By Dr. Simone Losi
Shortly before the summer a good part of the gym goers and fitness centers, under the advice of the instructor or simply through the "do it yourself", begins a program aimed at the definition of muscle, or the loss of a certain amount of fat with the purpose to highlight the musculature.
Generally the most serious error that is made is to drastically increase the duration of the training sessions or the number of weekly days in which you train.
Furthermore, it often happens that, in order to "dry" quickly, aerobic activity is significantly increased. Although this is a useful strategy to increase caloric consumption, when it is brought to excess (above 40-45 minutes per session), it causes a rather significant internal protein catabolism. This phenomenon is clearly visible in athletics: as the distance traveled increases, we see athletes getting leaner and less muscular; the extremes are the 100 meters, in which we see incredibly dry physical and cono remarkable muscular masses, and the marathon, in which the athletes are particularly thin. All this is due to the type of physical training they lead; at this point it is clear that too much aerobic activity is counterproductive on people seeking hypertrophy and muscle definition.
Another rather common error is that of frequently resorting to the so-called "intensity techniques": stripping, superset, triset, rest pause, etc. These training methods are effective in increasing the intensity of work and, consequently, the proportion of lactate produced. The accumulation of this metabolite in the circulatory stream represents a positive stimulus for the secretion of the growth hormone, which among its functions also has that of being extremely lipolytic (accelerates the degradation of fatty acids). The only disadvantage of these techniques is that, if used too often, they bring the athlete into a state of super training and, paradoxically, significantly increase muscle catabolism.
If to all this we add the tendency to lower, even significantly, the caloric intake to increase muscle definition, the omelette is made; the body is in fact subjected to a double stress; the drastic reduction in calories and the exaggerated increase in the amount of work in the gym, while generally leading to a reduction in weight and body fat, cause a strong loss of lean muscle tissue.
The advice is to gradually increase the intensity of work, perhaps reserving, at least in the first phase, the techniques of high intensity training to the less developed muscles. Maintaining the classic work pattern on the other muscle areas, aerobic sessions of progressively increasing intensity will be introduced (in the initial phase their duration must be less than 20 minutes). As far as nutrition is concerned, a "jerky" diet will be followed, that is based on the supercharging on the days when you are training and on the caloric restriction on the days of recovery. All this with the aim of increasing metabolism and muscle definition.
Below is a list of tips for those about to start a training program aimed at muscle definition:
- first increase the intensity of the training and then, if anything, the duration
- maintain at least one basic exercise per muscle group, using series at 75-80% of your ceiling
- use aerobic / anaerobic circuits no more than 2 times a week
- use interval training as a form of aerobic activity
- drink plenty of water during training
- increase the protein intake, without completely eliminating the share of carbohydrates and fats
- use a good thermogenic before physical activity
These general recommendations, which will be modeled on the individual person, represent a good starting point to reach an enviable muscular definition.
