Anabolic Definition: Building Muscle With Science

The term anabolic is one that is thrown around quite often. It is pretty rare to have a discussion with your fitness buddies without one of them saying they had an anabolic supplement or an anabolic workout.

To a certain extent, some of them may be truthful about their training and supplements – and no, we’re not talking about steroids.

Anabolic is a term used to describe a state of high metabolism when you are training. This high metabolism can be used to accelerate lean muscle development – especially when combined with an effective workout and dietary techniques.

In this guide, we are going to break down all the important aspects of how to become anabolic and use this term to best describe various supplements and workout techniques.

What Does Anabolic Mean?

On a very basic level, anabolic is a term used to describe a state at which your metabolism is at a very rapid rate. The type of metabolism will have an effect on how you train, but the idea here is to accelerate your muscle metabolism for growth.

With this in mind, you can see that if we can establish methods and procedures to accelerate your muscle metabolism we can help you to become more anabolic.

Supplements can also help you to become more anabolic since some ingredients have the unique potential to elevate specific systems and signals to stimulate muscle protein synthesis and other factors in recovery.

How to Become Anabolic

We know that anabolic is a state that is definitely possible. Some diets that utilize fasting can make you more anabolic, some diets that are high in carbs can even make you anabolic. The terms we are using here are merely a placeholder for how you can grow stronger, quicker.

When it comes to becoming more anabolic there are a couple methods that seem to work best.

Supplementing With Leucine

Supplementing with the amino acid, L-Leucine seems to be one of the most effective ways to ensure you are always building muscle and stimulating recovery systems.

Leucine is one of the primary signalling agents to your body for growth, especially for muscle tissue.

Doing something simple like supplementing 3-4g of leucine daily will help you to recover faster and ultimately become more anabolic.

Take in 5-7g of Creatine

Although this supplement may not have a direct tie with becoming more anabolic in terms of a clear stimulation of muscle growth, creatine is an essential component in your recovery and needs to be included in your supplement stack for faster muscle growth and recovery.

Eat at a High Frequency

By this I mean have many meals throughout the day. We must not forget that anabolic is a state of metabolism, so in theory, anything that helps to increase your metabolism (like having multiple means) may actually help you to become stronger, faster.

Stay Hydrated

One of the most important aspects to your health is also one of the most important aspects to your anabolic gains. Water is the main source of hydration for your body, but also the cells that help muscles to recover and grow. Without hydration, you will lack recovery and could even enter into an injury spectrum.

Consume Fish

Fish is not only one of the best foods to get your daily dose of protein, but it also comes with a considerable amount of omega fatty acids which have been shown to be effective in promoting immunity and metabolism – essential for muscle growth and anabolic strength.

Ensure Adequate Sleep

Way too many people do not get enough sleep a night. Most strength experts will agree, 8-9 hours a night is needed in order to provide your body with the most amount of recovery from your rigorous training.

Sleep is not just important for recovery though. There have been decades of science to show that they better sleep quality you have the more effective your metabolism is and in turn the better your body will be at processing the food you consume on a daily basis.

Sleep is also very important for control and regulation of your hormone balance. Without balanced hormones, you will struggle to meet the demands of your training and will likely see to a major decrease in recovery.

Quit Smoking

This one is pretty obvious, but understand that some of your muscles fuel are from oxygen is important. Your body runs on oxygen, and any lack of this can lead to diminishing returns. Even so much as being in a crowded city for a long time could have an effect on your muscle development.

Smoking will not only cost you money and your health, but it can even limit your strength potential.

Hit Big Muscles with Big Lifts

This is one of the biggest mistakes that the average person makes when they get into the gym. New people always start on machines or with dumbbells, training similar to bodybuilding.

Of course, any exercise is better than no exercise, but in the early stages, you will make much faster progress if you train with bigger lifts.

Exercises like bench press, squat and deadlift should be the primary driver behind your success and take up much of your time in the gym. These exercises will target larger muscles and link together movement patterns that will be fundamental in your long-term success in the gym. This really is a win-win.

Minimize Unnecessary Stress

The body was built to deal with stress – and in some cases, it can be good. The stress you place on muscles during your workouts is good – it helps you to train muscles in an effort to grow stronger. On the other hand, unnecessary stress like the ones in our daily life can throw our hormones out of balance.

As you will know, balance is key when it comes to achieving an anabolic state. We cannot grow stronger unless we are balanced, and ensuring that we have minimized our stress levels is essential from this perspective.

Building Muscle With Science

Many people view the idea of anabolic training as one that is somewhat unnecessary to their success. The reality is, when you want to grow stronger you need to implement the best methods that push your metabolism and your strength to the next level.

If you are to be successful in the gym you should instill all of these habits and techniques into your lifestyle. Only by including all of the best practices will your body begin to develop at a higher rate and push your boundaries of anabolic strength.

Train hard, train heavy and take care of your body.

There is nothing worse than bad recovery – and although resting isn’t glorious if you want to build muscle, its essential.

Related: Turn your body into an anabolic machine with the power of nutrition!

Gabriello Ianniruberto

Gabriello is a writer and strength expert best known for his science-based and practical approach to Exercise Physiology, Nutrition and Strength. After serving in a directors position for The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology Gabriello moved towards writing to help more people understand the importance of living a healthy life. Gabriello’s writings have been published in several languages on some of the largest health and fitness websites helping people learn, grow and understand the complex components of optimizing human performance in a simplistic way.

Gabriello also takes on specialized, high-performance athletes who are in need of strength, mobility and conditioning programming to optimize their fitness through his Earned Fitness program.

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