Over the past 6 weeks, I have had a lot of time to become catabolic. For those of you that I just lost with the big word, stay with me. Being in a state of "catabolism" aka - catabolic, is when your body is no longer producing muscle. In fact, it isn't even retaining muscle, it's going in the reverse direction. The other end of the spectrum is called being anabolic. When the body is anabolic, it is producing muscle. The point at which the body has reached a level where it can no longer produce any more muscle (for various amounts of time - a workout, an event, sometimes longer) is called the anabolic threshold. This is where the highest point at which lactic production exceeds lactic acid removal (our bodies cue to stop). Athletes will train their anabolic threshold to withstand longer durations of intense activity, to optimize their performance.
What's my point?
In an interview at The 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games, Greg Glassman, founder and CEO of CrossFit, proclaimed that years back he assisted Dr. Barry Sears (www.zonediet.com) in a study on the effects of nutrition and training being independent of one another. They found that in terms of being catabolic, you could group people into one of two categories. One group were those that did not eat correctly, but they trained and exercised (at different levels of volume and intensity). The other group did just the opposite: They ate correctly, but did not exercise. What he said that they found, was that both groups found themselves at the same level of catabolism.
Still...what's my point??
Sometimes we find ourselves in ruts. We train as hard as we can (or think we can in most cases) but we aren't getting the results that we want. I found myself in the opposite circumstance but same situation. I ate right, but still lost muscle mass over the past 6 weeks (technically it's been close to 3 months). While I understood the necessity of strength training, I was somewhat in disbelief at the velocity at which catabolism has happened.
With this being the age of the internet, there is no lack of knowledge out there on health & fitness. Countless tips, pieces of advice, recipes, workouts, you name it. It is so easy to get caught up in it all. On the same note, there is no lack of CRAP that gets put out there too! Countless tips, recipes, pieces of advice, workouts, you name it! You have to be careful what you read - in any endeavor. Find a trusted source, and stick with them.
On November 28, our 5 week Body Transformation Challenge will begin. I too (yes, you got it - Mr. Health and Fitness needs a boost) will be partaking in the challenge. I am looking forward to putting my mind and body to work once again, getting myself back on track.
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