Q: I do not have hours and hours to work out. How can I build muslce?
A: You don't need more than a few hours a week and a few days per week. Less if you do it right.
Contrary to popular misconception, (lies mostly...designed to make you tired so that you buy whatever "energy supplement" is popular!), the acquisition of more lean tissue than you were born with is impossible. You can not increase the number of muscle cells or fat cells for that matter in your body. By the way, neither can muscle turn into fat or the other way around any more than apples can turn into oranges. They are two different structures.
Pure muscle is not the same as muscle size. "Bulking" up by force-feeding will cause the mitochondria to swell as the cells become inundated with waste matter that they can't eliminate in a natural timely manner. Anabolism can be forced to overtake catabolism to an extent, but this temporary "muscle" size will quickly go away when you eat less. It was not actual strengthening of the muscle fibers and surrounding structures but a mere swelling of stored waste. And you thought that all that size was pure muscle! I used to think so. I would not have believed otherwise unless I actually experienced it.
Genuine muscle strength and development (naturally- not with anabolic steroids or drugs of any kind) is a result of progressive resistance weight training which focuses on the three major muscle groups of the hips/thighs, back and chest. Together with adequate rest, adequate progressive training intensity and progression within the systemic bounds of the body, some growth will occur to accompany the strength gain. This can continue as long as the health and integrity of the involved structures as well as the body's health as a unit allow.
First comes basic conditioning, then learning the skills of engaging the large muscle groups with a small handful of major lifts/ weight-training exercises, Proper breathing, hand and foot placement, cadence, speed, technique, etc all become self evident in time followed by the actual muscle building process, which is dependent on perseverance, determination and health maintenances. For those who get to this point it is a simple matter of regular exercise, eating and sleeping.
You can obtain developmental gains quite fast on an intelligent raw diet without pills or powders provided you have transitioned first. Demolition before Renovation, remember! The Best Weigh raw system, or any properly "balanced' raw diet (fresh whole food- no supplements necessary- they only slow down genuine strength and long-term muscle gains and metabolism preservation) will make your progress easier and quicker. That is correct. The healthy body gains muscle, strength, cardio endurance and breathing capacity faster than the cooked SAD body (Standard American Diet). I used to have to work out six times "cooked" to get the same results as one workout raw. Oh yeah. This is easily replicated with anyone. Ironically, most people, especially males of our proud species have little tolerance for the slight discomfort of change, which is why most of them enjoy little success when it comes to fitness and health. Women have a higher capacity for discomfort and thus reap greater rewards. The genetic superiority of females is nicely explained in a book I read more then ten years ago called Survival Into The 21st Century by the one and only Viktoras Kulvinskas.
Assuming that a person is ready (healthy in the true sense of the term) then he will be able to build strength, cardio and flexibility faster than he ever thought possible. There is one caveat however. He will not be buried in the biggest coffin. Extreme health (not a bad thing relative to where most of us "civilized" people are coming from) and extreme size are at opposite ends of the spectrum. You will expend incredible amounts of energy processing food, wasting huge amounts of energy exercising, and voiding your bowels countless times a day if your main goal is to be the biggest kid on the block. Just as force feeding young children milk and dairy, etc "to make them grow" has been clearly proven to shorten their longevity and ruin their health. This does not even take into account the inherited strength, efficiency and structure of your spine, connective tissues and other joints, muscle quality, digestive system, etc, which all determine the limits of the development that you can achieve.
Anyone and everyone can and will make spectacular transformations in all aspects of their lives when they adopt a raw plant based diet AND then a wholesome efficient weight training regime, mixed with some endurance and flexibility exercises on a regular basis (that's the easy part, which is why there are so many yoga studios and so many running shoe styles- Endurance is a snap to develop when you eat raw vegan! Cardio work almost becomes too easy it is a joke.) Stretching and relaxing is of utmost importance, of course. Rest must balance work as much as stretching must balance contraction, but running is just plain nuts if you are over 150 lb. Too much pounding on your joints. Sure, you can run but please do not make a habit of progressing past a very comfortable point or you will experience many joint problems. There is a much better way to increase your endurance with AND without exercise (that is the best way) - but that is the subject of another article.
–Chris Califano © THE BEST WEIGH 2009
chrisc@thefirstsupper.com