18
There was a 2010 study that touched on this a bit, and suggests there's more going on than muscle memory.
Effects of previous strength training can be long-lived, even after
prolonged subsequent inactivity, and retraining is facilitated by a
previous training episode. Traditionally, such "muscle memory" has
been attributed to neural factors in the ...
13
But I heard people saying that you don't even have to work out to get
the muscles if you're on roids. Is there any truth in that?
Steroids don't change the basic paradigm of muscle training. Juicing yourself to increase your hormones (effectively) will allow you to carry more muscle than your body would allow otherwise. You will recover faster as well, ...
12
I cannot provide a link to an official analysis of the training/instruction program of an elite military facility. What I can do is tell you of my own personal experience with it.
You mentioned the lack of regeneration and rest, and you are absolutely right. The idea behind the selection process is to completely maim you psychologically and put you to the ...
12
There's no easy answer. It depends on a few variables:
The stress you've exposed your muscles to.
How close you are to your genetic potential.
How good your recovery is.
You (probably, based on your fitness as explained) could do 20 pushups a day, every day, and have no problems. However if you tried to push your 1RM (single maximum effort) bench press, ...
9
Forward head posture (called gravity induced kyphosis) is pretty common nowadays. The first thing you should do is begin stretching your neck with an exercise called neck retraction:
You'll be amazed at how great this exercise feels. If you've been stuck in forward head posture for a long time, you'll feel as though your entire upper spine is waking up.
...
9
The good news is that there is more than one way to achieve your goals. That means that you can have two answers that vary within a certain degree and they will both be right. In short, there is no "best". The related question that @Informaficker linked to in his comment applies to this conversation.
It's also important to understand that many successful ...
8
You are correct to be suspicious of the "one muscle a day" prescription. While that method works fine, it is perfectly possible and very productive to do whole-body exercises every time you work out.
Many Olympic weightlifters do what's called Bulgarian training, which is training five or more days a week, sometimes several times a day. They use whole-body ...
8
Immediately after (like within 30 minutes or sooner) dump a bunch of protein into your system. I like chocolate milk, but anything with protein and carbs and fluid is good. This helps your body recover faster as it starts off will all the raw materials it needs.
If you can handle it, a cold bath (ice cold is optimum, but very hard to take) can help reduce ...
8
There have been documented tests that show steroid use without weight training will still increase your muscle mass just as someone who workouts and doesn't use steroids. However, if you're thinking you can get huge and jacked by just taking steroids alone you're sadly mistaken.
The P values shown are for the comparison between the change indicated
and ...
7
The soreness that you experience is called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS).
What causes it?
When you exercise, the muscles get damaged. That damage is a signal for the muscle to grow and get stronger. That signal stimulates inflammation. Any inflammatory process produces local pain.
Why is it delayed?
It takes a day or two for the training-induced ...
6
I'm going to answer in a general sense, as the same advice works when you are doing squats, deadlifts, and other exercises. There comes a time where you just can't keep hitting the same exercise and expect to increase the next time you do it. Essentially, you need to vary the weight intensity and volume over time.
Weekly Progression
Both Texas Method (TM)...
6
Performing compound exercise movements have been shown to trigger the pituitary gland to release Human Growth Hormone. HGH does not discriminate against the muscle cells it targets. In a paper titled Growth Hormone and the Heart, it was shown that
GH exerts direct effects on myocardial growth and function. Evidence
from laboratory models shows that ...
5
You can find a lot of great information online - search for "recovery nutrition".
There are two areas that are important:
First, you need to rehydrate, unless you are one of those rare people who actually drinks enough to stay hydrated on the ride.
Second, you need to replace your carbohydrate stores. There is a "golden window" after the end of exercise (...
5
Muscle soreness is not an indicator of overtraining. Go ahead and work out.
5
No, protein supplements are made of whey protein, which is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. It's not a synthetic product of any kind.
I haven't tried the Gold brand in particular, but I can see that it's being sold by some of the most reputable sites (including here in Norway), so I see no reason doubt its quality.
Your father ...
5
This honestly just sounds like a case of DOMS. What is that? “Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness”, it’s a side effect training muscles more than normal. DOMS is a sign that your muscles are breaking down, and if you provide your body with sufficient protein, then they will rebuild themselves to be stronger and bigger. DOMS is not necessary for muscle growth, but ...
4
You have made solid progress. Congratulations, keep up the hard work.
If I were you I'd switch to a program that adds weight weekly or monthly, such as Rippetoe & Kilgore's Texas Method from Practical Programming, or 5/3/1, or another similar program. That will keep you adding strength for quite a while longer.
I'd consider switching up exercises, to ...
4
I don't have a link because the study was about 25 years ago but Harvard Med did a test study on three groups for 4 months:
A. Steroids + 4 days working out per week (same regimen)
B. Steroids + No workout
C. Placebo + 4 days working out per week (same regimen)
After:
A. 6% gain in muscle mass
B. 4% gain in muscle mass
C. 2% gain in muscle mass
I am ...
4
For the sake of vocabulary, I think you're talking about "training recovery". There is short term recovery, like the time you need between sets, but you mentioned supercompensation so you're talking about something more like:
I just did a bunch of compound barbell lifts, how long until my body
will be stronger because of the exercise?
You can get some ...
4
Coming up with a single function for muscle tissue repair with respect to time is literally impossible. Each individual is far too different for any one function to represent us all. It's the whole "one size does NOT fit all" problem that holds for pretty much any physiological issue.
That said, there is a study that suggests that ingesting protein just ...
4
Check out these resources for more specifics about the supplements:
Glutamine -- not shown to increase muscle mass, but shown to lower inflammation (i.e. recovery). Timing doesn't matter. No more than 5g any time of day.
(Brown Rice) Protein -- protein is protein. There is minimal increased uptake during and post training. One book recommended 10-15g pre,...
4
I would recommend doing something, to second Alex here, for active recovery.
I would avoid running and do some skip rope instead and after you properly warmed up, you can do your other exercise. The body is a unit and you will be using your hamstrings with the other exercises anyway indirectly.
You should be really sure that it is really soreness that you ...
4
"rest 3-5 days between every used muscle group."
This is nonsense, to optimize hypertrophy, this review paper recommends a frequency of 2-3 sessions per muscle group a week for novice to moderately trained individuals.
I go REALLY hard -- no kidding. I can do over 50 sets in 30-45 minutes with little breaks at 50%.
50 sets works out at 10 exercises for ...
3
Although I cannot fully answer this question with specific scientific evidence, I can provide input that supports the assumptions of the original question. The original author assumes there is a scientific basis for the physical fitness programs used by the elite fighting units of the United States' military. At least one response called this assumption ...
3
Instead of considering what you are doing right you should be focusing on what the people you are describing are doing right.
Do these people actually exist?
If so, what are they doing?
It sounds like you've done what a lot of beginners do: Jump around with different things until you find something that makes you magically strong.
You should instead be ...
3
In general, the best indicator that you can return to practice is that you feel more positive about it. However, since you have been "addicted", you should be suspicious of your feelings and have some measurable "toll gate" indicators, e.g. social life, less fatigue and less sleep problems, before you go back to the gym.
Also, I would get a system in place ...
3
A lot of it has to do with your programming. If you are training for 3-4 hours a day, 5 days a week, you have a great potential to do too much. Here's the deal:
Overtraining is accompanied by a loss of performance, and in more serious cases can be accompanied by symptoms that look like clinical depression.
MMA fighters and military are not training ...
3
As far as I know, the totality of research does not indicate any benefit of pre- or post-exercise stretching to recovery time or injury reduction. That is not to say stretching is totally worthless, because it can enhance mobility and range of motion, just to say that it doesn't matter when you do it in relation to your workout.
I am not aware of research ...
3
I can only give an answer based on my personal experience, so this is definitively a piece of biased, unproven, good old Bro'science.
Disclaimer: Of course its out of question that the supplement industry tries to sell their stuff, but I think most of it is just as the name suggests, a supplement, maybe improving your form by a few percent or being ...
3
brianmac.co.uk said that LIEBENSON, C (2006) Rehabilitation of the Spine: A Practitioner’s Manual says "if a lack of coordination is seen when walking backwards it indicates the gluteus maximus is weak."
The muscles that let me walk backwards without all kinds of twisting were the gluteus minimus (activated by the hip hitch) and the gluteus medius. Trouble ...
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