I need to rest due to injury. Would cardio increase muscle loss?

I have spent the last five years doing natural bodybuilding vigorously and relentlessly and am proud to say that I have reached a stage where it's nearly impossible to be any more fit than that without taking chemistry.

I have suffered numerous injuries but have recovered from all of them and come back stronger.

Now I have an inflamed wrist tendon due to overuse (I did climbing and three intense workouts within the course of four days resulting in the injury). I know I will recover and be back in no time, but I need to rest. Two weeks at least. I've already been off for almost a week (still look ripped as **** tho).

Thing is, I am planning a couple of really intense cardio sessions (hikes) in the coming week. I absolutely will do them because only then will I be in such pristine peaks and hiking conditions. We are talking intense, whole-day hikes with some 1500 meters of denivelation with minimum amounts of nutrition throughout.

Thus - I was wondering. Do you think that doing intense cardio is going to increase the amount of muscle I lose during this pause? What are your experiences with cardio and muscle-building, especially when muscle-building is put on pause?

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Severe muscle imbalances (with pics) - PLEASE HELP!

Hello everyone

Yesterday I took some pictures of my body in a relaxed state and decided enough is enough.

My god, just look at these pictures:
- my right chest is smaller than my left one
- my right shoulder hangs lower than my left one
- my right lat is way BIGGER than my left one

It looks sooo ugly and whenever I see myself like that in the mirror or on a picture, I immediately feel extremely bad.

This is now really taking a psychological toll on me. I've been dealing with this for years and everything I've tried so far to correct this issue hasn't worked.

Now my question is, what do I do and who should I turn to? My doctor? A physical therapist? Chiropractor? Who should I first contact about this? What sort of professional specializes in these types of issues?

I am getting more and more depressed about this and only some kind of professional can help me at this point.

I think the underlying issue might be neurological/structural. During puberty I remember constantly dealing with neck issues and cracking my neck sideways to relieve the stiffness. I'm thinking there's a nerve impingement somewhere within my neck, which causes neurological signals to be sent unevenly/disruptively on the right side. Maybe if a doctor or whoever can fix this, it will automatically go away?

I don't want to continue to build a foundation on a severely imbalanced body. I MUST fix it. So again, who do I turn to?

Attached Images

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• AB46BBFF-CE07-4E06-9B24-1020D7680C28.jpg‎ (26.6 KB)

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Oblique Mind/Muscle Connection

Hey y’all

So, I’ve lost 40 pounds, finally in a low enough bf percentage to see my abs so I’ve been working them more. I’m having problems with mind/muscle connection with my obliques and more dramatically on my left side. Any tips? Thanks!

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muscle recovery

Hi, I am new to the thread. I’m 16 and weigh about 220 5’6. For the last 2 weeks I would go to planet fitness and workout. My workout would include running for 5 minutes and 7.3 speed and then do 7 different chest, back and arm machines. I am also on a low calorie diet. I aim for 1000 every day. After the first week I felt stronger and i could notice it. but at the end of the second week i couldn’t use as much weight and felt way more sore. Not sure why. any input will help.

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(QUESTIONS) 2012 Study:Muscle protein synthesis in response to nutrition and exercise

I have not had time yet to review this entire study, and I suspect given it's age it has been reference in the nut forums already, but I wanted to see if anyone could clarify some things I saw in the abstract:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3381813/

"Muscle protein synthesis (MPS) is the driving force behind adaptive responses to exercise and represents a widely adopted proxy for gauging chronic efficacy of acute interventions, (i.e. exercise/nutrition). Recent findings in this arena have been progressive. Nutrient-driven increases in MPS are of finite duration (∼1.5 h), switching off thereafter despite sustained amino acid availability and intramuscular anabolic signalling. Intriguingly, this ‘muscle-full set-point’ is delayed by resistance exercise (RE) (i.e. the feeding × exercise combination is ‘more anabolic’ than nutrition alone) even ≥24 h beyond a single exercise bout, casting doubt on the importance of nutrient timing vs. sufficiency per se. Studies manipulating exercise intensity/workload have shown that increases in MPS are negligible with RE at 20–40% but maximal at 70–90% of one-repetition maximum when workload is matched (according to load × repetition number). However, low-intensity exercise performed to failure equalises this response. Analysing distinct subcellular fractions (e.g. myofibrillar, sarcoplasmic, mitochondrial) may provide a readout of chronic exercise efficacy in addition to effect size in MPS per se, i.e. while ‘mixed’ MPS increases similarly with endurance and RE, increases in myofibrillar MPS are specific to RE, prophetic of adaptation (i.e. hypertrophy). Finally, the molecular regulation of MPS by exercise and its regulation via ‘anabolic’ hormones (e.g. IGF-1) has been questioned, leading to discovery of alternative mechanosensing–signalling to MPS."


1. "Nutrient-driven increases in MPS are of finite duration (∼1.5 h)..."

Does this statement mean that, in the absence of recent (>24hour after) training to stimulate MPS, nutrient-driven rises in MPS only last for ~1.5hr? If so, then what exactly is the function of stimulating MPS via nutrition if there is no recent training to which the rise in MPS can aid in hypertrophy or adaptation?

In other words, if the window after training wherein your body is still recovery from/adapting to stimulus has ended (say, >24 hours), then what exactly does a nutrient-driven rise in MPS actually do considering you've already adapted? Do your muscles grow from nutrient-driven MPS even if you're not training?

Finally, does this in any way suggest that consuming protein - for example - every couple of hours when you're NOT actively training (say a person goes on vacation or takes a week-long break) would better to maintain MPS uptime?

2. "Intriguingly, this ‘muscle-full set-point’ is delayed by resistance exercise (RE) (i.e. the feeding × exercise combination is ‘more anabolic’ than nutrition alone) even ≥24 h beyond a single exercise bout, casting doubt on the importance of nutrient timing vs. sufficiency per se"

Here, the author states that the 'feeding x exercise combination is 'more anabolic' than nutrition alone', thus mitigating the impacts of nutrient timing vs sufficiency. It seems to me that, if that is true, then the impact of consuming food after training and/or before training would actually be somewhat important if the anabolic effect is increased by having both in combination and in close proximity. Not to say you need a protein shake RIGHT after training, but if the increase is driven by training + food, it seems like it would make sense to get it in ASAP...

3. "However, low-intensity exercise performed to failure equalises this response."

Finally, this appears to suggest that low-intensity training done to failure actually stimulates MPS sufficiently to optimize conditions. If that is true, then could a person not do, say, several sets of push-ups to failure on 'off' days simply to maintain maximal MPS uptime? Also, is this something a person could take advantage of during period wherein injury, insufficient time, etc kept them out of the gym wherein they could perform training with heavier loads?



Thanks for any help.

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Muscle Tech Protein Cookie - Triple Chocolate

First of all, thank you Muscle Tech for giving me a box to have and review.

Triple Chocolate tastes GREAT! I do like the fact the cookie had less sugar than other brands and that whey protein is the primary source with no wheat protein. It is a perfect inbetween meal snack or before a workout.

I only wish it did not have any artificial sweetners but other than that I can't really find any fault with the Protein Cookie. It is chewy and filling thanks to the eight grams of fiber you find in each one.

This is a product I will purchase again. I believe it is very competitive in flavor and nutritional profile with other protein cookies.

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Muscletech Hydroxycut Titanium!

I have used the entire container of Titanium and I couldn't be happier with the product. I have used a couple different hydroxycuts over the years and they have always delivered a great boost to energy and pretty good appetite suppression. Titanium was no different. When taken at full dose(2 capsules) the energy is really good but not over powering. Out works out great for me. I eat pretty light early in the day and just as it is starting to wear off I pick up my eating veggie and after my workout. I had no problem controlling my weight with this product and now am missing that extra boost in the mornings :( only reason I don't order and continue is it is time to start my bulk. Will definitely be looking to hydroxycut for my next cut! Would definitely use and recommend! Thanks Muscletech! Great product!

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