What are the differences between male fitness and muscle gain

To put it simply, the two are not comparable concepts at the same level - muscle gain is a subdivision of many goals in men's fitness. All training for muscle gain belongs to the category of fitness, but the extension of men's fitness is much wider. From the core appeal to the implementation path to the evaluation criteria, the difference between the two is far more than just "training or not."

Last week I met a 52-year-old man who comes regularly to the gym. He comes here 5 times a week without fail, and walks on the low-resistance elliptical machine for 40 minutes and small weight fixed equipment for 20 minutes each time. His body fat is stable at around 15% all year round, and he can only squat 60kg at most. Do you think he is considered fitness? Of course it counts, but do you think he is gaining muscle? Totally unbearable. His goal is very practical, which is to maintain joint flexibility, maintain basal metabolism, and be able to keep up with the rest of the army when climbing Siguniang Mountain with his travel companions at the end of the year. The core of this kind of general fitness needs is to serve daily life, and he will not focus on whether the arm circumference has increased by a few millimeters or whether the bench press weight has improved when making training plans.

But if you set your goal to gain muscle, the entire logic of your actions will immediately change. I used to take care of a little boy who just graduated. He first came to the gym to lose weight from the beer belly he had after graduation. After practicing for two months, he unexpectedly discovered that he could press 50kg on the bench press. His arms were much fuller when wearing short-sleeved shirts than before. He suddenly became obsessed with building muscle. Now he goes to the gym for two hours every day after get off work. When training, he knows the timing of each set to failure, calculates the rhythm of progressive overload, and eats. When I was a kid, I used a scale to calculate whether I had eaten enough protein at 2g per kilogram of body weight. Even when I went out to eat hot pot with friends, I had to rinse my belly three times to remove the oil. I was afraid that the increase in body fat would affect the efficiency of muscle building. I didn't even dare to sleep for fear that not getting enough 7 hours of sleep would affect muscle synthesis. After all, the logic of muscle building is to "train to remove muscle fibers, eat to replenish nutrients, and sleep to build muscles." If any link is missing, it will be in vain.

Speaking of which, there has always been controversy about the boundary between the two. A group of natural fitness veterans who have been practicing for more than ten years believe that ordinary men do not need to single out muscle gain as a separate goal. As long as you maintain regular strength training, your muscle mass will naturally grow to a level that meets the upper limit of your genes. It is easier to deliberately increase girth and increase body fat. It is easy to put burden on joints such as knees and shoulders, and even cause endocrine disorders. However, another group of enthusiasts who focus on competitions believe that muscle gain is the most cost-effective goal of male fitness. With increased muscle mass, the basal metabolism will be higher, and you will not gain weight easily if you eat something. Sarcopenia will come later as you get older, and your overall physical fitness will improve to a higher level. The two factions have been arguing for almost ten years without coming to a conclusion. To put it bluntly, everyone has different needs for fitness and they cannot agree on the same thing.

In fact, to use an inappropriate analogy, ordinary fitness is like buying a mobility scooter. You can buy a small Wuling for commuting, or you can buy a hard-core off-road vehicle for cross-country travel, or even buy an MPV to take your family out for fun, as long as it can meet your travel needs. The demand is fine; but gaining muscle is equivalent to modifying the car specifically to run a 0-100 acceleration race. All adjustments must be centered around the core goal of "fast acceleration." The wind resistance must be small, the horsepower must be sufficient, and even the seat comfort and the appearance of the interior can be moved to the back. Anyway, I have met so many people who exercise, and I don’t think which choice is better. After all, fitness is to make yourself comfortable, and there is no need to compete with yourself for a so-called "correct goal."