Muscle Building Techniques

"May the a person who is considered as overweight get rid of body fat and increase his muscular mass at the same time or is it better to lose weight and then build muscle?":

Probably, the most efficient way to lose weight (especially the ugly body fat) is to elevate your muscular mass. Muscle is essentially an engine which needs fuel, and much of this fuel can be provided by fat. Hence, a bigger engine (more muscle) and more driving (exercise and weight training), the more fuel (fat) is used.

Therefore, it is much easier and healthier to lose weight and gain muscle at the same time. This option is much better than doing it in a sequential way. Notice that we need to make an allowance for a probable initial weight gain. The reason is easy; muscular mass (which is heavier than fat) will initially build faster, and fat loss will lag slightly. You must be patient because you will notice an initial weight gain. This gain is your engine growing, getting ready to burn more fuel.

The concept you need to understand and plan to achieve is your total body recomposition. You not only need to lose body fat, but also gain muscular mass to build up your metabolism and completely shape your body up.

Curcumin is a water soluble powder with an orange-yellow colour. Extracted from dried turmeric root (Curcuma longa), it gives mustard and curry powder their colour. Turmeric contains substances called curcuminoids - curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin.

Curcumin is being studied for its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and cholesterol lowering properties. Its effect as a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agent is intriguing because it may help the development of muscular strength and muscle mass.

Some researchers believe that even after a lifetime of studying turmeric, they wouldn't begin to understand all the complexities of what many consider to be the world's most important natural remedy.

Curcumin has been used for centuries to treat inflammation. It is well known in the Ayurveda. Ayurvedic medicine is a comprehensive system of medicine, first described by Charaka around the beginning of the Common Era, and based on a holistic approach rooted in earlier Vedic culture. Its conspicuous use of the word veda, or knowledge, reveals its role in early Hinduism and describes its hallowed place in India. Ayurveda also had a tradition of surgery.

Curcumin, due to its low toxicity, it is currently being investigated for its wide-ranging effects as an anti-inflammatory mediator. Research has shown that it functions as an anti-inflammatory in part through decreasing the recruitment of white blood cells following tissue damage. Other research has shown that curcumin inhibits several different inflammatory proteins and complex biochemical pathways. Furthermore, data shows that curcumin affects genes, but in a good
way.

Skeletal muscle is perhaps the most common site for tissue injury due to trauma, bacterial or viral infections, or surgery. Weightlifting is actually a form of "controlled tissue damage" and, as any hardcore bodybuilder knows, intense resistance training induces skeletal muscle damage.

Believe it or not, at this time there is still no effective treatment to stimulate the repair of skeletal muscle following damage. However, there is evidence that curcumin can stimulate myogenesis (muscle regeneration) following tissue damage. If you are still wondering how anti-inflammatory agents support muscle growth, think of it this way: a decrease in the amount of inflammation will speed the recovery of the muscle and thus optimise recovery, allowing a bodybuilder to enhance his training programme.
Source: Flex magazine

PS: Curcumin is a great product for promoting the faster healing of injuries. Even if you don't have an injury and just suffer from the occasional sore knee or elbow, Curcumin will help

The two most important discoveries in sports nutrition in the past 10 years have been that taking creatine monohydrate and taking protein supplements before or after weight training speeds strength gains and muscle growth. These techniques work, are legal and safe, and should be part of the training program of all weight trained athletes. Australian scientists may have taken these findings to the next level. They found that giving whey protein plus creatine boosted strength and muscle mass more than taking supplements containing creatine + carbs, whey protein alone, or creatine alone. Creatine and whey supplements increase growth by different mechanisms, so it should come as no surprise that putting them together might have an additive effect. A good practice is to take a creatine/whey protein supplement about 30-60 minutes before working out. Do this consistently and you should make faster gains. Source: Muscular Development magazine

PS: Once again, whey and creatine have proved themselves to be highly effective at boosting gains in muscle strength and size. Although you can mix whey and creatine separately, several good brands offer very good combinations.