First of all, let's know what is muscle - Muscle is a tissue, which is connected to bones and helps to make movements that happen in day to day life. These muscles are calledvoluntary muscles and non voluntary muscles are heart, lungs, liver along with other organs that function on their own.
Wear and tear of the skeletal muscles or voluntarily working muscles have potential to grow larger in size. This process is known as hypertrophy or hyperplasia. Hypertrophy is the increase in size of muscle fibers whereas hyperplasia is the increase in number of muscle fibers. Hyperplasia occurs from the age of 0 to 16 according to some studies. After that, muscle fibers grow in size and not in numbers, which means hypertrophy occurs after that. The key component in gaining muscle mass or in other words to get hypertrophy of muscle, body requires good amount of testosterone. It does protein synthesis. About 70mg of per week (men) and 25 to 30mg per week (women) testosterone is produced in the body. Testosterone is generated by consumption of healthy fats like nuts, seeds, saturated fats, etc. To repair wear and tear of muscle fibers, protein is required. Now knowing all the facts, how do we implement it to get bigger muscles?
What is the role of carbohydrates? Carbohydrates provide you energy and muscles can store around 400-500gms of carbohydrates. But having too much simple carbohydrates can just make you fat as those carbohydrates will simply turn into glucose and get stored into the fat cells(adipose tissue).
So what is the best formula to gain muscles? Have carbohydrates, which are moderate to low GI or have simple carbohydrates mixed together with a high protein meal which will decrease the rate of absorption of glucose into your adipose tissue. Have approximately 5gm to 2gm of 1st class protein per kg of bodyweight to gain good amount of muscle mass along with 3-4grams of carbohydrates which are low to moderate GI throughout the day equally distributed. Saturated fat consumption shouldn't be more than 10% of total calorie intake throughout the day. Unsaturated fat should be maximum of 30gms per day. If your goal is to gain all muscle with least amount of bodyfat percent, a diet called as gluconeogenesis can help but that would be a bit heavy on the pocket. In this diet, 3gm to 4gm of protein per kg is consumed throughout the day along with 1 to 1.5grams of saturated fat and 1gm carbohydrates (complex carbohydrates) throughout the day. In this diet, the excess protein is converted into glucose to meet the requirement of glucose hence it is called as gluconeogenesis diet. Calcium ismust for maximum protein absorption in the body so make sure you include that in your daily supplements. Best time to consume calcium is 20-30mins before a meal or any time of the day with a glass of milk.
Exercises? Try and hit compound exercises like bench press, deadlifts, squats rather than hitting biceps and other small muscles. The more the compound exercises you perform, the more the testosterone will be produced.
Let’s talk about Steroids
Well, how about steroids? Steroids are synthetic version of a hormone, which I explained earlier named as testosterone.Is it a shortcut to build muscle and lose fat? Well, without a proper and disciplined diet, no steroids can help you to get the desired body. Secondly, even if you are taking steroids, if your testosterone receptors don't function optimally, you are just going to have pain of the pricking needles in your body with no benefits. Artificial testosterone hampers your HPTA system to a great extent, which simply means it will affect your natural testosterone production along with damaging your other organs. Last but not the least, even if you manage to build an amazing body by steroids, it won't remain same for the lifetime. As soon as the effect of artificial testosterone subsides, your body will be back to its normal size and shape. Best way to have a good physique is to have a disciplined diet and a workout regime and trust the process. Remember good things take time to build Rome wasn't built in one day after all!
About The Author
Anthony Cardoz is a certified Personal Trainer from K11 Academy of Fitness Sciences. He has experience of 3 years in the fitness industry. He is a fitness freelancer writer at b..
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