From:         loc@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM (Leigh Clayton)
Subject:      About 'bulking up' for veggies or anyone.
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Date:         12 Oct 92 17:56:37 UT


 There have been several queries about this lately, I hope the following will
help some people. Before I start let me admit that I'm not a medically
qualified person, just a longtime vegetarian with an interest in weight
training.

 Like most other aspects of human physiology, the process of choosing what is
often called a 'set point' (this means, how much your body has decided it's
going to weigh) is not very well understood. There is a lot of theory and even
more dogma, but the reality is that (at least until a bit more is understood
about how all the related mechanisms work) your body has to be thought of as
having a mind of it's own about the basic shape (how tall, how heavy) it wants
to assume. You can adjust this, but the farther you want to move from the
'natural' shape your body wants to be, the harder you're going to have to work.

 Weight gain has to come from storing one or more of muscle, fat, bone, or
fluid. Fluid weight gain isn't very useful, as a rule [if you're female you
already know this only too well, I suspect :-( ], so that leaves fat, bone, and
muscle.

 You can almost certainly put on more fat by eating more fat and/or protein.
There are people who have trouble putting on weight even this way, but don't
let that worry you too much as this is the most unhealthy and least attractive
(though easiest) way to do it anyway.

 Both bone and muscle mass can be increased only by exercise. You can eat more
fat and/or protein, but without exercise it will just turn to fat (if anything)
and if you do exercise you don't need the extra fat or protein to build muscle
and bone mass. Some people put on muscle mass extremely slowly, but studies
have shown that *everyone* (even very elderly people) gains muscle mass in
response to regular exercise. The important thing is absolute regularity. At
*least* 4 times a week you should do strenuous exercise for at *least* 20
minutes. ***Warning*** if you are very out of shape, or not used to the
exercise you propose to do, it is foolish not to get a medical checkup, and
some training in the activity you're looking into. An injury will *not* help
you gain muscle mass.

 You will note that the preceding is nothing new: it's basically information
most of us have known since we were teenagers (ignoring the still too pervasive
myth that eating protein builds muscle mass). The bottom line is that there
isn't any magic trick: if you want muscle you have to work for it. But that
doesn't mean you can't enjoy the work. Teach yourself to prize the feeling of
really using your body, get used to the way it feels to be in shape, and you'll
find you're looking forward to the next workout rather than dreading it and
hoping for an excuse to miss it.

 I recommend weight training because I enjoy it, and because it's the most
convenient way to get full-body load-bearing workouts, which are the way to
gain most bone and muscle mass. If you are very slim and want to be more
muscular, swimming and cycling and so on are not likely to help as much, but
*everything* physical you do will help you in some way (for example, running
doesn't itself do much for the upper body, but the cardio-vascular conditioning
makes a big difference in how well your weight training sessions go).

 Let me insert, by way of ending, my personal recommendation for a book called
'Stretching', author named Anderson, which should be read and used by everyone,
in my opinion (it has made a tremendious difference in my own level of fitness,
by increasing my flexibility and decreasing the number and seriousness of
injuries I've sustained).

 Good luck .../Leigh

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It's only work if somebody makes you do it    .../Calvin
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Leigh Clayton                  loc@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM
    -or-                     loc@ipsaint.ipsa.reuter.COM