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How to Build Muscle

julian.com

21–30 of 202 posts

Re: How to Build Muscle

#22
post #9

There is a lot of useful advice in that article. However, I am always made weary by people's use of term "muscle growth." What is typically perceived and dubbed as muscle growth is actually simply muscle cells retaining water and sugar as fuels to help accommodate the ongoing increase in physical activity. That is what anyone who begins training observes in the first few months. Think of this as a simple increase in…

> However, when it comes to the actual increase in the number of muscle cells, this process is much more difficult to launch. It's still controversial whether creating new muscle cells (hyperplasia) is possible at all , as distinct from expanding the existing cells (hypertrophy). > The former is regulated by the psyche and can be described as the hormone of successfully overcoming difficulties and becoming a winner A…

Here is a fact: If you do not have a proper hormonal background, you will not grow. I do not care what you eat, what you do to train, etc. Take a 6 year old girl, give her best workout routine, best nutrition, etc. And take a 16 year old man-youth. I guarantee you that he will grow muscle even if he eats mulch all day. Why? Hormonal background.

> Actually, testosterone in males is regulated by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Mood can affect it, but not by very much.

What is mood?

Re: How to Build Muscle

#23
The only thing worse than no knowledge is just a little knowledge.

Although I've always been a "geek" I am into sports since high school - so it is now more than 20 years. Maybe I was just lucky, but I always had good results, even in the era when internet was not there for the information. Never had to take any supplements, and the results were just right. I won't bother you giving advice, because:

1. Everyone's body is different 2. It's simple once you get it, but it might be difficult to explain.

I'll just say that skimming through this guide I've seen a lot of fluff, some good info and also lots of crap.

I think that, for the people here who would like to start working out, the most important things are:

1. You have to build the habit of working out from now on for the rest of your life if you want the results to stay. 2. Find a professional guidance at first. An enterpreneur whose experience sums to (citing from the OP): "I wrote the first draft of this guide months ago. I meant to publish this then. But I unexpectedly lost half the muscle I had gained." is not the best source of knowledge in this area.

Re: How to Build Muscle

#24
post #2

https://daks2k3a4ib2z.cloudfront.net/54a5a40be53a05f34703dd1... on the left, it feels far enough muscles for a developer, why would you need more muscles? that consumes more calories :) and are pretty useless, except for our stupidly wrong society's standards

>why would you need more muscles? that consumes more calories :)

That just means you get to eat more yummy food.

>and are pretty useless, except for our stupidly wrong society's standards

That depends on what you want/like to do.

Re: How to Build Muscle

#25
post #9

There is a lot of useful advice in that article. However, I am always made weary by people's use of term "muscle growth." What is typically perceived and dubbed as muscle growth is actually simply muscle cells retaining water and sugar as fuels to help accommodate the ongoing increase in physical activity. That is what anyone who begins training observes in the first few months. Think of this as a simple increase in…

Any resources (articles, books, videos, etc.) you'd recommend for someone who wants to learn more about this?

I will see if I can find something. No one really talks about these things. I have a youtube channel in Russian. Perhaps I will start discussing some of this in English. What interests you? Anything in particular?

Re: How to Build Muscle

#26
post #19

Author here. More than happy to spend the next few hours answering any questions if the admins find that appropriate. I will do my best to cite evidence/research for my responses.

I've seen some studies that say the number of reps you do doesn't matter. Can you comment on this? Here's a link to a study: http://jap.physiology.org/content/early/2016/05/09/japplphys... Also, I've never heard of muscles shrinking due to being overworked. Can you elaborate on how this happens?

#1: Reps. When working out for muscle size (as opposed to strength), it's optimal to use a weight that’s light enough to do a set of at least 8 reps with but heavy enough that you can't easily do more than 10 reps [1, 2]. This range of 8 to 10 reps means it's fine if you stop at 8, 9, or 10 reps in any set. Go as high as you can while stopping one rep short of the maximum you feel you could do.

Stopping one rep short of exhaustion is an important technique: It doesn’t decrease your rate of gains and it increases your recovery time between sets so that you can complete all your reps (study, study, study) [3, 4].

#2: Shrinking from overworking is surprisingly a real thing. The science is unclear as to how exactly muscle mass responds to resistance exercise, so my answer would be made up if I gave you one. What I can tell you is that "being overworked" is the result of lifting too heavy for too many total reps. This might seem impossible since your body should be unable to continue lifting past a natural point of exhaustion, but if you use machine exercises (especially a pulley machine), it's easy to cause a disproportionate amount of stress to your muscle relative to the incrementing heaviness trajectory you were lifting for free weights.

[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7873571_Muscular_ad...

[2] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23252049_Changes_in...

[3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4731492/

[4] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21986694

Re: How to Build Muscle

#27
post #19

Author here. More than happy to spend the next few hours answering any questions if the admins find that appropriate. I will do my best to cite evidence/research for my responses.

I've seen some studies that say the number of reps you do doesn't matter. Can you comment on this? Here's a link to a study: http://jap.physiology.org/content/early/2016/05/09/japplphys... Also, I've never heard of muscles shrinking due to being overworked. Can you elaborate on how this happens?

I've heard of it lots of times. Practically every forced labor ever had this effect. Work destroys muscle. Nutrition and rest make them recover (and grow in the process). The fiber can be overworked beyond repair.

Re: How to Build Muscle

#28
I don't like going to gym and the solution to this problem was bodyweight fitness. Growth is a little slower, than with lifting, but you are learning cool tricks like handstand. The program from reddit's /r/bodyweightfitness is a good start: https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/kb/recommend...

Re: How to Build Muscle

#29
post #20

No offense, but Julian after three months isn't even as big as most guys you'd find at a local gym. Why would you take this guy's advice, "science-based" or not? Addendum: I understand if you're still making progress, but maybe give it more than a few months before you start publishing advice on how to gain 20 pounds of muscle?

This guide is about where you're starting from and how efficiently you can get bigger. Not about becoming massive (which is in large part a function of your genetics).

Re: How to Build Muscle

#30
post #20

No offense, but Julian after three months isn't even as big as most guys you'd find at a local gym. Why would you take this guy's advice, "science-based" or not? Addendum: I understand if you're still making progress, but maybe give it more than a few months before you start publishing advice on how to gain 20 pounds of muscle?

It depends on (a) genetics, and (b) hormone supplements. Natural body building is therefore more dependent on genetic variation and slower.

There was a recent 'study' (most research in this area is pretty bad, small sample sizes, low powered studies) that showed muscle/size improvements: hormones + exercise > hormones > exercise > neither.

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