Anabolic or Catabolic Bodybuilding
What is the difference between anabolic and catabolic bodybuilding? Firstly the anabolic bodybuilder is in a state where his body is growing. However, the catabolic bodybuilder is not growing, he is in fact shrinking. So it goes without saying that if you are actively involved in bodybuilding you want to be in an anabolic state and never a catabolic state. In this article I will explain how to keep the body anabolic and what are the best ways to avoid becoming catabolic. Without an understanding of the difference between anabolic and catabolic you might be wasting a lot of time and muscle.
The best and easiest way to remain in an anabolic state and avoid becoming catabolic is to keep regularly ingesting protein throughout the day. While your body is constantly digesting protein it maintains a positive nitrogen balance which is essentials for bodybuilders to grow new muscle tissue or maintain the current level of muscle. Eating protein 5-6 times per day at regular intervals is your best defence against becoming catabolic and staying anabolic. You also need an adequate amount of good quality complex carbohydrates as well to provide the body with the energy it needs for daily function and for your workouts. By eating enough carbohydrates you give the body the energy it needs to function and this allows the amino acids in the protein you eat to keep the body in an anabolic state where it can build new muscle.
Many bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts are not aware of how the muscle building process actually works. While you are training your muscles you are stimulating them to grow but they will not grow at all by simply training them, they actually do the growing while you are resting or asleep. This is why resting is a major part of the anabolic process and the ideal way to avoid moving into a catabolic state. In many of my articles and whenever I post information on bodybuilding forums I often mention how most amateur bodybuilders are severely overtraining and many are in the catabolic state instead of being anabolic and growing.
Most guys complain that they can’t grow fast enough or they often hit training plateaus. This is usually because they don’t understand the difference between anabolic and catabolic. I was one of these bodybuilders in my early years and wondered why I wasn’t growing fast enough but after talking to some massive bodybuilders who I noticed trained a lot less than I did I wondered why they got bigger while I stayed the same but I would train much more than them. The truth was they were anabolic where as I was catabolic because I didn’t spend enough time resting. Bodybuilding is about training smart, training very hard and heavy but training infrequently and resting a lot. In essence, a huge bodybuilder spends most of his time resting, followed by eating and then does some heavy or high intensity training to stimulate the muscles to grow.
After an intense training session your body is heading straight into a catabolic state since it has used it stores of muscle building protein and fuel in the form of carbohydrates during the workout. There is nothing you can do about this since the catabolic state always follows a workout but what you can do is replenish the body with both complex carbohydrates and muscle building, amino rich protein immediately after your workout. Protein shakes are an excellent post workout meal and by adding some fruit to your whey protein powder is a great way to also add some important antioxidants after the workout. I always have a protein shake after my workout and follow that up 1 hour later with a good quality meal high in protein like beef, chicken or fish with some clean carbs like rice or pasta.
As long as you are aware of the difference between an anabolic state and a catabolic state and how to avoid becoming catabolic you will be able to grow new muscle faster and maintain the muscle you have while training hard but infrequently.
Jakob
July 26th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title Anabolic or Catabolic Bodybuilding. Thanks for informative article