Hot answers tagged muscle-mass
15
The main role of the arms in sprinting is to stabilize the torso and provide drive forward, especially in the start (Which is critical in 100/200m races).
This stabilization allows power to be transferred through the center of mass in an efficient fashion. Since you've got to be able to oppose a significant driving force from the hips and legs, you need ...
9
The first really strange thing about your results is your squat number. It is unnatural to be able to curl more than you can squat, and that's putting it mildly. Squats are probably the most important single benchmark of general strength and if you can't get your squat to go up at 20kg, you should just focus on unlocking that piece of the puzzle.
To be ...
8
Look closer, sprinters have muscular everything...
People tend to lump all different types of running into one category but it's more complicated than that.
Marathon runners run long distances, within an aerobic heart range (ex 133 < 152 bpm for a 30yr male), maximizing distance by decreasing load as much as possible. Typically, if you do a dedicated ...
6
While there are many different ways to approach this question, I think the best approach is from a very high-level as it gives you the proper foundation upon which you can build your exercise routine.
An easy way you can understand how muscles are built is by applying Selye's Theory of the General Adaptive Syndrome. The process can be broken down into three ...
5
I've heard/read here and elsewhere that I shouldn't be doing cardio if my ultimate goal is to gain weight.
Some limited cardio can be good while weight training. Cardio helps with increasing O2 circulation, strengthens your heart, and increases endurance. However, what cardio doesn't do much of is put stress on your muscles to initiate growth. Running ...
4
The only way to truly gain height (Assuming that you have stopped growing. An x-ray of your growth plates is the only way to determine that, although at age 30 it is extremely likely.) is for very expensive, painful and long recovery surgery.
Basically they saw your bone in half, use a frame to suspend the bones a bit apart from each other and let the bone ...
4
There's more than one type of muscle mass, and training different rep ranges emphasize one over the other:
Rep ranges 1-3: emphasizes myophibrilar hypertrophy (i.e. more protein pairs that actually perform muscle contractions)
Rep ranges 4-6: balanced hypertrophy range (i.e. both myophibrilar hypertrophy and sarcoplasmic hypertrophy)
Rep ranges 7-15: ...
3
I'm not sure if you are an ectomorph, but whether you are eating enough or not is the question. If you are not gaining any weight the answer is no. Do you eat 6 times a day? 3 major and minor meals? Even ectomorphs do well on a high calorie diet. To gain weight you should always be on a calorie surplus diet. Do you consume enough protein? If you are a ...
3
All the complicated science, Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome, super compensation curves, etc. point to one simple fact: unless you are doing more, you won't get bigger. If you only ever spend 15 minutes at a time under the sun, you are only going to get so tan.
It would be better to restate the question like this:
How can I can I increase size ...
3
You can still put on mass without lifting to failure every time. I will say though, you get out of exercise what you put into it. If you are constantly adding 2, 3, 5kgs often, you are doing something right. I am a big fan of perfect form over sloppier form to get up a little more weight. Note: I am not a power lifter.
Try doing some "negatives" your last ...
3
Sorry to crush your idea here, but there is no such thing as lengthening exercises.
The only way to get a bit more height, is to sleep. After sleep your spine is relaxed and you will be around 1cm taller, this effect wears off over the day and does not affect the legs, only the upper body.
I am no aesthetics expert so my advice would simply be to train ...
2
Consider an example, a person X who's weight is say :90 kg.
Then consider another person Y who's weight is also :90 kg.
Both have same weight, BUT, X has more lean mass than Y. What does that mean?
it means your bodyweight is a sum of different factors:
Your body fat mass (fat percentage)
Your body muscle(lean) mass (muscle percentage)
Your body water ...
2
A muscle cell is comprised of
- fibers known as myofibrils
- cytoplasm, known as sarcoplasm.
It is the contraction of the myofibrils which generates the force a muscle produces. Therefore the more myofibrils you have, the stronger you will be.
Sarcoplasm is a liquid (mostly water) which can provide nutrients to the myofibrils. One can "bulk up" by ...
2
I'd work on making myself physically fit if i were you. After about the age of 25 people's bone are pretty well done growing. If you are younger there are some things you can do, such as exercise and eat healthy, that can help make you taller to an extent.
As an adult, the only real options you have are to have surgery. Barring that, I would do a ...
2
Training more do not necessarily give more gains. You don't gain mass DURING the training, you gain when you rest AFTER the training.
When working out, regardless what type of training, your cortisol levels will rise. Cortisol is a hormone which is released during stress. Among other it will reduce protein synthesis and prevents muscle growth. When you ...
2
I don't think there could be more appropriate URL citations than what I am about to provide: how to look like Daniel Craig [nerdfitness.com] and the James Bond workout [menshealth.com]. Granted these are from 2009 when Daniel Craig was preparing for Casino Royale--not Skyfall which I suspect you are referring to--however I would say the advice is even more ...
2
If its the first time you have ever got into fitness/working out you can sometimes expect "noob gains". I myself got about 5 kilograms without nutrition at all.
If you are really strict with your diet (Bulking) you can expect to get like half a kilo of muscle per week after that. Its a really rough number, it will be more or less depending on your body and ...
2
High weight with few reps will primarily result in adaptations to your central nervous system. That is, you become better at contracting your muscles and wont necessarily add any significant amount of muscle mass.
If you do a lighter weight, with a higher rep routine one of the things that will happen is that you will deplete muscle ATP, which the body then ...
2
You are a woman, so by nature you will not bulk up as much as men since you lack sufficient testosterone. It's a big myth will get bulky just by strength training alone. You muscles will increase in mass but not so much in size (think density).
A good example is Stacy
That said, pick a good strength building routine like Starting Strength or Stronglifts.
1
Assuming that you're eating plenty of food, particularly plenty of protein, and assuming that you're getting enough sleep and aren't terribly stressed, the best way to add mass to your legs is with a small number of exercises--certainly squats and deadlifts, plus additional exercises like leg press and so on if you are sure that you're getting enough sleep ...
1
To what extent is the organisation of strength training [...] "just" about getting an optimal breakdown of muscles?
Strength training is about allowing you to lift more the next time: to get stronger. It's about causing an adaptation in the muscles. This is hypothesized by many to be due to "breakdown" as you call it, but that can mean something more severe ...
1
This is, from what I can tell, four questions in one.
1) How much of strength training about optimally breaking down muscle, even for beginners?
Strength training is always about optimal muscle breakdown. However, there are varying levels of what one wants to achieve strength wise. Are you trying to train for the next strong-man contest? Mr./Mrs. ...
1
It depends on your goals. Personally, my goals are to gain weight.
My diet matches many bodybuilder's diets pretty well. I'm not too strict though, it is easily do-able.
Morning:
6:30am - "Zone Perfect" protein bar and 1/3 cup of oatmeal (whole grain) (mixed with applesauce)
-- This gives a good balance of protein and healthy carbs and sugars. ...
1
I presume all of your exercises working out the same body part? If so, you are essentially using the technique called "pyramiding down". This means you start with a heavy weight and back off from there. It's a perfectly legitimate way of working out, though you will of course find its proponents and opponents. With your priority being mass, going as ...
1
It's very possible that your progress with the Starting Strength model has more to do with a focused approach rather than being predisposed to a certain rep range.
Starting Strength does only a few exercises, with very little variation from workout to workout. That sounds like a big change from your prior training. Maybe that's a major chunk of the ...
1
I seem to lose muscle size quickly if not working out for some time. Why does this happen?
I take it that you feel the changes are quicker for you than in comparison with your friends or peers. You asked, "Is this just my body type?"
So the question isn't limited to general principles. If you are seeing unusual results, it could be stress or lack of ...
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