18.Muscle Maintenance

Muscle Maintenance

1. The rules of Maintaining and Building Muscle
2. How Do You Lose Muscles? - Atrophy (ah-trfy)
3. The Good News if you are Out of Shape
4. When to use a Gym
5. Muscle Groups to Work Through
6. Technique One: Recovery Buildup
7. Technique Two: Drop Weight Exercises for Building Muscles
8. Rules of Gaining or Reducing Weight

Mother Nature gave you muscles that can adapt in size and strength based on what you require of them.
If you use them, they will grow as long as there are nutrients that will feed the growth process.
If you don't use them and or provide the nutrients they require, they will not grow.

1. The rules of Maintaining and Building Muscle

1. Nutrition and exercise are paramount to maintaining muscle mass
2. Of particular nutritional interest is hydration and protein
3. You do not need to get the protein from animal products
1. A cow eats vegetation and survives perfectly well on this. 
2. Vegetation has a lot of protein
3. The protein in vegetation is:
1. Alkaline and therefore more efficient
2. Alive
3. Assimilates better
4. Muscle structure is based on the use of the muscles:
1. If you work in a field lifting and walking all day then the muscles will likely be long and thin
2. If you lift weights for a few minutes a day, the muscles are likely to be short and fat
5. Muscle mass is grown by over exercising the muscles and creating micro tears in the muscle fibers.
   As these fibers repair, the scar tissue increases the size of the muscle
6. If you don't exercise a particular muscle, your body will absorb the muscle mass it no longer requires
7. Muscle energy is derived from mitochondria (little alien organic motors) that reside in each cell of the muscle fibers. A cell may only have one mitochondria per cell but as you exercise, the mitochondria can duplicate multiple times over a short period of time to provide you with more muscle energy. 

2. How Do You Lose Muscles? - Atrophy (ah-trfy)

Atrophy is the partial or complete wasting away of a part of the body. Causes of atrophy include mutations, poor nourishment, poor circulation, loss of hormonal support, loss of nerve supply to the target organ, excessive amount of apoptosis of cells, and disuse or lack of exercise or disease intrinsic to the tissue itself. Wikipedia

Take a moment to review your lifestyle.

• If you don't put your muscles through a full range of movement, and involve them in weight resistance, you will lose them. 
• It does not matter how far you run or bike. If you are only maintaining a constant pressure on the muscle, it will not grow. 
• If your muscle activity reduces, your muscle cells will remove any additional mitochondria it doesn't need. This will reduce the total amount of energy capable of being produced by the muscle.

So take a typical  day in sedentary type jobs. The only muscles that gets exercised are legs and arms.
The rest; abdominal muscles, back muscles, gluteal muscles... they get a quick pass through during the exercise but do not get specifically trained. Consequently the muscle mass reduces and common ailments start to occur such as hip, back, abdominal, and shoulder issues.

However, as our exercise reduces our nutrient intake doesn't. In fact in most cases we increase nutrient intake and the energy continues to flow to where the muscles used to be. Muscle fibers are replaced with fat cells. Then we start to lose function and we injure because of lack of strength. Because of aches and pains we use our muscles less and the cycle of degradation proceeds.

We call this growing old when in really, it is just lack of maintenance.

3. The Good News if you are Out of Shape

The good news is that you can recover much of what you have lost.

The correct process of recovery is to regularly work your way through an entire body workout using light weights and then gradually increase the weights. You can use things within your home and immediate neighbourhood  to build up your strength and progress.

4. When to use a Gym

A lot of people can maintain a reasonable muscle mass by simply maintaining a regular 'All Body Exercise Routine" but you have to use the practice of "weighted resistance" where you are actually lifting weights. Walking is fine but you are only exercising a small group of muscles. You also have to exercise everything else. I use a gym. They have a lot of gear and it keeps me entertained. But it's a commitment so don't subscribe lightly.

5. Muscle Groups to Work Through

The best order to workout with weight resistance training is to work from the ground up.

Identify exercises to work out your body in the following sequence:

1. Ankles
2. Calfs
3. Knees
4. Thighs
5. Glutes
6. Abdominal (3 areas)
7. Lower Back
8. Chest
9. Shoulders
10. Neck
11. Arms

B) There are two techniques of muscle training that I recommend:

6. Technique One: Recovery Buildup

This technique is only trying to get the muscle back on track.

1: Start with the lightest weight. Don't concern yourself with the weight because as you progress and build muscle, you will be increasing the weights.

2: Work through each muscle group and use light weights that suit the area being exercised

1. Find two exercises that work the muscle group from two different directions and alternate them
2. Set a repetition goal. For example: 
1. Exercise 1: 10 reps
2. Exercise 2: 10 reps
3. Exercise 1: 10 reps
4. Exercise 2: 10 reps
5. Exercise 1: 10 reps
6. Exercise 2: 10 reps
3. Move to the next muscle group and repeat steps 2 to 4.

3: Rest and recover after the exercise and be sure to eat and drink properly. Do not overdo it. It is tempting to do so but just allow your muscles time to get used to the idea that you want it exercised. If you overdo it you are going to be sore and that is not good. Take it easy.

4: Next time you do the exercise, either:

1. Increase the reps
2. Increase the weight

5: Technique is important

1. Count to 'one' for the contraction: Count 'one two' for the return.
2. Breath in for the contraction, out for the release
3. Think of the muscle you are exercising. Feel it. This is the 'mind muscle connection'

6: Increasing the load

There is no hard fast rule here.

If you do 15 reps at 1 Kg then the total load of exercise is 15 reps * 1 Kg = 15 Kgs

If you do 10 reps at 1.5 Kg then the total load of exercise is 10 reps * 1.5 Kg = 15 Kgs

If you do 5 reps at 3 Kg then the total load of exercise is 5 reps * 3 Kg = 15 Kgs

All the same thing except the 5 reps at 3 Kgs probably have a better effect.

1. If you increase the reps, that is simply going to take longer to complete the exercises
2. If you increase the weight, this will have the same effect as increasing the reps.

Once you have mastered this phase, you will find that your body is taking shape and muscles are now receptive to your intentions. 

The one thing that ruins body shape and growth is your nutrition. You must get this right.

If you are exercising but your tummy isn't changing shape, the issue is your diet and no amount of exercise will change this. Go back through the nutritional training.

7. Technique Two: Drop Weight Exercises for Building Muscles

I love drop weights. They are the best exercise to build bigger and stronger muscles fast and it's easy.

Once perfected you can actually reduce your time at the gym if you want.

1: Go through a series of stretching exercises and make sure you have warmed up all the muscles you intend to workout.

2: Start with the heaviest weight you feel is comfortable for you and the exercise.
One which you can do 10 reps with but is slightly difficult. 

3: Working through each muscle group

1. Stay on the same exercise
2. Do as many reps as you can at the weight
3. Immediately you finish the rep, return the weights, pick up the next lightest weight 
4. Repeat step 2, 3, and 4 until you have finished 5 cycles or until you cannot do any more
5. Stay on the same muscle group but change the exercise. Repeat steps 2 to 4
6. Rest for 2 to 4 minutes until you recover
7. Move to the next muscle group and repeat steps 2 to 4.

4: Be sure to eat and drink properly. This exercise does not have a limit. The whole objective is to 'smash' the muscle and fill the area with nutrient rich blood. Your muscles will grow, they have no choice.

5: Next time you do the exercise, see if you can increase the start weight.

6: Technique is important

1. Count to 'one' for the contraction: Count 'one two' for the return.
2. Breath in for the contraction, out for the release
3. Think of the muscle you are exercising. Feel it. This is the 'mind muscle connection'

Once you have mastered this technique, you will find that your body is growing fast.

You will need to take supplements to keep up with the body's repair.

8. Rules of Gaining or Reducing Weight

• To increase weight you must eat more.
• To reduce weight you must eat less

Summary

I will be showing some routines and methods in another blog shortly. It's all about technique. 

If it hurts, don't do it.