A lot of processes go into building and maintaining a healthy body. Metabolism is one of the most important processes for sustaining your body and development.
Your metabolism is made of two distinct processes; Catabolism and anabolism.
Catabolism and anabolism are two important aspects that help determine a wide range of factors, including muscle growth. Both processes work to offset each other and, in so doing, help you to strike a healthy internal balance. Below, we'll help you understand how these processes work.
The body goes through two major processes to maintain and capture energy.
It achieves these processes with the help of different hormones such as estrogen, insulin, adrenaline, cortisol, and glucagon.
Each of these hormones helps initiate these processes and greatly influences your health, general wellness, and even ability to build muscle. Knowing how these processes work and manipulating them for your interest is a key method to attaining your fitness goals faster.
Tipping one side in favor of the other would help you to maximize your metabolic processes to acquire bigger muscles faster.
In the basic sense, anabolism and catabolism are the building blocks of your weight.
Anabolic processes signify the building up or synthesizing of molecules from smaller units. This process requires energy and helps in the growth of new cells, mineralization of growth for greater bone density, and increase in muscle mass.
The catabolic process, on the other hand, involves the breaking down of complex molecules into simpler forms to release energy into your system.
Catabolism is the reverse of anabolism and is often seen in processes like the digestion of food and glycolysis of glucose. Where anabolic processes draw energy from the environment, catabolic processes release energy for the cells or fuel anabolic processes.
The catabolic process is what your body undergoes when digesting food and breaking it into small, easily absorbable nutrients.
The anabolic process, on the other hand, is how your body makes use of these simpler molecules gotten from the food to regulate and maintain other body processes.
Essentially, anabolic processes:
While catabolic processes:
Anabolic and catabolic processes are like two sides of a coin that come together to make up your metabolic processes. Metabolism is the total reaction of chemicals in your body that takes place in your cells with the aim of providing energy for life processes and other synthetic processes.
Simply put, your metabolism controls how your body manages energy. You utilize energy no matter what physical activity you engage in, even in your resting phase. Your body is fueled by energy from the food and drinks that you consume.
Anabolic and catabolic processes determine how your body uses this fuel.
Your metabolism is responsible for many things that concern your health, including weight, muscle mass and overall fitness. Contrary to popular opinion, your fitness level is not only determined by the physical activities that you engage in.
Thanks to genetics, many people have the advantage of high metabolism on their side to boost their fitness journey. This is further affected by hormones, diet, daily physical activity, exercise, and sleep.
Your weight and muscle mass largely depend on your catabolic and anabolic processes.
Learning how to manipulate these processes can help you build and maintain your muscle mass. To do this right, you need to understand your body and learn what process to tip in your favor.
Think of it like this: Catabolism releases the energy your body needs, while anabolism uses that energy to build and repair tissues.
If your body manufactures more energy than you can expel, it makes sense that the rest of this energy is stored away. Understanding this is important so you know how to train so you don't gain unnecessary weight. So how does it work?
Anabolic and catabolic training are two fitness words that don't fly around the gym. They are not something you hear every day, so what exactly do these words mean?
Anabolic training, like the process, is any range of exercise that leads to the building up of muscle mass. These exercises often include resistance like barbells, dumbbells, or any weighted equipment.
Catabolic training includes exercises that aim to help you lose some weight. This training type leads to a breakdown of overall body mass, including both fat and muscle.
In extreme cases muscle breakdown is called Rhabdomyolysis, or "rhabdo," and it is a severe and pathological form of muscle catabolism where skeletal muscle breaks down rapidly, releasing proteins like myoglobin into the bloodstream which can lead to kidney damage and even death.
However, in training these terms are two distinct parts, like the north and south poles (cardio and weight training). Anabolic and catabolic processes work together to help you attain your ultimate goal: to gain muscle mass.
Anabolic and catabolic training are connected because a healthy body requires you to strike and maintain a balance between them both. The trick is not to dump one process for the other but instead combine them in a percentage that your body optimizes these processes and maximizes the results.
This requires proper dieting, a heavy training program, and enough rest. When growing muscle and increasing body mass, it is better to introduce your body to an anabolic state and less of a catabolic state.
Catabolic training, which includes aerobic exercises like swimming, running, and biking, helps to keep you in an active state for a long time.
These medium-high intensity workouts help to get your heart rate up, release catabolic hormones, and in the process, burn lots of calories.
Catabolic training not only increases your heart rate but also increases your respiration rate.
This causes your body to take in more oxygen, break down glycogen to glucose for fuel, and convert amino acids to energy using cortisol to make up for the low carbs and sugar in your system.
Sustaining a catabolic state for too long might also tap into your fat resources for fuel. Since there is a lack of external resistance of the muscles, there is no muscle gain. Instead, your body loses fat and muscle cells, causing you to lose weight.
Essentially, if your goal is to slim down a bit, you may want to do more catabolic (cardio) training.
One would expect that anabolic training would focus less on weight loss and completely on muscle gain, but this is not entirely true.
Anabolic exercises can help you lose fat while also maintaining or even building muscle mass, thanks to the added resistance that stimulates muscle growth.
Anabolic training raises your body mass index, so it makes sense that your numbers on the scale increase, but this added weight is mostly from muscle mass. This is because muscle is denser than fat.
To gain muscle, you need to figure out to what extent you should combine catabolic training with anabolic training. Working in a catabolic state for too long will ruin your chances of gaining muscle mass.
Think: Marathon runner body.
While catabolic exercises might be great for your lungs and cardiovascular health, they are not great for building muscle. Keeping your catabolic process to its minimum is achievable with the combination of the right diet, proper exercises, and adequate recovery.
Anabolic training is the best training option for muscle growth.
Think: Deadlifts, squats, bench presses, and all of your other weight training. Intense anabolic training often leads to a catabolic process in the body. When you work out, you break down muscle fibers. These fibers need to heal and be strengthened to increase your muscle mass and lead to evident muscle gain. This requires energy, so your body requires more nutrients than you will during catabolic training.
Since anabolic processes deal with building and repairing cells to form more complex molecules, this is where the anabolic state comes in.
Exercise can increase testosterone levels in the body.
Testosterone is a trigger of the anabolic process. It is an anabolic hormone that increases neurotransmitters in your body system. These neurotransmitters cause tissue growth which leads to the synthesis of new muscle growth and, in turn, muscle gain.
This synthesis reverses the catabolic effect of the breakdown of muscle fibers and instead maintains and increases your muscle mass.
Many competitive athletes, especially bodybuilders, go down the easy path of anabolic training by securing anabolic steroids like testosterone boosters. Combined with the right exercises, testosterone boosts lead to increased strength and muscle mass.
While testosterone therapy has been thought to pose health risks from acne problems to cardiovascular problems, Dr. Paul Henning investigated and found this to be a highly suspect theory. You can read what he discovered about testosterone and TRT health risks here.
For healthier results, it is ideal to work for bigger muscles using proper diets and exercises. Successful Anabolic training requires proper exercises to form one killer workout session.
Compound weight lifting and intense workouts that involve heavy weights are your best bet for building muscle.
These exercises increase muscle-building hormones and make it easier to increase your muscle mass. Aim for exercises that work for all major muscle groups at once. Never stay too long on one resistance weight. Use the progressive overload principle and steadily increase the resistance you train with.
This causes a gradual increase in your musculoskeletal frame, increasing the demand on your muscles and thereby increasing your muscle response and muscle gain. To make the most of your anabolic training, you need to understand that energy is necessary for every process, including the synthesis of new muscle tissue.
Anabolic processes require energy. Building and repairing your muscle is an anabolic process.
Without the energy necessary to build back your torn-down muscle, your body burns through muscle protein to make up for the loss.
For the best results, it is important to train intensely and continuously replenish your lost energy and nutrients. While exercise with resistance might be a major part of your muscle gain and might stimulate muscle growth, you need the energy to maintain and complete the entire process.
Your workouts should not drag on for hours without adequate food and drink breaks.
This would cause you to lose energy and muscle protein. Instead, shorten your sessions and take time to restore lost energy.
This would shorten the production of cortisol, the catabolic stress hormone that prevents protein synthesis and inhibits muscle growth.
Nutrition before and after you hit the gym is very important for muscle growth. While pre-workout shakes are a great idea, it is important to consume a balanced meal about two hours before your routine.
Your body quickly burns through this and requires a top-up about an hour after completing your workouts. This is because your body has lost all its energy during your routine.
While the body takes in nutrients and synthesizes them to form muscle mass at any time of the day, professional bodybuilders and athletes all believe in a small opportunity opening where the body makes the most of the nutrients you eat and drink. This is known as the anabolic window and lasts about 15-minutes after your workout.
Anabolic training helps to build muscles and other complex tissues, while Catabolic training helps to break down these complex tissues, such as fat, into simpler molecules. While it might seem like an unlikely match, both training sessions are a great way to build muscle. Anabolic training targets the muscles for growth, while catabolic training helps burn fat and keep your heart healthy.
Understanding how these processes work and how best to play them in and outside the gym is a great way to achieve the buffed goal you seek. Remember to eat well, work out intensely, and get adequate sleep.
Don't know what your meal plan should be? Check out this research-based nutrient combination for anabolic response.
To maximize your Anabolic training, consume a lot of carbs and protein. Your Anabolic diet should contain lean protein like chicken and eggs, beans, potatoes, oils, nuts, vegetables, fruits, and vegan substitutes like Quinoa and soy products.
Your meal should contain about 30 grams of protein. Spread your feeding time out evenly and eat about every 3-4 hours. Your muscle cells thrive on water, so it is equally important to chug down lots of water. The recipe for the perfect anabolic training should also include plenty of rest. Just as your muscles need exercise to grow, they also require adequate sleep.
Sleep gives your muscle fibers time to heal and releases protein-building amino acids into your body. Sleep also produces the growth hormone, an anabolic hormone for protein synthesis necessary for muscle growth. Sleep also gets rid of the cortisol build-up you might have from your time at the gym.
Consistent sleep is crucial to building muscle, burning fat, optimizing your hormone profile, and staying healthy.
To get the best sleep of your life, incorporate RESTED-AF into your nightly routine.
RESTED-AF is a pharmacist-formulated sleep aid designed to help you fall asleep faster and reach deep R.E.M. sleep quicker. Better sleep means faster muscle recovery, increased protein synthesis, and sharper mental focus. Wake up stronger, sharper, and fully recharged.
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