Edited by Dr. Davide Marciano
With this article it is my intention to talk about an additional scientific / practical evaluation tool to test the goodness of the workouts, and then focus, in particular, on the numerous results (health benefits, increase in muscle mass, weight loss) obtained by applying the data of a scientifically valid instrumentation.
.jpg)
This instrumentation was created to calculate the quantity of liquids and their dislocation between the intra and extra cellular departments.
To understand better, only a normal-hydrated body can be in good health and can achieve aesthetic results (mass gain or weight loss). Furthermore, the difference in the two compartments (intra and extra) allows us to evaluate the goodness of our training, for example: a training that is too voluminous would only lead us in the medium - long term to an overtraining, or to an increase in extracellular fluids. due to wear and tear of the cell mass.
In addition, the BIA allows us to evaluate the nutritional status of the subject, then check whether the diet that our athlete follows is effective for him or not.
The data provided is overly reliable. In fact, the correlation of these values with reference instruments for that compartment is optimal:
BMR with CALORIMETRY
M.G. with DEXA
TBW with DILUTION SYSTEMS
The BIA associated with other field exams, which we technicians of the sector use (eg skin test), can give us an even more complete picture of what we are doing on our students.
There are many parameters that it can provide us, but in order not to go too far I will mainly take into consideration the BCM, as it was the first value, which I kept in mind, in the application of a hypertrophy program.
BCM
BCM or cell mass represents the totality of metabolically active living cells.
Muscle mass is the main constituent of BCM, knowing the latter we will know:
1) The progress of the training.
So if the BCM is reduced, the training we administer is too bulky and vice versa, if the BCM increases our training is suitable for the increase of muscle mass.
2) Nutrition status initial
In a nutshell, if on the first BIA exam we find that our new client has too low a BCM, he will surely have been trained too bulky. In this situation we could not help but force him to a rest period (it will not be easy to convince him).
If at the following BIA checks, the BCM does not increase, but decreases further, we are still facing an overtraining. We will then reduce the training days until we have increases in cell mass.
The BIA pointed out that workouts longer than twice a week (approximately) and over an hour induce a decrease in BCM, therefore a decrease in muscle mass.
BCMI
BCMI (Body Cell Mass Index) provides us with a "more sensitive information of the energy malnutrition of the subject in question. Downward variations of this index make us understand that the subject has an insufficient caloric intake.
So, hand in hand with training, I will increase or decrease this intake to constantly obtain small increases in muscle mass.
With this value you can safely keep under control the benefits and unwanted effects of the various diets, and then decide which dietary method to adopt (the Zone, the Metabolic, the Anbolic Thrust, the Cronodieta and many others).
1st CASE STUDY
The person is called Veronica (invented name)
Its purpose is to improve the appearance through a reduction of fat and an increase in muscle mass (sorry !! ... through the toning. The lady as soon as she heard the word mass began to be delirious ...).
From BIA values it can be seen that the trained person has reached an increase in cell mass (lean mass) and a decrease in fat mass after about six months.
- In test 2 I made her follow more or less the same training as in test 1 - 3 times a week) but added the Zone diet. Unfortunately, the data was not very comforting.
- So in test 3 I did nothing but produce a bi-weekly training and give a slightly more caloric Chronodieta and as you can see the results also from the aspect of strength have clearly improved.
- In test 4 the training continues to have a biweekly frequency and fortunately things improve even more
- In test 7 the training continues to have a bi-weekly frequency and the body composition improves further at the expense, unfortunately, of the strength that decreases following a fairly restrictive diet.
- BIA tests were performed in the unloading weeks.
2nd CASE STUDY
The person is called Giovanni (invented name). Its purpose is to gain muscle mass
From BIA values it is clear that the person is already in a good state of shape but you can see after about 5 months what happened:
The training frequency was bi - weekly.
The feeding was structured on the reconstruction of the basal metabolism and month by month the caloric intake was increased by 10-15%. I did not follow any particular diet, simply sticking to the common sense of chronodiet.
I must admit that the subject had nice genetics and was already well trained.
Precisely for this last reason, having put on about 4 kg of pure muscle mass in 5 months, I think it is an excellent goal.
The BIA tests were always carried out in the weeks of unloading.
Like these, I could report many other cases of women and men to whom I have been able to point out visually and scientifically the benefits of my training.
In my opinion, to date, the BIA is one of the best tools that we personal can use for quantize the results obtained and to customize training and nutrition more and more. Remember that the best results are obtained with 2 weekly workouts, but personally I have seen it grow even with 1 workout and rarely even with three. For this reason with the BIA we can justify why we have set a training program on 1, 2, or 3 times a week.
I also want to underline the fact that although the BIA showed me, for each subject, the right volume of training, with relative nutrition and caloric intake, after about 2 - 4 weeks I found a decrease or stagnation of the BCM.
Even today, many people ask me how can only 2 weekly workouts of 1 hour improve people's appearance, health and mind.
Luckily it's these results that answer for me ...
To think that it all started in a garage.
Today, after many and many sacrifices and studies, I managed to win some battles.
Maybe in a few decades I will also be able to win my war.
