT it to react to in the way we WANT it to react. Arbitrarily chosen training methods are just random stabs in the dark. There are certain biological traits that govern the human body and its growth. If you give a body what it needs to grow it will, and if you do not, no matter how much you may want what you are doing to work or how much effort you put in, your results are bound to be far less than optimal.
Muscle Growth
The requirements for a muscle to grow can be simply summarized as:
1.The muscle needs to be pushed past what it can normally handle
2.Then muscle needs rest to heal and then grow stronger
3.The muscle needs calories to be used by the muscles to repair and grow
This is a biological truth which applies to all humans. The intensity that can be handled in the muscle may vary from person to person. One person my fail with 8 reps of 10kg and another might fail with 8 reps of a 15kg weight, but this does not change the fact that in order for the muscle to grow the muscle has to be pushed past its normal limits (to failure ie. It is impossible to perform another rep in good form). Any form of resistance training which does not push a muscle to failure will simply produce less than optimal growth.
Once the muscle is pushed past its limit continuing to push it is also a waste of time and the body's resources. All the gym heroes who are in gym 2 hours a day, 6 times a week thinking they will be rewarded with above average results are wasting their time, and in fact inhibiting their growth severely. One the muscle is pushed past its limit it will then draw on the body's recovery resources to firstly recover from the work out and then grow stronger to better handle future demands.
To recover and grow a muscle needs rest. Continuing to put strain on the muscle before it has healed will stop the recovery/growth process and is counterproductive. As much as you gym heroes would like to believe otherwise, more is not better. The precise amount necessary is optimal. Until the muscle has totally recovered (meaning there is NO soreness left) and the muscle given time to heal you should not be working out again. After all pain from the work out is gone there will be signs that the body is still growing/recovering in symptoms of overall systemic stress. Signs of this can be tiredness, slight depression etc. You shouldn't re-enter the gym for another work out until you physically feel great and ready to hit the weights again. For me this has meant usually one week between each work out (work outs of about 30 minute duration give or take).
A lot of the gym Supermen out there can probably relate to being always depressed and tired and not looking forward to their workouts or enjoying them. Not only do you not grow, you mope around the gym with no enthusiasm, talk a lot, do some shitting reps with bad form here and there, then walk out thinking you have hit it hard.
How much you need to eat is something that is also often distorted. To grow all a person has to do is eat slightly above their calorie maintenance level. Your body can only assimilate a certain amount of protein. Your body only uses a certain amount of calories. Eating less than needed will cut short growth. Eating excessively will lead to a build up of fat on the body. You should know your calorie maintenance level, how much protein and carbs you need and take these in through regular meals through out the day.
Fat loss
The most efficient way to lose fat is a form of cardio done at a level where breathing is not strained. If you are gasping for air the exercise become anaerobic and the energy comes from glycogen in the muscles and not the body's fat stores. This uses the body's resources as well as being an extremely inefficient way to burn fat. Performing weights with higher reps and lower intensity also burns a negligible amount of fat and is likely to do nothing but waste time.
Steroids
Steroids help an individual's anabolism (muscle growth). These drugs have several pretty severe side effects. A lot of guys seem to take them so have those ugly, puffy water-retention arms and nothing else. It looks stupid and I don't know why someone would risk the serious health problems steroids are known to cause for this is beyond me. It is more comprehensible that a professional, competing body builder who has reached their genetic limit would take them to push them beyond their natural capacity. But why these dickheads, for the sake of egotism and laziness would need steroids to have slightly bigger arms I do not understand.
Also, it is a shame that a further pressure is coming from natural body builders who look like rubbish. Just because you aren't drugged up it is no excuse to be built like a swimmer. It is called body building (building as in adding mass) and simply getting cut belongs in a fitness contest. If you don't have the genes to build mass, it is unfortunate if you wanted to be a body builder, but the poor state of natural body building projects the image that only drug uses can put on any real size. If you want to grow rely on knowledge and avoid the cop outs.
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Originally Posted by SubtleEnergies
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