How And Why Should I Gain Muscle

Muscle is an amazing tissue of the body. It is the very part of our body that gives us the control that we want and need in life. The mind is a useless thing often if it doesn’t have muscle to put thought into action. It is also a major part of our body’s defense mechanism. It protects things structurally (joints, bones, etc.) and metabolically, and physically whether by means of escape or defense from the dangers both human and non that we encounter. I want to talk more specifically about these things that I have mentioned in order to help you to understand that it is good to gain muscle.

Protection is the first area to mention when discussing why you should gain muscle and is true in so many different ways. Muscles are major protectors of the joints and bones in our body. Strong muscles that span joints serve as braces for the forces that would otherwise separate and render these joints useless. The same goes for muscles that support long bones. If we didn’t have muscles that were able to absorb the impact of forces that we experience every day than we would always be dealing with fractures and immobility. In fact the activities that promote muscle building are the very same activities that increase bone mineral density, which is especially important for women later in life after menopause. Muscles also help us to maintain our balance protecting us from falls. Muscle tissue is also huge regulator when it comes to blood pressure, and thus has indirect protection of many different major organs including the heart, brain, kidneys, and eyes.

Metabolically muscle is very important in maintaining a healthy weight and absorbing the harmful effect of the typical American diet. This is not to say that if you work out and gain muscle that you are automatically at a healthy weight and can eat whatever you want. But it does mean that those people who spend good amounts of time every week doing weight bearing exercises are less prone to things like diabetes, hypertension, cancer, heart disease, and atherosclerosis

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The Importance Of Stretching

Among the methods applied in sport training, one that has been used more and more lately is stretching. The word, English in origin, is used as such in many other languages and it comes from the verb to stretch (meaning, in this sense, ‘to make your arms, legs and body as straight as possible so that your muscles become long and tight’). More exactly, we talk about stretching the muscles, the joints, the tendons, the ligaments, etc.

Even before the term itself and the specific methods gained individuality, stretching was used a lot, especially in sports or activities which require a very good mobility of the joints and special muscle suppleness (gymnastics, martial arts, ballet, etc.). The positions specific to hatha yoga were a source of inspiration for the different movements practiced in stretching, but these positions underwent many transformations, adaptations and simplifications.

The most important effect of stretching is suppleness of muscles and joints, which enables increased effectiveness during the training. There are different opinions about the exact time when stretching should be introduced in the training program.

Thus, there are authors who support the idea that stretching is indicated for both warming up and relaxation, and even for the main part of the training. On the other hand, there is the opinion that stretching must be done only in the relaxation faze, because the movements that are specific to it induce a state of relaxation that you do not want at the beginning of the training. This state comes as a result of maintaining the passive faze of the positions.

Anyway, everybody agrees that stretching needs to be anticipated by general warming up, this way the practitioner will avoid tightening of the muscles.

General warming up takes about 5 minutes and it contains aerobic exercises. Stretching muscles that have not been warmed up might be dangerous for the integrity of the muscle fibers, which could rupture easily.

Both weight and resistance training should include stretching; the effectiveness will only increase once this type of movement is done during training.

Another reason for higher effectiveness is the fact that a bigger number of motive units are involved in the movement and they are mobilized faster once the volitional order is transmitted, through the motive impulse, to the muscles. Given the fact that the range of the movements is larger, the sportsman can cover bigger distances, larger scopes, saving, at the same time, energy, which is important especially in very demanding sports (athletics, canoeing, etc.).

You can have a whole training only with stretching exercises. However, this is not advisable: the muscles will quickly get used to only relax, without contracting, which can produce a certain misbalance.

Another possible negative effect of exaggerated stretching movements (over the physiological limit of a joint) is laxity of the joints or even accidents like sprains, dislocations, tightening of ligaments or tendons, etc.). The main joints (knee, shoulder, elbow, etc.) are protected not only by their own mobility, but also by the elasticity of the muscles which surround them (periarticular).

In conclusion, stretching must be accompanied by other forms of training so that the sportsman will have a complete and secure fitness program.

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