LOW CATABOLIC WORKOUT

In order to progress quickly in muscle mass gain, we need to either increase the SPEED OF ANABOLISM or decrease the SPEED OF CATABOLISM in our body.  In the former case, we will start gaining faster than we lose, and in the latter case, we will not gain faster, but we will lose slower.  In both cases, the equation will be positive in favor of increasing muscle mass and strength.  Traditionally, in bodybuilding, athletes try to increase the speed of anabolism with various additives and pharmacology.  Today I will tell you how you can dramatically reduce the speed of catabolism directly during the workout itself. In my opinion, it is easier than to increase the speed of anabolism, and therefore it should be used.  Especially in natural training, when you don’t use artificial anabolic stimulants.

CATABOLISM DURING TRAINING
I bet you do several consecutive exercises on the same muscle group in order to stimulate its growth.  However, you probably don’t know that LINEAR LOAD (set after set) is gradually beginning to destroy your muscles, rather than build them, as many believe.  In absence of pharmacology, this leads to the situation when a person who does a large amount of linear work on a particular muscle group can not increase it in size.  This is the situation I was talking about at the beginning of the article: SPEED OF CATABOLISM exceeds speed of anabolism.  Why? It’s all due to lactic acid and the way we resynthesize ENERGY in our muscles.

MUSCLE CONTRACTION ENERGY

By taking a traditional training approach to do set after set, you accumulate more and more LACTIC ACID in the muscles, as it is a consequence of energy re-synthesis in the course of anaerobic glycolysis.

You need energy to do any work. And first of all it is relevant for the muscles, because any physical work is done by muscles. Whether you’re walking, bench pressing or just sitting there like now, MUSCLES ALWAYS WORK.   And for them to work, they need energy “fuel”.  The more and faster the muscle fiber can gain energy, the stronger and faster it is.   The longer and more evenly the muscle fiber can get energy, the more enduring it is.  As you can see, all issues of muscle energy supply are of purely PRACTICAL SIGNIFICANCE. That’s why I’ve been trying so hard to tell you about them.

Active substances (enzymes) in muscles trigger a chemical reaction of hydration of the ATP molecule. As a result of this hydrolysis, one phosphate group is broken off adenosine triphosphate (“THREE”) in the form of orthophosphoric acid (H3PO4), and only adenosine diphosphate (“TWO”) + energy remain.

ATP + H2O = ADP + H3PO4 + Energy

Note that the release of energy (from ATP) for muscle contraction is ALWAYS accompanied by the formation of orthophosphoric acid (H3PO4).  And the longer energy is released, the more muscle contractions and the more acidified the muscle cell (fiber) is.  It is the work of acid in the muscles that explains the burning sensations in the latest reps of a set.

Few ordinary people keep all their savings in one wallet because it’s not reasonable. More often people prefer to put their savings in the bank, invest them in securities, buy real estate, in extreme cases, keep the savings under the pillow.   It’s the same with power sources.  ATP molecule is the universal energy currency. But it is not reasonable to keep all your savings in your pockets, so your body synthesizes ATP from other sources when you need it.  A number of ATP molecules in the muscles is small.  It’s like pocket money. Enough to buy something quickly during the day, but not enough to make a big purchase. 
How long will the ATP muscle reserves last? For a very short time. On average, for one rep for 0.5-1 second. ATP molecules reserve in muscles is so limited that it is sufficient for only one rep (0.5-1 sec).  So what about more work? If you want your muscles to contract further, you need CONSTANT REPRODUCTION OF ATP!

Muscles have THREE SOURCES for such reproduction of ATP:

• 1.Splitting of Creatine Phosphate

• 2.Glycolysis

• 3.Oxidation

Splitting of Creatine Phosphate (CP)

Now you will understand the effectiveness of such an additive as creatine phosphate.  The fact is that Creatine Phosphate shares its phosphate group with the ADP (TWO) and turns it back into required ATP (THREE).

ADP + creatine phosphate = ATP + creatine.  (Lohmann reaction)

It’s the fastest way to reproduce ATP in muscles.  But that’s why it’s the shortest. CP provides INSTANT RECOVERY OF ATP.  Therefore, this source of energy recovery is important for very POWERFUL, SHORT-TIME contractions.  This energy supply system is being trained in powerlifting and weightlifting. 
However, CP stock is enough for literally a couple of reps.  Within 5 seconds the CP reserves in muscles are reduced by one third and the strength is significantly reduced.  Within 30 seconds, the CP reserves are reduced by 50%.   Obviously, in order to restore the ATP reserves in a set lasting more than 5 seconds, it is necessary to include other, more effective ways of energy recovery.

GLYCOLYSIS IS THE MAIN SOURCE OF ENERGY IN BODYBUILDING

This source restores energy reserves by splitting Glycogen and Glucose (carbohydrates from food) into 2 molecules of ATP and 2 molecules of lactic acid:

1 Glucose + Creatine + 2ADP = Lactic Acid + 2ATP

This chemical reaction is most often oxygen-free (ANAEROBIC) and can RAPIDLY REPLENISH ATP reserves in muscles for 30 seconds up to a couple of minutes.  Moreover, this term depends not on glycogen reserves, but on the MAN’S WILL!

As you can see from the formula, glycolysis is accompanied by acid formation.  The longer the exercise set lasts, the more acid is produced and the more it burns the muscles. Eventually, the athlete has to stop the set... because of muscle pain, or to reduce the load in order to switch to another way of power supply.

LACTIC ACID

Lactic acid is your friend and your enemy. It all depends on the quantity.  If acidification is moderate, it stimulates production of HYDROGEN IONS, which help anabolic hormones to pass into the muscle cell (opening it).  If there is MUCH ACID, it activates LYSOSOMES (cell scavengers) and ENZYMES, which destroy the cellular protein.  It is called CATABOLISM. The more sets you do, the more acidification and the more catabolism (destruction) of muscles.

A SYSTEM CONTRADICTION appears: on the one hand, acidification is necessary for growth, and on the other hand it impairs growth.  IT IS POSSIBLE TO DESTROY MORE THAN IT WILL BE SYNTHESIZED LATER. This can be avoided by destroying less and accumulating more (factors such as RNA). To do this, you should INCREASE REST BETWEEN THE SETS because the level of lactic acid drops immediately after the set and the longer the time passes, the heavier it drops and less destroys your muscles.

How fast and how much does lactic acid level drop during rest? Here is what I found: Complete removal of lactic acid from muscle, in case of its significant accumulation, is achieved only a few hours after exercise. But 5-10 minutes is sufficient to significantly reduce concentration of lactic acid in small muscles, or for exercises not related to significant accumulation of lactic acid, and 10-20 minutes is sufficient to significantly reduce concentration of lactic acid in large muscle groups, or in case of strong muscle acidification during the set. Such long rest between sets will ensure the maximum effect of repeated loads in the type of training subject to our analysis. The short rest interval so loved by many bodybuilders, which provides a sense of muscle “pumping”, leads only to the maximum acidification of muscles and blood, which may be useful for development of body resistance to reduction of the internal environment pH, but is not directly related to stimulation of subsequent muscle growth.

It should be said that if you have active rest (doing cardio or working on other muscle group), lactic acid is removed from “resting” group much faster.

Of course, the most ideal way of training would be one where we would rest for 30-60 minutes after each set.  However, this method of training will probably only suit Arab sheikhs, who have plenty of free time and money.  That’s why I chose a more optimal option, which I named LOW CATABOLIC WORKOUT.

THE SCHEME

After LOAD on a specific muscle, we give it 5 to 10 minutes rest to reduce dangerously high levels of acidification to an acceptable level.

• LOAD on muscle A

• 5-10 minutes rest

• LOAD on muscle A

• 5-10 minutes rest

• LOAD on muscle A

• 5-10 minutes rest

• LOAD on muscle A

• 5-10 minutes rest

• etc.

WHAT IS THE LOAD IN THE SCHEME?   Load is not a set of an exercise, but a series of sets performed differently.  For example, this could be a triple DROP-SET.   It can be just a few sets on the same muscle in the traditional style: set - 1 min - set - 1 min - set. 
In my “NATURAL: How to Grow Muscle without Steroids” material I use the concept of “TRI-SET” to measure LOAD.   TRI-SET is 3 sets per muscular group performed with a pause of 30 seconds.  At such load it is possible to quickly acidify the working muscle to the optimal level, before going to rest for 5-10 minutes.

5-10 MINUTE REST does not mean that you have to sit in the chair and read magazines all this time.   It’s a rest for a particular muscle that you’ve acidified.  But this does not prevent you from training other muscles during this “rest”.  It could look like this:

• LOAD on muscle A

• 2 minutes rest

• LOAD on muscle B

• 2 minutes rest

• LOAD on muscle A

• 5-10 minutes rest

• LOAD on muscle B

In my calculations, 3 minutes of intensive work is more than enough to activate and acidify the muscle group to the right extent.  After that you can recover breath for 2 minutes and start training another muscle group.  This scheme allows us to spend five minutes for different muscle groups. 
DIFFERENT MUSCLE GROUPS mean that the muscle you’ve turned to must not be involved in previous movement. Otherwise, excess acid will accumulate in it and destruction will begin (catabolism).

BEST COMBINATIONS FOR ALTERNATING. 
You can use the ANTAGONIST muscles, or the muscles of UPPER-LOWER body. Here is a list of the best muscle combinations (A + B) for low Catabolic alternations.

• BACK + CHEST

• BACK + TRICEPS

• BACK + ANTERIOR DELTOID

• BACK + LEGS

• CHEST + BACK

• CHEST + BICEPS

• CHEST AND POSTERIOR DELTOIDS

• CHEST + LEGS

• BICEPS + TRICEPS

• LEGS + Any Upper Body Muscle

HOW ELSE CAN WE CONTROL ACIDIFICATION DURING WORKOUT

REST is the best way to reduce acid concentration, but it’s not the only one.
CARDIO helps to reduce lactic acid, because it is used as energy in aerobic oxidation.   In other words, active recreation, or treadmill between sets, will significantly reduce catabolism caused by excess acidification. 
TRIVALENT SODIUM CITRATE – You can use this supplement to reduce acidification (catabolism) during workout.  Unlike soda, sodium citrate does not irritate gastric mucosa or cause indigestion or diarrhea.  In fact, it is an alkali that reduces acidity, particularly in the stomach, so I do not recommend eating an hour before intake.   Citrate should be taken 30 minutes before workout.

ANY ANTIOXIDANS also reduce acidity, and therefore catabolism during workout.  You can buy both pharmacy options and sports nutrition complexes.  Things like vitamin C and coenzyme Q10 are good at fighting acidification.

CONCLUSION

The main idea of this article is alternation of loads on different muscle groups, instead of linear set-by-set training. In the latter case, the lactic acid concentration becomes dangerously high, which leads to activation of lysosomes and destruction of muscle protein (catabolism).  How to alternate is another question. You can discuss and argue. I prefer to alternate a series of several sets (to warm and fill a muscle with blood) with periods of active rest, which are used to train another muscle.  This will work particularly well in natural training when there is no artificial anabolic stimulation.