Getting ultimate gains doesn’t need to be a guessing game. Science has your back… According to researchers at McMaster University, the best way to build muscle may come in many different forms. Their study, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, found that lifting heavy or light weights are both equally effective at bulking you up. For the study, about 50 experienced male lifters participated in a 12-week resistance training program. They did the same workouts each day, including barbell bench presses, biceps curls, leg presses, and knee extensions, Click here among other exercises. Despite their different regimens, the men in both groups gained, on average, 2.4 pounds of muscle. Researchers also reported no significant difference between the two groups’ growth in the size of their muscle fibres. How could this be? Turns out, when it comes to building muscle, your body’s response matters more than the type of exercise you do. Maximizing muscle growth requires activating as many of your muscle fibres as possible, study author Stuart Phillips, Ph.D., told Men’s Health.
While you use your smallest (also called type I) muscle fibres for easy, day-to-day activities and light exercise, the larger, type II muscle fibres are used when the demand on your muscles increases and the type I fibres tire out. This study says you can activate those type II fibres by either increasing the weight you lift or the number of reps you do. "People say that lifting heavier loads is the only way you can recruit type II fibres, but that’s just not true," Phillips says. Of course, each approach has its pros and cons. Although lighter weights provide more options for Learn more exercises, they might not be as good at building strength in the long run, according to Phillips. On the other hand, heavy weights can be tough on your joints, tendons, PrimeBoosts.com and ligaments, so switching to lighter weights occasionally might give them a much-needed break. Although the study remains mum on the effects for women, research shows that weightlifting has loads of health benefits for both sexes. Ready to get started? These household items are fitness equipment in disguise.
What Is Body Fat Percentage? What Is a Good Body Fat Percentage for a Male? What Are the Risks of High Body Fat? What Are the Risks of Low Body Fat? What Is a Realistic Body Fat Percentage? You’ve almost certainly heard the term ‘body fat percentage’ before, whether in conversation in the gym changing room, marketing fodder for fitness transformations, or even in a Men’s Health article. With a little bit of know how, the measure can act not just as a motivator on your fitness journey, but better yet, a dependable marker of health. But that begs the question, what is a healthy body fat percentage? When starting on a fitness journey, the odds of you actually sticking to it has been shown to be only 33 per cent,' explains Josh Silverman, head of education at Third Space London. Unlike BMI, this measurement takes into account your lean mass as well as total weight.
Let’s chew the fat about body fat. Fun fact: due to it being so active in the body's functioning, fat is technically an organ. Far from being something to fear or vilify, Prime Boosts Pills fat is actually essential for human life. There are different types - brown, white, subcutaneous, visceral - and each has its own function, for better or worse. Visceral fat and subcutaneous fat are the two we're going to focus on here. Visceral fat is stored around internal organs as a protective mechanism, explains Silverman. It’s the first fat that is usually used for fuel when you go on an exercise regime,' he says. This is why you might see the scales go down by your body appears to look the same for the first few weeks.' Visceral fat is the most dangerous kind, but thankfully, it’s also the easiest to lose. The less harmful stuff, subcutaneous fat, is the type that prevents your abs popping.
It’s the one stored between our skin and muscles which give us that ‘fluffy’ look,' explains Silverman. It insulates the skin and acts as stored energy for times where the body doesn’t have food in its system.' Which although evolutionarily important, is practically redundant in today’s landscape where food sources are abundant. What Is Body Fat Percentage? Put simply, your body fat percentage is a measure of the proportion of fat mass in your body. It is the total mass of fat, divided by total body mass, times by 100. If you weigh 100kg and have 10kg of fat, for instance, you'd have 10% body fat. Knowing your body fat percentage can be a good measure of fitness and functionality, says Dr Steven Heymsfield, professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Centre. For men aged 20-39, a score of above 25 per cent is classed as obese, for gents aged 40-59, this cut off point is raised slightly to 28 per cent.