Muscle weight

wthrelfall

Anyone have any idea how much muscle weight is approx. gained in say, a month, for a very fit cyclist who is approaching peak form?

Murr X

wthrelfall wrote:

Anyone have any idea how much muscle weight is approx. gained in say, a month, for a very fit cyclist who is approaching peak form?

A very difficult question to answer and it will vary between people a great deal. Most cyclists actually lose a little muscle mass when approaching peak form as training load increases and calorie intake is decreased. This was always the case with me and others who would knew how to peak properly, saying that gaining unnecessary weight in the first place whether muscle or fat is not a wise thing and should be controlled.

Murr X

cyco2

wthrelfall wrote:

Anyone have any idea how much muscle weight is approx. gained in say, a month, for a very fit cyclist who is approaching peak form?

There is a procedure that is done on the muscle to determine it's content before and after exercise. I cannot remember what it's called but does entail shoving a sharp tube into the muscle and getting a core sample for analysis.
Is this the sort of thing you were hoping to get? If so I would think you would have to go private.

shockedsoshocked

cyco2 wrote:

wthrelfall wrote:

Anyone have any idea how much muscle weight is approx. gained in say, a month, for a very fit cyclist who is approaching peak form?

There is a procedure that is done on the muscle to determine it's content before and after exercise. I cannot remember what it's called but does entail shoving a sharp tube into the muscle and getting a core sample for analysis.
Is this the sort of thing you were hoping to get? If so I would think you would have to go private.

I think you're on about a muscle biopsy. Basically they use a cork borer to take a sample of muscle at a specific time during exercise ie during maximal efforts to see what's going on inside the muscle. Not reliable and you have to freeze it immediately to stop the processes inside the cells. Very difficult to do in these country.

As for how much muscle is gained, very little in an already trained cyclist. A friend who recently spent two years cycling round Latin America who started out completely unfit actually gained two stone, all in his legs. I'd imagine in a trained cyclist the main adaptations will be in blood vessel density/vascularity etc

wthrelfall

thanks for the response. just trying to guage how much weight gain/loss is down to muscle density. I guess it changes depending on the individual, but thought someone on here might have a very rough ballpark figure..

ut_och_cykla

I think even body builders whose only aim is to put on muscle reckon that 5kgs a year is good going. I would guess that for a cyclist muscle gain would vary depending on the kind of cycling they do (e.g.track vs. ultra distance) and thier level of fitness.

An already very fit cyclist approaching peak form probably wouldn't alter muscle weight much at all, having already reached peak composition muscle/fat etc.

But I can imagine water stored with glycogen would be well topped up which might show as increased weight over training state.
But I'm just guessing really...

shockedsoshocked

wthrelfall wrote:

thanks for the response. just trying to guage how much weight gain/loss is down to muscle density. I guess it changes depending on the individual, but thought someone on here might have a very rough ballpark figure..

The only way to really measure it would to measure weight/body fat % very regularly. Something like an inbody http://www.e-inbody.com/ if you had access to one would be ideal, but outside of that it would be difficult.

ut_och_cykla

Quickest weight gain loss is most likely caused 1) by food in gut, and 2) hydration status possibly accounting for a kilo or so either way? Just guessing again though....

shockedsoshocked

ut_och_cykla wrote:

Quickest weight gain loss is most likely caused 1) by food in gut, and 2) hydration status possibly accounting for a kilo or so either way? Just guessing again though....

Glycogen replenishment and subsequent water stored with it can count for a bit depending on how depleted you are. A rower at the uni who chronically over trained managed to put around 3k when he had a couple of (forced!) rest days, but I imagine in normal people that won't happen!