On Jan 13, 12:08 am, still just me <
[email protected]> wrote:
> On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 00:52:26 -0800 (PST), webhead <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> >Problem is a lot of bodybuilders believe that excess cardio limits
> >development ,which is true but "excess" is a whole lot more then their
> >usual 3x 30' on the stationary.
>
> Webhead:
>
> Tell me more - how's does doing cardio limit muscle development...
> assuming the amount of body building is the same?
The whole mass building thing relies on (as does all sorts of physical
development, including sports) progressive overload. The way you lift
weight is pretty much responsible for the adaptation following
training.
Lifting heavy weight for low reps and lots of time between sets has a
large fiber recruitment during contraction and the result is a high
response in protein synthesis, i.e. more fibers = more strength. Most
powerlifters don't look muscular because adaptation here is mostly
fibers instead of increased glycogen/water.
Lots of reps, low weight causes adaptation for endurance.
Bodybuilding lies somewhere in between and most of the mass increase
follows from increased intracellular water and solubles storage
(glycogen, creatine...). Training is based on hard lifting with little
rest and targets glycogen depletion (in a way). Some strength training
is involved to keep the training load progressing.
If you keep training load continuous (regular training) and hard
enough you get bigger but...
Nutrition is 75% of the work and it's important to be sure your food
intake provides everything for a maximum and optimal recovery. You
need sufficient protein for fiber repair and new synthesis, sufficient
carbs to restock glycogen for the next workout and some fats for
hormone production. The key is to fuel the recovery as constant as
possible, eat frequent and choose slow digesting carbs.
If you're in a caloric deficit, some part of the energy you consume
will be protein but as you guys (unlike most BBers who freak out over
it) know most is carbs and fats. Thus a caloric deficit isn't exactly
helping out retaining muscle mass. If you loose weight, some part is
inevitable muscle (lean) mass.
I do eat frequent meals and get some protein (dairy, eggs, meat) in
with every meal and that takes certainly helps in retaining mass while
dieting. But extended periods of sports doesn't help here.
In general cardio is good, endurance sports training is bad. That is
if you're interested in gaining mass and looking like it.
Scar tissue is the result of damage to an epithelial (like skin) and
damage to the basal layer: the epithelial cannot restore itself by
cell devision, instead the gap is filled with extracellular matrix
consisting of all sorts of fibers like collagen, elastin and large
water holding molecules like glycosaminoglycans. Muscular adaption is
not scar tissue but rather increased storage of "energy", water and
more muscle fibers (= hypertrophy).
There is a difference in damage to skeletal muscles and say the heart
muscle which does scar after a heart attack but thats another story.
