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Inflammation Theory of Muscle Growth

March 14, 2011 by

Believe it or not we still don’t really know how muscles grow. The scientific literature provides multiple lines of evidence that all contribute to our understanding but we still don’t have definite cause and effect proof of the exact reason of how we grow and why that grow is limited.

 

Inflammation Theory of Muscle Growth

Your ability to grow muscles is both dependent and blocked by inflammation

We know that you have to do some sort of resistance training on an regular basis to stimulate muscle growth, and we know that age, intensity and diet (to some degree) have an influence. And finally we know there is a big difference in the amount of muscle you can grow when using anabolic steroids.

Given all of these facts we are proposing a new theory that chronic inflammation is the rate limiting step in muscle growth.

Brad Pilon has recently put together a body of research that supports the inflammation theory of muscle growth and it explains why:

Bulking up to gain muscle might actually have the reverse effect and ruin your chance to build muscle. This also explains why guys on steroids can have success ‘bulking up’ on massive calories and gain muscle, while a non-user will just create massive inflammation and thus destroy any chance of muscle growth.

The chronic north american lifestyle disorders may all be contributing to a lack of progress in your muscle gaining efforts.

The best way to gain muscle is to stay lean year round and avoid overeating or any fat gain.

This is definitely an eye opener, but if you stop and really listen to what is being said in today’s podcast most of the points likely fit with what you’ve observed in yourself and in other people around the gym.

You can also watch a presentation on the inflammation theory of muscle growth at this website:

Inflammation Theory of Muscle Growth

John

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How Big Can Your Muscles Grow

March 7, 2011 by

Creating your best looking physique requires two things:

1) Low bodyfat  &  2) Well Developed Muscles

Most of us can't workout at work like Ron Burgundy Does!

 

Lower bodyfat levels are a matter of diet and to some degree genetics, but todays post is about the second issue, developing muscle.

The muscle size that you can eventually develop is based on many factors including:

Genetic starting point – Somatotype

Durability – How resistant you are to injury

Emotional Disposition – How easily you become stressed and anxious

Mental Focus – How much and how long you can focus on your workouts and your intensity level in the gym

Available Time – How much time you have available to dedicate to training

Rest and Recuperation – The time and ability you have to rest, recover from your workouts and unwind from the other stresses in your life

Other Lifestyle Factors – There are a number of other factors that get in the way of your training including work responsibilities, traveling, family responsibilities, school, social events etc.

In today’s podcast we’ll discuss the rate limiting steps that are determining how big you can grow your muscles.

In most cases the amount of muscle you can ever develop is not limited by your genetics but rather by your lifestyle.

John

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What does “Building Muscle” Mean?

February 28, 2011 by

Most men want bigger muscles…it’s the reason most of us go to the gym, it’s the reason men continue to experiment with new workout protocols, new supplements and even drugs…bigger muscles.

Eugen Sandow vs Schwarzenegger

How did Schwarzenegger get so much bigger than Sandow?

A quick glance around any gym will reveal men with vastly different sizes of muscles. So what makes one guy that much different than the other in a given group?

The factors that contribute to the muscle size of any given person you might come across include:

Genetics

# of years weight training

Type of program followed

Intensity of training

The age you started weight training

Supplements

Drugs

Money – how much supplements or drugs you can afford

Time – The amount of time you can spend working out

Stress – How much stress you are under in the other areas of your life

All of these factors contribute to the amount of muscle any given person has, and this is also why you can’t really compare yourself to anyone else.

This is all part of understanding muscle growth and what to expect.

At this point you might have noticed that I haven’t said anything about ‘building muscle’ but only muscle ‘growth’. That is because it’s incorrect to use the word ‘build’ to refer to muscle.

Or at the very least, the word ‘build’ makes us think of muscle growth in the wrong terms, and as long as we think in terms of muscle ‘building’ we will always be susceptible to marketing scams about muscle growth.

The first step to really understanding how to create bigger muscles is to first start thinking about muscle growth as it truly is, and that is hypertrophy, not ‘building’.

DEFINITION: Hypertrophy is the increase in the volume of an organ or tissue due to the enlargement of its component cells.

The definition of the word “build” can mean many things, but none of it’s meanings are the same as the word ‘hypertrophy’.

Hypertrophy can most closely be related to the concept of filling up a water balloon and perhaps making a slightly bigger balloon to fill.

Making this distinction in the way you think of muscle growth is a key step to developing the body you want and namely, bigger muscles.

In todays podcast we discuss how to correctly think about muscle growth and how this fundamental shift in the way you think and speak about muscle growth will change the way you view working out for both muscle size and definition.

John

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Getting Real Results: Interview with Thomas Power

December 30, 2010 by

Working out is just a tool to achieve a desired result or outcome…this is pretty obvious. But when you commit to a workout that isn’t producing the results you want it might not be as easy to change to a new workout as you think.

Adonis Index Transformation Thomas Power Before

Adonis Index Transformation Thomas Power After

Sometimes you might think it’s you that is failing and not the workout itself. Maybe it’s just not a fit for your current training status, or maybe you’ve got the wrong expectations.

In any case, if you’re not getting results, but you’re putting in the effort, then something has got to change. Like Einstein said “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing but expecting different results”.

This is what Thomas had to overcome when he realized his old workout simply wasn’t producing the results he wanted.

One of the most interesting things Thomas said was that he had to ‘swallow his pride and just trust that the Adonis Index Workout would work”.

I find this to be a revealing statement because the workout he had been doing for the previous two years just wasn’t producing the results he wanted, and he was faced with a choice. Either continue doing the old workout and try to force it to work, or take a leap of faith and try the Adonis Index workout.

The rest of the story is history…Thomas finished in the money on our latest contest building a significant amount of muscle.

In todays podcast we discuss the “permission to be light” and how it can free you from the old way of believing that you must ‘gain weight’ and ‘bulk up’ to build muscle.

We’ll also discuss intensity and joining contests to generate motivation.

Adonis Index Transformation Transcript Thomas Power

And finally we’ll talk about embracing what your genetics have. If building muscle comes easy but you struggle with fat loss…well embrace the fact that you can build muscle easily (because the ‘skinny’ guys would kill to build your kind of muscle)

On the other hand if you’re naturally lean but building muscle is a challenge for you, embrace the fact that you can have visible abs without really dieting for them…(the bigger guys would kill to have abs all the time without dying)

The point is the grass is always greener on the other side if you always focus on what you DON’T have…instead you should embrace what you DO have and get to work developing your weaker points.

READ:

You can download the transcript here:

Getting Real Results: Interview with Thomas Power

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Goal Hijacking and the Muscle Index

October 18, 2010 by

The Muscle Index

The Muscle Index

The Muscle Index

We talked about the Muscle Index last week and how it’s a better measure of true lean muscle mass gains.

My latest Muscle Index score is 33.4

So this is the relative number that goes with the look and shape I have right now. Anyone with a similar Muscle Index will likely have a similar look as I do (regardless of their height)

If you’re significantly more muscular than I am your number will be higher than this and if you’re less muscular or have significantly more bodyfat your number will be lower than this.

For me the Muscle Index is the best way to measure real progress towards building a lean muscular physique.

The Adonis index ratio is part of the Muscle Index and therefore having a good AI ratio is incorporated right into a good MI (Muscle Index).

The actual measurements of the muscle index are outlined in the manual which is now included in the base Adonis Index Workout system. I suggest reading this manual and following the strength testing procedure as indicated to come up with your true strength measurements.

This way you will have an accurate and comparable baseline to start charting your true lean muscle mass progress. I believe that the Muscle Index is the best way to measure real changes in muscle mass.

Goal Hijacking

If you are the type who regularly exercises you already know that it’s easy to lose track of where you are in the gym or at home. Bouncing from one workout to the next and trying new things is very common and it’s easy to get distracted from what your trying to do.

You’ve got to own your goals in the gym no matter what they are. I don’t care if you want to be bigger or leaner, or both, or want to run a marathon, or a triathlon or bench press 500lbs…you can even have multiple goals, some performance based and some based on the look and shape of your body.

Whatever it is be sure that you’re on target with the real goal as it is very easy to adopt a training idea or style as an identity that completely derails you from the original goal you had in the first place. This can happen with powerlifting, crossfitting, ‘functional training’, and many other styles of exercise. If you’re honest to goodness goal is just to bench press 400lbs no matter what it takes to do that, then that is great, but our program isn’t really going to help you with that…in fact most programs won’t, the real answer for that is years of powerlifting and likely some steroids.

If on the other hand your goal is to build a great looking lean muscular physique without drugs then we got something for you!

In today’s podcast we’ll talk about the Muscle Index and how to apply it and how to recognize when your goals might have become hijacked from you when you weren’t looking.

John

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“Stubborn belly fat” – What it really Is

October 11, 2010 by

Serge Nubret was RIPPED!

Measuring muscle growth and fat loss isn’t as easy as stepping on the scale although this seems to be the default way most people try to do it.

The look of your body is determined by fat mass, muscle mass and water. But this isn’t as straight forward as you might think.

Body Fat Storage Patterns

Fat mass is not stored uniformly around your body, and there is a storage rate and burn patter to your fat as well. In other words some places store more fat than others (ie: Belly) and some places burn fat slower than others (ie: Belly).

We know that on a mans body, fat tends to store faster and to a higher degree in the abdomen area viscera (underneath your abs around your intestines and organs). The visceral fat actually burns quickly and this is part of the reason why your waist measurement can decrease dramatically without your abs becoming visible right away.

This fat that is above your abs is what most people refer to as ‘stubborn fat’. In reality this fat doesn’t have a bad attitude and is no more ‘stubborn’ than your shoes (I don’t know why people try to give fat a personality like this). The fat covering your abs has a lower blood supply and less fat mobilizing receptors than other fat compartments in your body, this means it takes longer for this fat to be completely burned off compared to other areas…hence the reason why your abs are the last thing to show when you’re dieting down.

This doesn’t mean you can’t get rid of this fat, it just means that it’ll be the last place you’ll finally see definition, and it’s likely not going to correlate with pounds lost on the scale when you get to your leanest look.

Measuring Muscle Growth

For experienced lifters muscle growth is also difficult to measure with a scale. Daily fluctuations in body weight can easily mask any short term change in muscle mass. The size of a muscle is somewhat transient and true changes in it’s size require longer term measurement intervals to truly track changes (6-12 months).

Measuring circumferences is a much better and more accurate way to measure changes in muscle growth compared to the scale, at least this way you have proof of where the size/muscle really is.

Measuring Fat Loss and Muscle Building Progress

Measuring both muscle building and fat loss progress at the same time is virtually impossible on a scale as you can do both with no change in your bodyweight.

Since bodyweight simply cannot tell you much about your short term changes in fat or muscle mass a new and better metric is necessary…enter the Muscle Index.

As we talked about last week the Muscle Index is a way of measuring how muscular your body is withing relying on the scale and correcting for gains in weight due to fat or extracellular water weight.

In other words, if you gain 10lbs, but it’s all from fat, water and thanksgiving dinner the muscle index calculation won’t lie, but the scale will.

In todays podcast I recruit the help of a good friend Bryan Chung. Bryan is a plastic surgeon resident and has his PhD in sports medicine. You can read is critical review of fitness research at his blog: http://www.evidencebasedfitness.blogspot.com/

We discuss how hard it really is for the average person to guess how much bodyfat they have and what they assume their body should weigh when they’re ‘in shape’. We also talk about the uneven fat distribution patterns of men and women and why relying too much on the scale can play mind games with you and derail your progress.

John

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