Apr

13

Anabolic vs Catabolic What Do These Terms Mean?

Filed Under Terminology | 

Bodybuildering magazines always talk about being in an Anabolic state vs being in a Catabolic state, assuming that most of their readers understand.

Well here is a laymans guide to what the heck they are talking about.

Anabolic vs Catabolic

Anabolic means your body is in growth mode, you are getting bigger.

Catabolic means your body is suffering muscle wastage, you are getting smaller.

Obviously as a bodybuilder or fitness buff we are interested in maintaining the anabolic state and avoiding the catabolic state. Unfortunately we cannot completely avoid the Catabolic state but we can do our best to minimise it.

The Anabolic state is maintained simply by eating enough good foods regularly (every 2 to 3 hours). Keep your carbohydrate levels up, keep your clean protein sources up. This will allow your body to have a steady stream of quality carbohydrates and amino acids in your bloodstream. Your body has it’s energy and it’s building blocks for muscle repair available continually. Your body is repairing the damage from the gym and you are growing.

Secondly to remain Anabolic you need enough rest between workouts and between muscle groups. Muscle growth happens when you rest, not when you train. Make sure you get enough rest between workouts, your muscles should not be still sore from the last workout next time you go in to train that muscle group again. This is an indication that you need to take more time off to recover.

The Catabolic state is induced in two ways generally. Lack of food and training. Yep, training - that’s one we can’tavoid but we can minimise the negative effects.

Lack of food is common sense, if your body does not have the building blocks how is it going to build new muscle fibres, or repair the ones damaged at the gym?

If you are running low on food and working out then your body is going to have to get its energy requirements from somewhere and guess which is easiest to burn fat or muscle? The answer is muscle.

If you engage in intense exercise your body will eat it’s own muscle for energy.

Also if you had a hard workout for chest and are low on foods, your body will go looking for stores of amino acids to repair the chest - pulling the aminos from other non-damaged muscle groups, like your legs. Kind of counter productive isn’t it?

A hard gym session will tear up those muscles and damage them, an intense session may even start burning muscle to use as energy. Keep your workouts short, sharp and to the point - a 4 hour workout may sound impressive but you are not doing your body any favours.

There is little you can do about the catabolic state you attain in the gym, but you can mitigate it by having a big protein (or even a carbohydrate) drink as soon as you finish. Your muscles at this point are screaming out for nutrients - feed them. Simple proteins and simple carbs. Flood them with sugars and amino acids as your muscles at this point can suck up more than their usual quotas and trust me they will be very happy with you for this - recover will start straight away, you will get less muscle soreness and better recovery.

Better recovery means quicker gains. Keep that body Anabolic and you should see those muscle gains come faster than you have yet seen.

If you have any questions about anabolic vs catabolic please post them in comments

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