Packing it on

I'm now into my sixth post-season week of alternate training. I'm still riding my bike but with no structure and certainly less volume and intensity. I have made the weight room my focus, getting four or five sessions in each week. After being pretty compulsive all season about my body weight, weighing in daily in order to fill out my Restwise entry, I have a good handle on what my usual range is. I rarely saw anything under 170 pounds but I was also usually never over 173 pounds. I was pretty surprised, then, to watch things change almost daily once I started lifting weights regularly. After just over five weeks, I tipped the scale at 180 pounds. The appearance of my physique also changed dramatically from the skinny endurance athlete look to something else. 

I can't say I mind, really. I mean, I've been a skinny bastard my whole life and have never been accused of being "big" in the typical body builder sense. On the other hand, back in my Mountain Athlete heyday three years ago, I certainly looked like someone who lifted. Spending my high school years at 95-130 pounds and going to an all-boys Catholic school left some undeniable scars on my psyche about body image. Being recognized as looking "buffed", even as a middle-aged adult, still felt good. I'd be lying if I said otherwise. Hey, we all have our baggage. When I started bike racing again I needed to come to grips with losing that image. There was no way I was going to be successful on the bike at 184 pounds. The weight came off easily once I started riding more and lifting way less. I have to admit that it smarted being a skinny bastard again but I compensated by winning races and justifying my physique as a necessity for success. I was going to get my strokes one way or another. 

Now the muscle mass pendulum is swinging the other way and I'm enjoying the ride. Not just because I'm less skinny but also it's simply fun getting strong again. As I said, I have always struggled with the narrow type of fitness and physique endurance sport demands. Sure, I'm pretty tough on my bike but that's about it. Most elite cyclists have cleaved so much muscle off their upper bodies that one can count ribs right through where their pecs are supposed to be. Form-fitting lycra jerseys are impossibly loose around the cuffs where biceps typically reside. These days I can rip off pull-ups, bench press my body weight for a few reps and I'm dead lifting 315 pounds off the floor. In the strength world none of this is worth mentioning but for a recovering endurance athlete its the start of some entertaining alternative fitness. The cool thing about just starting out on a program is that gains come fast and furious. I've actually been surprised at how quickly I got stronger and how fast the weight came on. Turns out some new research sheds some light on why.

We all know that when we exercise muscles get bigger and stronger and when we stop they shrink or atrophy. Muscle cells are very large and require extra nuclei to supply the DNA templates for all the extra proteins they require. Scientists previously thought that these extra nuclei were lost when a muscle atrophies. Recent research revealed at the recent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that these nuclei are not lost during atrophy. These structures, examined in mice, lasted at least three months after surrounding cells started dying. Now, three months is a long time in mice years. It is probably significantly longer in humans.

This research helps explain my observations concerning my own training experiences. Basically, muscles "remember" how to get jacked! The authors of the paper suggested that, if confirmed by other researchers, the implications of these findings should cause a reconsideration of doping penalties in sport. If an athlete can augment a training response with banned substances and then enjoy certain cellular adaptations long after doping ceases, bans for such offenses may currently be too short. Interesting idea.

Another suggestion by researchers is that people should train hard when they are younger and seed their muscles with these extra nuclei since, as we age, muscle response to training gradually declines. We do not know yet how long these responses are maintained in humans but it's better to hedge your bets and get your ass in the gym! - Brian