What is the difference and connection between male fitness and muscle gain

To put it bluntly, the relationship between the two is to include and be included - all muscle-building behaviors belong to the category of male fitness, but the extension of male fitness is much broader than muscle-building, and the goals, execution logic, and evaluation standards of the two are obviously different.

You can find out if you just go to the gym near your home on a weekday night. The elder brother wearing quick-drying clothes is slowly swinging on the elliptical machine to play football games, the young man is sweating from jumping in the group class room, and there are also people squatting in the weight area with straps on their waists. For those of you who are trying to hit a deadlift PR with a power belt, these behaviors can all be classified as men's fitness, but only the last kind of training with the core goal of improving muscle cross-section and increasing lean body mass can be regarded as muscle gain in the strict sense.

Nowadays, people often argue about this boundary on the Internet. One group says that as long as you stop sitting for a long time and move around, even if you walk downstairs for half an hour every day or go to the gym to stretch for 20 minutes to relieve shoulder and neck pain, as long as you achieve your preset exercise goals, it will be considered effective fitness. There is no need to put fitness into practice. The threshold is raised so high that people are asked to compete with the weight and the number of sets, which can easily discourage novices. The other group believes that activities without clear training goals are just called "moving around" and are not planned fitness. Muscle building is the most cost-effective goal of male fitness. There is actually nothing wrong with either statement. The original definition of fitness is a very personal matter, and it is not the fault of applying the same standard to everyone.

But having said that, the relationship between the two has never been either/or. The starting point for many people to gain muscle is the most entry-level fitness needs. I have a programmer friend who is a back-end programmer. He initially applied for a fitness card simply because his waist was so painful that he could not sit for a long time. The doctor asked him to do more core training. He went there three times a week, 20 minutes of core activation plus half an hour of slow walking each time. It hurt, and I saw that my shoulders were slowly getting into shape while wearing a T-shirt, so I started practicing differentiation training with the coach. Now I can bench press 80kg. Last week, I complained that I had eaten less carbohydrates recently to control body fat, and I almost lost strength and hit my chest when I pushed the last set.

To use an analogy, men’s fitness is like buying a car for transportation. You can buy a scooter worth tens of thousands of dollars for commuting, or you can buy a cross-country car for cross-country travel, or you can buy a performance car to go to the track, as long as it meets your own travel needs; muscle building is a circle dedicated to performance cars, starting from refueling (drinking) There are clear requirements for diet (calculating the proportion of protein and carbohydrate intake), maintenance (regular work and rest, ensuring muscle recovery time), and car modification (targeted differentiated training and implementation of the principle of progressive overload). The ultimate goal is to continuously increase "power", that is, muscle mass and strength level.

Even if your fitness goal is never to build a big body, the training logic of adding some muscle gain is very good. If the main focus is to lose fat, practice more strength and build muscle. If the basal metabolism is increased, it will not be easy to rebound after losing fat, and you will not be flabby after losing weight. Even if you just want to improve your physical fitness and run a marathon, if you have enough lower limb and core muscles, you can not only increase your speed, but also avoid knee pain.