The ‘invisible killers’ in fitness are the five bad habits that lead to muscle loss. The first bad habit is frequent training of the same muscle group. To increase muscle mass, strength training is essential, but rest is the golden period for muscle growth and repair. After each strength training session, the target muscle group needs 2-3 days of rest before the next round of training can begin.
If you train the same muscle group every day, it can prevent muscles from repairing in time, which is counterproductive to muscle growth, significantly reducing the efficiency of muscle gain.
The second bad habit is a fondness for junk food, such as fried foods and high-sugar foods. Various fried chicken, fries, cakes, egg tarts, and donuts are high in oil, salt, and sugar, classified as junk food. When we frequently consume these, the body prioritizes converting them into fat storage rather than using them to maintain and grow muscles.
Especially with foods that have been deep-fried, they contain a large amount of trans fatty acids, which not only increase inflammation in the body but also interfere with normal metabolic processes, thereby affecting muscle synthesis and repair.
The third bad habit is lack of sleep. Sleep is the golden period for body recovery and muscle synthesis. During sleep, growth hormones are secreted in large amounts, dedicated to repairing damaged muscle tissue and promoting the synthesis of new muscle.
However, if you stay up late and lack sleep long-term, the body cannot get adequate rest and recovery, and the secretion of growth hormones will also be affected, which will undoubtedly slow down or even hinder the process of muscle growth.
The fourth bad habit is inconsistent exercise. Muscle growth requires continuous stimulation and adaptation. If you only exercise occasionally and then take long breaks, the body cannot form a stable metabolic and adaptation mechanism.
For example, a fitness enthusiast plans to do strength training three times a week, but in reality, they train twice this week and not at all the next, and so on. This erratic pattern does not provide enough stimulation for muscles, making it difficult for them to grow and instead causing them to gradually.
The last bad habit is not paying attention to exercise form. During fitness training, the load level is secondary; the quality of the movement is the most critical. Improper movements not only fail to effectively stimulate the target muscle groups but also increase the risk of injury, thereby affecting the normal development of muscles.
For instance, during squat exercises, if the knees are excessively inward or the back is hunched, the force that should be borne by the leg muscles will be transferred to the joints and other parts. The leg muscles do not get adequate exercise, and joint damage may even occur.
When an injury occurs, the body automatically enters a repair mode, reducing the energy supply to muscles, thereby accelerating muscle loss.
