From physical strength to organ function, muscles play an important role in health and fitness at every stage of life. Trying (but failing) to get in shape? If you're concerned about your body mass index (BMI) and calorie counting but still aren't seeing the results you want, it can be disheartening. But what if you put the scale aside and focus on another aspect of body structure? Imogen Watson, registered dietitian and medical nutrition manager at Abbott, explains why gaining muscle mass is essential to making the most of your health.
Why Muscle Mass Matters
Many are on the list of tasks for the new year (or next Monday). However, you being renewed doesn't have to be you being lightweight! People often don't realize that weight loss is not always positive, as it can be a signal of loss of muscle mass, which is critical to overall health.
Muscle mass affects a person's strength, energy, mobility and overall health.
According to a review published recently in the Annals of Medicine, muscle mass matters—it affects a person's strength, energy, mobility, and overall health. So while the number on the scale can be mesmerizing, it's important to make sure you're not neglecting your muscles.
Why is muscle mass so important?
As people age, they naturally lose muscle—from age 40 onwards, approximately 8 percent of muscle loss per decade is lost, which can nearly double after age 70. This phenomenon is referred to as sarcopenia .
Muscles play a vital role in health throughout life.
This loss may be accelerated by illness and may increase the risk of falls and fractures and delay recovery. Therefore, it is important to do everything you can to protect and preserve your muscles.
Muscles play a critical role in health throughout life, from movement and balance to physical strength, organ function, skin integrity, immunity and wound healing.
List of hormonal pharmaceuticals for mass gain
This list may not be complete, but the main drugs include:
A growth hormone
An effective but expensive drug. Ordinary people, as a rule, cannot afford it. Typically used by professionals. Does not apply to steroids. Does not require post-course therapy. At larger dosages, it is required to be combined with insulin.
Outside of bodybuilding, it is used to rejuvenate and heal the body (and it really helps). Capable of improving tissue regeneration. At large dosages it leads to an increase in the size of internal organs. This is the reason why today's top bodybuilders have such terribly large bellies.
Growth hormone is good both in terms of mass gain and fat burning.
Insulin
Pharmacy non-steroidal hormonal drug. Post-course therapy is not required. The principle of action is that insulin “takes away” nutrients throughout the body. Due to this, the bodybuilder can eat more and deliver more nutrients to the muscles, which has a positive effect on their growth.
Insulin leads to the appearance of excess fat deposits, so it is used at the stage of total mass gain. It is not suitable for working on terrain.
An overdose of insulin is fatal and can lead to hypoglycemic coma.
Next we will talk about steroids.
Steroids
Steroids, as we have already said, are synthetic testosterone (male sex hormone) or its analogues (with slight changes at the molecular level).
Let's list the main names of steroids:
Methandrostenolone (methandienone, Danabol, “methane”)
Methane is the number one steroid. As a rule, chemical engineering begins with this. It is included in almost all mass-gaining courses.
According to different chemical nomenclatures, it can be called either methandrostenolone or methandienone. Both names are correct. Also, it is often popularly referred to as “methane”, and some people even think that it is somehow related to methane gas (gas in tablets). This is absolutely not true.
Methane is a fairly strong androgenic-anabolic steroid, although some mistakenly consider it a weak steroid, due to the fact that chemicals often start with it. Some people even claim that PCT is not required after a solo methane cycle. This is wrong! PCT should be done after any course of steroids, including after methane.
Methane is an oral medication and is available in tablet form. The tablet form impairs the absorption of the drug (compared to the injection), it is more toxic to the liver, but at the same time it is easy to use (you do not need to inject anything into yourself).
Testosterone
Injectable drug. Very effective. Available in several versions (esters), such as testosterone propionate (fast-acting), enanthate (long-acting), undecanoate, etc.
Propionate allows you to gain weight and burn fat at the same time, although there is an opinion that people who are prone to obesity may, on the contrary, become overweight.
Testosterone is also the basis of many mass-gaining courses.
There are also mixtures of different testosterone esters (long, medium and short), such as Sustanon and Omnadren.
Nandrolone decanoate (Deca, Decadurabolin, Retabolil)
Injectable drug. The chemical name is nandrolone decanoate. Popularly known as “deka”. Trade names: Decadurabolin, Retabolil.
A strong steroid, it is added to many mass-gaining courses, but has its own specifics. Unlike most other steroids, it does not aromatize, that is, it does not convert into estrogens at high dosages. Deca has progestogenic activity, that is, it leads to an increase in the level of progesterone and prolactin. Therefore, side effects need to be suppressed with other drugs. When using conventional steroids, the side effects are usually suppressed with tamoxifen or Clomid. In the case of deca, other drugs are needed, for example, Dostinex.
Boldenone (Equipoise)
Injectable drug. Initially used in veterinary medicine, then migrated to bodybuilding.
Primobolan (methenolone)
There are injectable and oral forms. It is a derivative of dihydrotestosterone.
Stanozolol (Winstrol, Strombafort)
There are injectable and oral forms (Winstrol is injectable). It mainly gives relief and strength, so it is rarely used in mass-gaining programs. Good for drying. However, it is still capable of providing some mass. Dries joints, especially the oral form. For this reason, it is recommended to combine it, for example, with testosterone.
Oxandrolone (Anavar)
Injection form. A fairly mild steroid, which is often recommended for women involved in bodybuilding.
Oxymetalone
A strong oral steroid. Has progestogenic activity (like nadrolone).
Trenbolone
Professional strong steroid. Also, it has progestogenic activity.
Turinabol
Oral steroid. Its properties are similar to methane, but it gives less mass, more relief and fewer side effects.
Peptides
Peptides (GHRP-2, GHRP-6) stimulate the production of growth hormone (somatotropin). Relatively new and little-studied drugs by bodybuilders, about which you can find conflicting opinions and reviews.
Insulin-like growth factors
There is very little information on the Internet about these substances and the principles of their action, and among bodybuilders they are also considered poorly understood and rarely used.
Gaining muscle mass: how?
Eating adequately and following a balanced diet are great ways to maintain healthy muscles. But no single food source provides all the nutrients your body needs for good health, so it's important to eat a variety of foods.
Proper nutrition is especially important when a person is sick or recovering from conditions such as surgery or pneumonia. Just as breathing requires oxygen, you need to supply your muscles with protein and vitamin D to fight disease and recover.
Gaining muscle mass and strength comes from regular weight training along with a balanced diet.
A set of workouts for the masses
All such complexes have the following features:
- A set of weight training exercises for men should be repeated 12 times until failure.
- Rest should be long (3 to 4 minutes), since short rest (0.5 to 2 minutes) causes stress in the body and does not give it the opportunity to recover.
- The training system involves performing any fragment from the list of the best workouts in 3-4 approaches. It is under such conditions that muscle tension increases.
- This training regimen is recommended for experienced people who have been involved in sports for at least a year.
- They begin a training program for pumping muscles with a course. Performing basic exercises to gain muscle mass precedes the transition to training with simulators. In the first case, all muscles work, in the second, their individual groups are involved.
- Basic exercises for gaining weight are implemented based on the weight gain program. For example, the best weight training programs for beginners include reduced cardio loads. This is because rapid energy expenditure reduces muscle growth.
The tables below contain sample exercise regimens for gaining muscle mass. Day 4 involves rest or light cardio.
Program 5x5
To increase muscle mass, athletes master muscle-building workouts. One of the most popular and effective exercises is the 5X5 program. They are suitable for quickly gaining muscle mass for trainees with different experience. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or a professional, this complex can become your favorite! The essence of such a program for increasing muscle mass is in five basic exercises for training the chest and triceps muscles:
- Barbell squats: 5 sets of 5 reps.
- Bench press. Also 5X5.
- Standing press: same number of reps and sets.
- Deadlift: 5 times in 1 approach.
- Bent rows or dumbbell flyes: 25 reps for 5 sets.
You need to exercise three times a week, changing the workout program. Between the main exercises, you must take a break of one day. Weight should be selected based on individual characteristics. Before a set of bodybuilding workouts, you should not get carried away with cardio, as this tires the leg muscles. Just 3-4 minutes of walking or slow running is enough.
Training program: squat, bench press, bent over row, standing press, deadlift
You need to do a warm-up, as it allows you to warm up the necessary muscles and check your technique. As a warm-up, you can do 1 approach of 5 times with an empty bar or dumbbells while sitting, gradually increasing the weight to the working weight. During the break, you need to rest for 2 minutes if the last one was completed easily, 3 if you had to try hard, and 5 if there was “muscle failure.” More details about the program.
German volume training
It is suitable for experienced bodybuilders who have gained at least 10 kg of pure muscle mass. A professional should be able to easily do 10 to 20 repetitions of each set of one exercise for muscle growth. And German training for increasing muscle mass, which is one of the most effective strength exercises, helps with this.
But it should not be used by beginners who are accustomed to easier exercises for muscle development and fewer approaches, since the essence of German volume training is the repeated repetition of one exercise, about 10 times in 10 approaches. In this case, the weight should be taken 60% of your own maximum or one that the athlete can use 20 times in 1 approach.
Experienced trainers do not advise performing training for muscle growth within the framework of a strict NOT for more than 2-3 weeks, if there is no result, because if used correctly, 2 kg of muscle should be gained in a week. Accordingly, if this is not the case, then another training program is needed. Exercises with NOT should be repeated as often as possible, 2-3 times/7 days, not forgetting the time for rest.
It must be remembered that most experts believe that the program of basic exercises for NOT must necessarily include failure, as in other exercises. You can learn about what muscle failure is from the video. Available about NOT. Approximate exercise scheme:
Fascia stretching training 7 fst 7
This is a weekly workout program in the gym, and it is needed for intensive muscle gain and stretching of muscle fascia. Recommended exercises are shown below; you can break them down by day yourself.
The essence of the training complex for stretching the fascia is strong pumping at the end of fitness training for weight in the gym. A 7-day training schedule involves performing 7 sets with light weights and little rest in between. The name of the set of exercises for pumping the body comes from the number of approaches.
This complex consists of two parts, the first is strength work, the second is pumping. They are interconnected, since pumping itself does not lead to results, but in combination with strength work it always gives more. Pumping should be done at the end of the workout, since if you do it at the beginning, you can waste all the energy and nutrients. Under these conditions, the athlete simply will not be able to continue to exercise effectively.
For stretching the fascia, light isolated exercises are suitable, which are used in simulators or at home. When performing heavy exercises, not only the target muscles work, but also additional ones. And light exercises help concentrate more strength in the right muscles. Easy and accessible information about stretching the fascia.
Split as a type of sports training
There are a lot of options for split strength training and you need to choose them based on your own goal, taking into account your level of physical fitness and individual characteristics. There are 8 popular split schemes in the world, namely:
- Split by body part, within which you can do exercises to gain the desired muscle mass in your legs. In these workouts, the muscle group is loaded rarely, but intensively, due to the large number of exercises. This split is not suitable for people with a flexible schedule who do not know when they will be able to devote time to training. None of them should be skipped, because each one focuses on different muscle groups.
- Top-bottom split. The essence of this scheme is to train the muscles of the upper and lower zones. The workouts must correspond to each other in volume, because if you get carried away with training for the bottom and forget about the top, getting results will take a long time.
- The next workout is an element of a set of exercises for gaining muscle mass throughout the body. All muscles are developed here. It is with this type of split that beginners begin to master mass exercises. High frequency training of areas throughout the body helps increase strength and develop muscles.
- Press/pull split. In this split, exercises are divided into pressing and pulling exercises. This split is suitable for those who want to increase weight, but do not have a lot of time. Movements in this split can be developed more often than in a partial.
- Intensive/extensive split. Here the loads have different levels of intensity and volume. Hard days alternate with easy ones. Such workouts are suitable for experienced bodybuilders who are already tired of conventional exercises, and not for beginners who have not yet become familiar with such complexes.
- Agonist/antagonist split. This split works the muscles that perform opposing movements, such as the dumbbell bench press and the dumbbell chest row.
- Main/additional movement split. The workout combines exercises for large and small muscle groups, such as back and biceps or back and triceps. As an additional exercise, you can take squats with a barbell on your shoulders.
- Specialization for tightening lagging muscles, such as hanging leg raises. When performing such training, you can tighten weak muscles. At the same time, you should not forget about basic training, because you can increase the volume in the desired muscles, but reduce the volume in strong ones.
Beginners start with the first type, but it requires a lot of strength and experience to perform it to get the necessary benefits. But not all older people, for example, can spend a lot of time training, due to overwork of the nervous system and overload of the joints. Well, to create the right training program based on splits and get pumped up faster, you can watch this video.
Workouts for all muscle groups
A comprehensive program involves doing only basic muscle exercises, which allow you to work all the muscles in one exercise session and help increase body weight. Due to this, there is an increase in muscle tone and fat burning, subject to proper nutrition. The list of the most popular workouts for all muscle groups includes:
- bench press;
- standing press;
- barbell squats;
- inclined barbell pull.
The program is described in this video.
The right training systems will help you use your time in the gym effectively and pump up all muscle groups in a short period of time.
To get the desired results from training to gain mass, bodybuilders who have trained for a long time recommend performing complex exercises.
They are good, as are isolation workouts for increasing muscle mass.
How to measure muscle mass?
Knowing how important muscle is to both health and recovery, practical ways to measure muscle mass and its function are needed. In clinical practice, there are methods to measure muscle function, such as grip strength.
But for many, to get a general idea of the condition of the muscles, it is enough to ask themselves a few simple questions:
- Do I have difficulty getting out of a chair or carrying objects?
- Do I feel tired and/or weak?
- Do I feel unsteady in my gait?
- Have I fallen recently?
- Am I walking slower than before?
What role does nutrition play?
There is an immutable truth in the expression “you are what you eat.” Complete protein, a building material for muscles, is essential for their health. Key sources of protein include meat, fish, eggs, nuts and legumes. Try to eat high protein foods at least twice a day.
Consuming enough protein, the building block of muscles, is essential for muscle health.
Making sure you have enough vitamin D is also important for healthy muscles. People with low vitamin D levels may experience muscle weakness, and vitamin D deficiency, especially during the winter months, is not uncommon. Choose oily fish such as salmon and mackerel, eggs and fortified breakfast cereals to increase your intake.
Self-esteem, it's a good thing
To understand what to expect in the near future, you can estimate your capabilities on your own, without any experts. Age, weight, height, body type, level of fitness.
It is interesting to watch the progress of those who come from another sport. Those who have been involved in athletics always have great prospects. I was simply amazed by the results that one swimmer achieved in a couple of years. Their body is familiar with periodic loads, their muscles have high endurance, and they are ready to work for results from the first day.
I’m not writing this so that someone will say: “Damn, I’m not a swimmer, so bodybuilding is not my thing, I’ll go to the chess section!”
I simply suggest that you soberly assess your capabilities. Let's say you are forty years old, and you decide to go to the gym and gain weight. There is no point in looking up to twenty-year-old guys. What works for them, as they say for a dear soul, will be difficult for you.
It’s better to have a realistic attitude than to answer the question: “ Will my back be as wide as Dorian Yates in a year?”
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Get Answer: “Of course it will!” Practice my method, it will become twice as wide as his!”
What about BMI?
It is important to pay attention not only to your weight and its reduction (especially for people with chronic diseases). You also need to think about the muscles - insufficient nutrition leads to their atrophy.
Body mass index does not provide information about the condition of muscles.
Historically, body mass index (BMI) has been used to assess a person's nutritional status, but it does not provide insight into muscle health. Understanding how important muscle is to health and recovery, practical ways to assess muscle mass are important.
You need to lose weight and gain weight correctly
The man decided to lose weight. I started actively going to the gym, sweating and working on myself. A month later he steps on the scale and sees the following picture:
- weight: decreased from 85 kg to 81 kg
- fat percentage: increased from 25% to 26%
- percentage of muscle mass: decrease from 45% to 43%
What happens? The guy worked out actively in the gym, lost 4 kilograms, but, as it turned out, he lost them not due to fat, but due to muscle mass.
The training course and nutrition program were incorrect. The lack of protein food led to the fact that the percentage of fat in the body remained almost at the same level, but the muscles decreased. It is not right.
The normal value of muscle mass for men is about 45% of total body weight
The normal value for muscle mass for women is around 35%
We are talking about normally well-organized people: without a beer belly and the desire to lose their “cake-filled sides.”
The same bodybuilders can increase the percentage of muscle mass up to 70%. Alas, with such indicators it is rarely possible to do without stimulants and steroids. For a person who regularly trains in the gym, the percentage of muscles is in the range of 50 to 55%.
