Truth About Muscle Growth (Part 2) :

by female bodybuilders on 8:02 PM in Photo

👉 Truth About Muscle Growth (Part 1)

Nutrition is a big part in the repair of the muscles. One reason is if we do not feed the body atrophy will set in. Most of us think of atrophy being caused by not moving for long periods of time. For example being bed ridden, but there is another kind atrophy and that is from malnutrition. In this instance if we starve the body and there is no food or fat for the body to consume, than the body has to consume muscle to survive. An example of this is a person that suffers from anorexia; they have little muscle lift do to lack of food to feed the muscles. The key macro nutrient to feed the muscle here is protein. How protein works is that it is broke down in our system to amino acids which is what the muscles need for repair. The essential amino acids or branch chain amino acids or BCAA's are the ones that we are interested in, there are two other forms of amino acids that have different functions in the body. The BCAA help to build and repair our muscles. So it only makes sense that if we have micro trauma to the muscles, than the more protein we consume the faster and stronger the muscle repairs. As with anything, there are limits to how much protein to take in per meal. There is not an exact number of grams of protein is too much at this time. I usually figure that if you stay between 30 and 40 grams per meal you will be fine.

The second most important part of muscle growth is rest. If you are moving around and using your muscles how can they repair themselves? The other thing to remember here is that when we are at rest (mainly during sleeping periods) this is when our hormone levels are elevated, such as growth hormone. So of course this is when we are going to have the best chance for muscle gain. It is usually when the protein has a chance to do its best work. Also the longer you sleep the faster the repair. So as you have always heard try to get at least 6 to 8 hours of sleep each night for the best results.

So this is why I say that muscles are not built in the gym. Yes, we need the gym to tear them down to build them back up, but they are made after the gym when we eat and sleep. As always train smarter not harder.