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Increase
Muscle Mass - Is There A
Safe Way?
Is there a
safe way to increase muscle
mass? Sure. But, for
instance, yo-yo dieting
destroys muscle tissue. In
order to achieve the
greatest long-term gains,
you need to stay relatively
lean all year. You don't
want to starve yourself,
but you shouldn't overeat
either. A controlled food
intake with adequate
quantities of protein,
carbohydrates, and fats
will allow your body to
build permanent muscle mass
without generating the body
fat that can hide your
hard-earned gains.
Athletes
always want to find a quick
way to build muscle.
Sometimes they try to
achieve this by eating
large amounts of food to
increase their body weight.
The rationale behind this
practice is that heavier
athletes tend to lift more
weight. This additional
weight, it is felt, will
lead to more stimulation of
the muscle fibers and
consequent growth.
Unfortunately, this
thinking confuses muscle
weight with total
bodyweight. Clearly,
athletes with more muscle
mass will be able to lift
more. However, body fat
(adipose tissue) is not
involved in muscle
contraction. Simply put,
adding a tire around your
waist will not bring you
the gains you seek.
Too much
carbohydrate, fat, or even
protein results in bodyfat
deposition. This is a fact
of life. Your body needs
only so much of each
nutrient every day. While
the correct amount depends
on your muscle mass, basal
metabolic rate, and
exercise intensity, every
athlete has his or her own
nutritional requirements.
Bringing your diet up to
these levels will enhance
muscle growth. Anything
beyond that point is
diverted to the bodyfat
stores.
Adipose
tissue is nothing more than
energy storage. One pound
of bodyfat contains
approximately 3,500
calories. Due to the nature
of progressive resistance
training, the recruitment
of these fat stores during
an exercise is minimal.
While moderate-intensity
exercise such as aerobics
can utilize adipose tissue
for fuel, the body is also
capable of metabolizing
carbohydrates for energy.
There is simply no reason
to carry around
muscle-obscuring fat
deposits under the pretext
of improving your strength
or performance. In fact, in
any sport where speed is
involved, these fat stores
will slow you down.
While it is
true that bodyfat provides
resistance during squats
and a few other exercises,
you can achieve the same
results by adding a plate
to each side of the bar.
And there are very few
exercises where the entire
body is in motion in this
manner. Extra girth around
your waist will not improve
your biceps curl or bench
press, for example.
Research
has shown that yo-yo
dieting is unhealthy.
Body-weight cycling can
result in higher blood
pressure and has been
correlated with the risk of
cardiovascular disease. The
body also shows a higher
preference for dietary fat
once the athlete goes off
the diet's restrictions.
So, staying relatively lean
all year is not just a safe
way to increase muscle mass
— your long-term health and
quality of life can be
impacted when you abuse
your body with yo-yo
dieting.
Try to
listen to your body's
requests for food and not
your mind's desires. Eat
when you are hungry, but
only until you begin to
feel full. Enjoy the good,
healthy food you consume,
for it is the raw material
producing the muscle mass
you desire. But don't
shovel down food thinking
that you are somehow
building extra muscle in
the process. With
appropriate food
consumption, you will
create the maximum muscle
growth with a minimum of
bodyfat. The positive
feedback you get when
people see your defined
physique will also inspire
greater confidence in your
abilities, leading to
heavier lifts. The
enjoyable result will be
greater size gains.
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