Are Your Big Muscles FIT?

April 29, 2018 – 

Here is a question for you, what is your strongest muscle?  Are your ARMS so strong you can carry a big frozen Turkey with one hand?  OR maybe your LEGS have pushed a car when it ran out of gas?  The 6-pack ABS you show off at the pool can do a 3 minute plank!!!  Strong strong strong!!!

Truth is that when it comes to having a rapid metabolism and getting into amazing shape, your large muscles are the ones doing all the calorie burning and these big strong muscles are only effective when they are active.  Perhaps you do have big legs. Are they in shape or just big.? Muscular or mush, active or absent, firm or flab, growing bigger or shrinking smaller?  That is the question!  Your muscles are your motors in life, your immune system, your strength, and your metabolism.

Your muscles are all important and all have a specific job.  Each group of muscles has a predetermined mass according to their design and shape. Surprisingly, strength honestly has less to do with size …  I could have started out by defining muscle volume as the ‘total amount of muscular tissue in cubic units’ as opposed to big or little.  Some muscles are actually a bundle of muscles to do the same task like straighten the knee or erect the spine.  As an example notice the chart below;

The winner of the largest muscle in the body per volume is the Quadriceps!  The one above the knee and below your hip, you use it all the time … I promise.

Your bottom or Glutes have the propensity to become massive and if that were to happen you would be starving all day long as the major prime mover would be destroying your calorie intake, thus your tummy would be empty as quickly as you could fill it.  Such a bad problem to have don’t you think?  Notice that the back or Latissimus dorsi also can grow to monstrous size, but that won’t effect your suit jacket … unless you are doing 100 pull-ups a day you do not need to worry.  The flip side of that and right below on the above chart are the Pecoralis or chest muscles.  Another big group that also require overtraining to flair out. Ask those guys who come out of the Military forces and they will tell you they frequently did hundered(s) of push-ups daily.  Not doing that today?  Ok then, relax.  OR GET UP OFF THAT RECLINER – DROP and give me 100!!  I know, right after me.

Are your BIG muscles FIT?  For those of you currently training with me at F.I.T. Human Performance you know I visit and re-visit the prime movers over and over. And my sweet wife says “I’m bored, I want to do something different” and I love her.  But, I roll my eyes and remind her “you want to do THE BEST MOVES for the muscles used!  Wouldn’t you rather get really good and really strong in the safest possible way by doing the absolute perfect movements for those muscles?’  There is nothing better and no short cut!  If I was kidding you guys or wasting your time I couldn’t look myself in the mirror at night.

Here is the fact of the matter, get really good and as strong as possible with the BIG muscles and your weight loss goals, strength goals, and health goals will be met. Period!  If you think it will be easy to be muscular and it happens fast, you are dead wrong.  Muscles take time to develop and body-building is a science.  Make it a part of your lifestyle, if you know anybody who might be 80 years old ask them if they miss their strength.  They do.  Do not let yourself get weak, call me today.

In good health,

Bob

The strongest muscle of your body is…. wait for it … the Heart.