Hi Friend!
Happy New Year! Let's get better!
It's Hard to Build Muscle
It is and it isn't. Building muscle has a been intentionally achieved for decades. Systems have been created. People have tested those systems and made their own. Building muscle has been researched and proven possible. There's a formula.
And it's hard. It's hard because you have to have enough volume (load x sets x reps), enough intensity and enough frequency (times per week), you have to support your efforts nutritionally. You have to get enough rest to recover. You have to manage your stress. You have to decide if you're going to do cardio or not and if yes, when, how much, how hard, which mode of exercise, how long, etc. ...
Then there are fears. "I don't want to get bulky." It's hard to get bulky. I mean it's easier for inactive people who make time to eat and hard for super active people who don't. When I was training skinny athletes trying to put on weight, muscle and strength, I would put them on the see food diet. See food. Eat it. My inactive people who were making time to eat, I'd put them on another plan called, Move It! Get Going. Move often. Move daily. Multiple times. Lots. Mostly cardio. Some strength. Some stretch. Lots of cardio. Daily. Sometimes twice daily. Keep eating and eat more of this. Drink a lot of water. I mean a lot. Are you peeing so much it's become a joke how often you go? Keep drinking until you do.
Muscle is a Fountain of Youth
If you have muscle you have metabolism. If you have metabolism you have energy. If you have energy you can say yes and do cool things.
Muscle is also strength, durability, resiliency, availability.
Muscle is beautiful. It makes clothes shopping more fun. It makes less and no clothes wearing also more fun.
Muscle opens doors of opportunity for you. On one hand physical activities. On the other self-confidence to take on bold activities.
Why is it hard?
It's a conundrum. If you didn't grow up lifting weights, being physical and/or playing sports, it could be intimidating. You don't know where to start. What exercises to do. How much resistance to use. I get it.
Or
What about cardio?
I like cardio. It's easier and more fun. Can I build muscle doing cardio?
Sure. You can build muscle doing cardio.
High Intensity Bike Sprints will build your leg muscles.
The intensity effort threshold to build muscle is 80% of Heart Rate Reserve.
Aerobic work increases the size of type 1 muscle fibers.
High aerobic training volumes in young, untrained populations can do it.
Because it decreases protein and DNA damage.
But there's a limit.
Type 1 muscle fibers only grow so much.
Type 2A can grow more.
Type 1 is associated with aerobic work / cardiovascular work / endurance training
Type 2A are associated with strength, power, higher resistance work.
Concurrent Training & Interference
And cardio training done concurrently (in the same program) as resistance training can interfere with the muscle building benefits that resistance training provides.
Aerobic training can reduce force production (how hard you can train) because of residual fatigue.
Running fatigues your leg muscles which makes it harder to exert force in strength training.
Long term aerobic training blunts the hypertrophy response.
Increased aerobic intensity decreases the anabolic response to resistance training.
Aerobic training right before resistance training causes residual fatigue, making it harder to exert force and build muscle.
But you need to do cardio.
You need to get your steps. You need to work on your cardiovascular health. You need to lower your risk for disease especially diabetes, a metabolic disease.
And you need to build muscle, ...
...lift weights, do strength and resistance training. You need to be strong and have muscles and have energy and durable. You don't want to be weak and frail and tired and injured.
So how can you make it easier to build muscle?
Resistance train
Frequency:
Ideally 3-4x/wk. This frequency attempts to keeps you ahead of aging muscle loss and inflation.
2 is baseline enough to keep pace with inflation or aging muscle loss.
1 is better than none, but 1 is like investing your money in cash and watching inflation make your cash have less buying power. If you didn't have cash it would be worse than if you had some but with less buying power. If you didn't do any strength training it would be worse for you, whereas 1 day per week gives you some strength and muscle in your pocket to spend and use.
Intensity: lift fast, lift heavy, lift to fatigue per set
reps go down, weight & resistance go up
1 set for baseline, multiple sets for hypertrophy
Volume: lift fast, get the pump, lift to accumulated fatigue per exercise / workout
weight and resistance come down, reps go up
1 set for baseline, multiple sets for hypertrophy
Mode: total body, multi-joint, compound movements first
Unload every 3-4 weeks by tapering for around 1 week and decreasing volume.
Set a workout schedule or get an appointment.
Get accountability.
Get a BIG WHY! A purpose that drives you and inspires you to jump out of bed and find a way to show up and never miss workouts.
Don't do cardio as this will help you build muscle the easiest because you'll develop and anabolic environment to best build muscle.
but resistance training may not be enough to manage other health concerns.
so.
Do cardio on non-strength days, after strength or 6 hours before strength
Do low intensity aerobic work.
Don't run.
Don't induce fatigue.
Do cycle.
Follow a nutrition plan that helps create an anabolic environment.
eat enough to not be hungry
prioritize protein. Start with this and add the rest.
eat enough carbohydrates to be satisfied, but not tired or sluggish.
add healthy fats for flavor, satiety and pleasure. Avoid overconsuming and feeling tired or sluggish.
eat your veggies and fruits as much as you want.
drink 1/2 your bodyweight in ounces of water as a baseline. as your activity increases so does your consumption.
specific supplements as complimentary and needed
e.g.
vitamin D
protein powders
calcium
multivitamin
...
Sleep, naps & rest until you feel energized, recovered and have jumping beans.
Recover via
low intensity cardio, sleep & nutrition
hydroptherapy
stretching
massage, manual therapy & chiropractor
sauna, steam, red light, cryotherapy
accupuncture
physical therapy, C3 (custom corrective cardio), corrective exercises
social time w/ family and friends
recreation
nature & forest bathing
Building muscle is hard. It takes effort. Certain environments & people aren't supportive. Messages are often mixed.
But gravity is on your side. Everyday you get up and have to fight gravity to get through your day. If you were in space, you'd lose muscle even faster, but since you're here on Earth, gravity is on your side.
And so am I. I like to build muscle. Hopefully you do too.
It's actually not that hard. Just movement against resistance, often. Rest. Repeat.
New Year. New Day. New You.
Make it count,
p.s. if you want help building muscle (or improving your health, body composition and/or performance) in 2024, when you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
Private Training. If you want an appointment, undivided attention from your personal coach and a custom program, this is for you. Reply with "PT" in the subject line and let me know how I can help.
Program Design. If you're self-motivated and/or my private training times don't work for you on a recurring basis and you want a custom plan to follow, reply with "PD" in the subject line and let me know what kind of program we're designing and how I can help.
Group Personal Training. If you want accountability, programming, schedule flexibility, a f'n awesome coach and a team of inspiring people to train with, reply with "GPT" and tell me your story, what needs to change over the next 12-months to make this experience worth your time and what needs to happen to make that change stick.
Clocks ticking. Chop chop. Get living!
