Edited by Roberto Rillo - Book Author: Calisthenics BodyBuilding
Why do the muscles swell?
Instead of giving another of the already numerous scientific explanations related to myofibrils, sarcomeres, type IIb fibers, which wrongly, but unfortunately, bore most people, I will try to explain this important aspect using a simple and immediate system: l visual experience and deductive logic.
If we take a look at the various sports, surely we can identify different disciplines that contribute to a muscular development, certainly not from body building, but that in some way can remember him for form and volume. Just to name a few, artistic gymnastics, weight lifting, pole vaulting, fighting. Surely we do not find the muscular typology that interests us in other sports such as long runs, cycling or swimming.
We can therefore deduce that sports with intense and explosive effort lead to good muscle development, while sports with long-lasting resistance do not develop large muscle masses. This first deduction tells us the first truth: to develop big muscles we need a certain type of effort.
We continue our deductive visual experience and move from the world of sport to that of work. Let's examine some heavy jobs with intense and explosive effort and we will see big and muscular physicists next to lean and nervous physicists. What happened? Why in the world of work does not the potential effort to develop large muscles give everyone the same results on average?
This apparently banal phenomenon constitutes another important truth.
In the world of sport there is a selection of subjects that starts from the first city competitions up to the Olympics. When we see an athlete at the Olympics we must know that this is not just anyone with so much willpower: he is a person in a few dozen in the world in that specialty, a person who in a few dozen of the world contains all the psycho-physical characteristics necessary excel in that particular sport. These characteristics make him a genetically gifted subject, which together with a training and a diet specifically tailored for the sporting purpose he sets himself, make him a champion. At the Olympics they are all champions, all genetically gifted subjects and therefore react with different "nuances" in the same grandiose manner.
Different scenario in the world of work, where by destiny or necessity anyone can end up carrying out a very heavy work, with a stressful lifestyle and a rough diet, without any selection. And here the genetically diverse and mostly non-gifted subjects will react differently: someone more favored will react with adequate muscle development, some other disadvantaged will be worn out.
What have we understood so far? That muscle development depends on two factors: type of applied effort and genetics. The same effort to induce muscle development will bring excellent, satisfying, mediocre or poor results depending on whether it becomes suitable to excessive or useless in relation to the genetics of the receiving subject.
Here, then, that the training, which represents the effort, must be calibrated to measure, together with the diet and lifestyle, to the possibilities of the subject, otherwise the lack of muscular development. Always think back to this simple practical explanation when you want to work out by copying the guy card or following the same diet. It would also be nice, to paraphrase the courts, to write in all the gyms: the effort is the same for everyone but not everyone is equal for the effort.
Increase muscle mass? It depends...
