6 Keys To Optimal Muscle Growth and Health
Article by Clint Nolan
When reading popular fitness magazines like Muscle and Fiction, you have to take their advice with more than a pinch of salt. Why? Because pictures of gigantic bodybuilders sell supplements.
That shredded 250 pound dude holding the can Beefcake 8000 didn’t build his rippling physique using that product or any other product that can be gotten without a prescription. The reality is that unless you’re using anabolic hormones (steroids), you’re in for a rude awakening if you attempt to gain muscle the way a steroid-optimized bodybuilder would.
Popular bodybuilding wisdom says that eating a ton of calories and training like a madman will build muscle tissue. This practice works for steroid users, but will not work if you’re not on the sauce. In fact, the more calories you ingest above what you burn, is merely getting you fat.
That’s not to say that certain supplements and substances won’t make your muscles look and feel fuller: muscle is 70-75% water, so anything that makes the muscle hold or trap more water will make them feel and appear larger. Creatine is an effective supplement for doing just that. In fact, if it’s your first time using creatine you’ll even gain a good amount of “lean” water weight (lean meaning not fat), making you think you’re building muscle.
So here are my 6 keys to optimal muscle growth and health:
1) Be realistic – about your genetic muscle building potential, but realize that anyone can build a fantastic natural physique. Keep in mind also that sometimes more muscle isn’t necessarily what you need – guys generally have a skewed perspective on this.
.2) Diet – This is bodybuilding blasphemy, but eating a lower calorie diet will drop your body fat and make your body more efficient at recovering from training. Additionally, the leaner you are, the bigger you appear, because the visibility of the muscle origin and insertion point are not covered by fat. Making sure all of your nutritional gaps are filled will make your food more efficient.
3) Hydrate – Remember… muscle is 70-75% water and you run on hydrogen.
4) Sleep – And plenty of it. Shoot for 7-8 hours… catch a nap now and then.
5) Train – The formula for results is Work X Time X Consistency = results. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is quality muscle tissue. You can see results in as little as 30 days, but most people experience fantastic results when working out consistently for 90 or more days.
6) Active Recovery – Your training should not be 100% intense 100% of the time. Allowing your body to experience peaks and valleys in training allows to adapt without experiencing inflammatory stress. Throw in some Yoga, Pilates, Cardio, or Martial Arts between your heavy resistance training.
Your build and genetics determine how much muscle you can possibly put on your skeleton. In fact, despite paid studies that rave about this or that supplement, there is only one truth that we know for certain builds muscle: resistance training. Everything else either modern chemistry or whole lot of pet theories: some good, some bad. Just keep in mind that today’s pet theory is tomorrow’s perverted practice.
About the Author
Clint Nolan is an ISSA Certified Fitness Trainer and Independant Team Beachbody Coach. For more articles, tips, and other free information, visit http://www.clintnolan.com