I have been weight training now for about ten years. The first time I picked up a dumbbell was in January 2001 and I have never once looked back. During that time I have really developed my mind-body connection to understand how my own body works, its weaknesses and strengths.

One of things I have come to realise is that I am a ‘hard gainer’ and so I struggle to put muscle on and keep it on. Therefore, for me to say skip meals and/or eat the wrong foods is detrimental to my goals. I effectively become what they call ‘catabolic’ and that’s when my body ‘breaks down’ all my hard earned muscle that I’ve sweated for.

It got me thinking that everyone needs to really understand two main terms, namely ‘anabolic’ and ‘catabolic’ and more importantly, to understand what you need to do to keep a balance between the two. Why? because both are equally important and are needed to retain equilibrium in our bodies. It’s when this balance is lost that the problem occurs. But before we get onto the do’s and don’ts here’s a brief overview on the subject …

Firstly, you need to understand that anabolism and catabolism are linked processes that take place in the human body. They are interdependent. Both are collectively known as metabolism.

Anabolism

In simple terms, this means to ‘build up’.

To achieve an anabolic state the tissues within the human body need energy for growth and maintenance.

It needs a healthy diet and the appropriate supplements if required. If you do not achieve this the body becomes depleted and will actually start to break down muscle and healthy fat deposits for energy (i.e. catabolic). This will be detrimental to you if you’re trying to lose weight, gain muscle or indeed simply be healthy. Less muscle equals lowered metabolism which in turn equals fat gain.

Also bare in mind that the more intense and rigorous the exercise, the more important diet and supplementation becomes to maintaining that anabolic state.

Having a good hormonal balance is also important in achieving and maintaining an anabolic environment. First up, testosterone which is produced in the reproductive organs. And secondly, the growth hormone which is produced by the pituitary gland. Both these hormones will hugely effect your ability to build lean tissue. Clearly men have an advantage as they naturally produce more than women. However, there are a few things that will help increase these hormones e.g. BCAA’s (Branch Chain Amino Acids – see below), Vitamin C, healthy fats and zinc.

Catabolism

This is the opposite of anabolism. It is the ‘breaking down’ process. It is the breakdown of foods and nutrients so that they will later have the ability to build up and add to the muscle or tissue growth process i.e. anabolic.

Catabolism naturally occurs when we exercise but it becomes exacerbated if we have an inadequate diet especially in protein. This results in numerous side effects such as extreme fatigue, joint and muscle pain, sleeplessness, injuries, illness and lack of results.

Catabolism is also linked to the catabolic hormone cortisol which is released by the adrenal glands. The harder the training session, the more cortisol is released and therefore a balanced diet becomes even more important that contains sufficient carbs, proteins and healthy fats.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that you build muscle during training. This is complete nonsense. In fact, when you train you break muscle down and cause micro-traumas in the muscle. It is on the rest days that your body repairs, recovers and rebuilds. To facilitate this process you need good nutrition. During this growth period catabolism is dominated by anabolism. When maturity is reached, equilibrium is formed between the two. To retain this state a good diet is simply essential.

Alas with age muscle starts to waste i.e. catabolism dominates anabolism. The debate is still out there on this subject but I personally think it’s true. Take a look around you and notice how many older people have lost muscle and have increased body fat as they’ve aged. That’s your answer. My message to you is loud and clear – keep weight training as you get older to preserve and retain that lean tissue as well as implementing all the advice in this blog.

So what are the key things YOU need to do to stay anabolic?

Well, here are my ‘catabolic crushers’ as I call them. I personally implement all of these the vast majority of the time, and I would strongly encourage you to do the same.

• Never skip meals

• Never leave too long between meals (i.e. eat every 2-3 hours, and around 5-6 meals per day)

• Consume all macro-nutrients i.e. carbs, protein and healthy fats. Approx ratio’s (baring in mind these are guidelines only and will vary from person to person) are 50% carbs, 30% protein and 10% healthy fats. Remember protein is the building block for muscle so it’s a must. If you don’t provide your body with the proper fuel it will not grow. It’s that simple.

• If you are serious about retaining/putting on muscle, or train intensely you may want to consider: a protein shake immediately on rising before breakfast (e.g. Gaspari MyoFusion), and/or a pre-workout protein shake (e.g. Gaspari IntrPro ), and/or a night protein drink just before bed. The nightime drink should ideally have low/zero carbs and contain slow release proteins called casein. Whilst all these are not essential they will prevent you becoming catabolic. The one drink I will strongly encourage you all to take (including those with weight loss goals) is your post workout protein shake and ideally within 30 mins of completing exercise (e.g. Gaspari MyoFusion or IntrPro). On a side note, I add a little extra carbs to my wake up and post work-out shakes. Hard gainers may wish to give it a try. I use Vitargo which is a carb derived from barley starch.

• Vitamin C – You can either take Vit C rich foods or a supplement. It’s good for your immune system and it significantly helps retain the anabolic state.

• BCAA’s (e.g. Gaspari BCAA 6000 ) – I would highly recommend you take these during/post work-out. In brief BCAA’s are important for protein synthesis and muscle growth.

• Do not over train as your levels of cortisol will be too high

• Take your rest days, your body needs these to recover, rebuild and rebuild

• Avoid high levels of stress as much as possible as it releases cortisol which breaks down muscle

• Get adequate sleep (approx 8 hours) as this helps the body recover. This is also when your body releases growth hormones which assist muscle repair and growth. It also means you’ll have the energy to get the most out of your next workout.

For further details on all the Gaspari products I mentioned please visit the Gaspari website products section.