36
votes
Accepted
Why is 40 pushups a day not doing anything?
Please check if you are missing something from this answer on how to build muscle. The two most common things people mess up when trying to grow larger muscles are they don't eat enough, and they don'...
- 2,380
27
votes
Accepted
How long would it take for a skinny man to get fit and 6 pack?
What does it mean to be fit?
From the starting point of a 50kg man, I consider fit to include
gaining quite a lot of weight, mostly muscle
correcting most, if not all, posture imperfections and ...
Alec♦
- 17.3k
23
votes
Is physiology of muscle growth a pseudoscience?
Muscle growth physiology is not a pseudoscience as researchers are using scientific methods to collect and analyze data and make logical deductions.
It is true that our knowledge of muscle growth is ...
- 331
22
votes
Why do my muscles ache the day after I lift ? How come not asap after my workout or during?
It's called Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), but you'll note the Delayed word there. The pain usually shows up 24 hours later and is gone around 72 hours. It's actually not fully understood (2003 ...
- 14.9k
18
votes
Accepted
What happens to your muscles when you stop working out for several years?
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 ...
- 14.9k
18
votes
Is physiology of muscle growth a pseudoscience?
I do not agree with your insistence on a mechanism.
In 1964 the U.S. Surgeon General published a report where he concluded that smoking causes cancer. At that time the mechanisms behind this was not ...
- 3,172
15
votes
Do high reps build strength?
I think you've heard the right idea, but you're misinterpreting it.
Of course high reps builds some strength, but certainly not a whole lot. It's going to take a lot more effort (in terms of joules ...
Alec♦
- 17.3k
14
votes
Accepted
Is it possible to move each toe individually?
Yes, with practice, you could learn to control every toe individually.
The reason it is difficult, is that the part of your brain which is responsible for voluntary movements, the motor cortex, has ...
- 1,959
12
votes
Accepted
How long does it take for muscles to recover?
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 ...
- 14.9k
12
votes
My trainer insists on stretching before any exercise, even warming up. Should I be worried?
First off, ask your trainer how many athletes he or she has trained that have won national, regional, or international titles. Personally, my belief is that unless you have trained someone that's made ...
- 14.9k
11
votes
Accepted
List of muscles by volume in average man
Here, I made a list :)
# cm^3 muscle
1 879.65 Gluteus maximus
674.00 Vastus lateralis
599.20 Adductor magnus
580.00 Vastus intermedius
5 531.90 Soleus
461.00 ...
- 225
10
votes
Accepted
how to correct forward neck posture?
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 ...
- 4,494
10
votes
Accepted
What's up with my body?
Your question is very general, and will therefore only attract general answers, so this will be that.
Fixing posture
While you don't mention this yourself, C.Lange makes a good point about posture ...
Alec♦
- 17.3k
10
votes
Accepted
What actually makes fingers thicker?
Your finger is made up of ligaments. tendons, 3 bones, fat, skin, veins and capillaries.
As you get older your knuckles or bones will get bigger just through use and damage.
Tendons and ligaments get ...
- 176
9
votes
Why is 40 pushups a day not doing anything?
It seems that if you insist on doing unweighted push-ups you have to build up to 100s of push-ups every day to see results (1).
Personally I do push-ups with a weight plate on my back instead.
That ...
- 3,172
8
votes
Accepted
Eat more or less to lose fat and gain muscle
Hi Zerotoinfinite,
Look at this picture
As you can see in the picture, the biggest contributor to gaining six pack is lower body fat percentages. As you can see, the six pack becomes more ...
- 4,010
8
votes
What can I do to prevent my (outer) shins from tightening while running?
Good morning. I work as an athletic therapist for the US Army currently and was with the USMC for 4 years prior to that in the same capacity. Anterior tibialis pain/tightening is usually caused by ...
8
votes
For the same number of repetitions, does it build more muscle to do fewer sets?
I'm a bodyweight training addict.
In my point of view doing 1 x 50 is better than doing 10 x 5 because you have the same volume but in less time, you have more intensity.
The first commandments in a ...
- 145
8
votes
Is protein the only intake needed for muscle gain?
Yes you need lots of other things, minerals, vitamins, essential fats, carbohydrates.
These are needed to build muscle and also to stay alive, while the muscle building happens.
That's why should ...
- 385
8
votes
Accepted
How to gain muscles and be fit with low testosterone?
You do not have "low testosterone" and even if you did, you would build muscle and overall fitness the same way that everyone else does - through training. 350 ng/dL is within a normal range ...
- 4,382
8
votes
Accepted
Which is the role of glutes when extending your legs?
We need to clarify some terms. "Extension" means movement of a joint which increases the angle between two body parts. So elbow extension is the movement that increases the angle between the ...
- 10.5k
7
votes
Accepted
Why do some actions benefit us and others injure us in the long term?
The nature of those two movements is different. The lorry driver performs continous, non-changing movements which wear out the cartilage of the joints and the tendons and ligaments. Every movement ...
- 1,889
7
votes
For the same number of repetitions, does it build more muscle to do fewer sets?
Nathan, first, please check out this answer on myofibril vs sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.
With muscular endurance, you are dealing with (to simplify things greatly) three variables:
Myofibril: how many ...
- 4,494
7
votes
Does stretching muscles help build / tone them?
Strength training builds muscle. In other words, the forcible contraction of your muscles against resistance is what stimulates them to get stronger or more firm. While stretching has a role, it's ...
- 45.6k
7
votes
Accepted
How does strength training affect one's health and life expectancy in the long run?
I know that bodybuilding makes you heavier, stronger and more attractive, but is it really beneficial for one's health in the long run?
Bodybuilding is not strength training.
Bodybuilding is a very ...
- 25.7k
7
votes
Accepted
Don't feel muscle soreness until after a day
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 ...
- 1,889
7
votes
Accepted
What are the target muscles of kettlebell swings
Performing a proper two-hand kettlebell swing is a whole-body workout as opposed to isolating single muscles. However, the main muscles that go into swinging a bell are glutes, hamstrings, lower back +...
- 186
7
votes
Breaking Microtears by flexing?
What you are describing is called Isometric training. It’s a little used, and much misunderstood, form of training in which the muscle tenses without changing its length. Each contraction is ...
- 6,641
7
votes
Accepted
How to listen to the body during a run?
This is very much an individual question, as everyone has different requirements and reacts in different ways to fluid and food intake when running. It's just very much trial and error to find what ...
- 22.6k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible