How to increase muscle mass and bone density

How to increase muscle mass is the art of how to gain weight while you are actually thinking weight loss, or at at least fat loss. Have you ever heard about  “Gravity deprivation syndrome”? While marketing is focusing on diet, wrinkles and botox, one of the most obvious sign of ageing and declining vitality is our shrinking in size and density as we age.

“From the age of 20, we lose percent of our bone density per year. Yet astronauts in space, on average lose 1.6 percent of their bone density a month, and some have as much as one percent in a single week!” Joan Vernikos. Former Director of Nasa’s Life Science Division. Now I know why I did not choose to be an astronaut! ? The same is true of muscle density. Gravity Deprivation Syndrome is to our body what inflation is to our money. While you may have organized your financial future, do you have a plan on how to increase muscle mass and fight off your yearly one percent decrease in bone and muscle density?? If there is more gravity on earth than in space, yet it is obviously not enough to maintain bone and muscle density in strength. Based on these facts, the solution on how to increase muscle mass appears to be fairly simple:  more gravity.  So how do we increase gravity here on earth, without any complicated material or sophisticated equipment?

How to increase muscle mass with gravity: Pump it up

Any workout applies stress and weight to a particular part of the body in opposition of the gravitational force of the earth, such as lifting dumbbell or jumping.

For example: running increases the effect of gravity on the body by 160 – 230%. Looking at 41 long distances runners aged 50 – 72, the American Medical Association found that they had approximately 40% more bone minerals than the non runners.

Other exercises also help with multiplying gravity effects on the body: skateboard ramp riding,  mountain biking and cyclo-cross, swinging, bungee, acrobatic gymnastic and my favorite one: trampolining!

Trampolining is fun, easy, cheap and yet super effective when it comes to answering how to increase muscle mass and multiply gravity on our body to fight off bone and muscle loss of density.

When we exercise, we tear down the muscle and build up a stronger version during recovery period. All our muscles and bones, like the rest of our body, are made up of cells. On the physical plan, we are an amalgam of trillions of cells working together, with more of less efficiency, depending on individual lifestyle and diet.

Whenever we are engaging in strenuous activities, the cells of our muscle tissue expand and contract with more weight and stress against the cell membrane. The cell then will strengthen its membrane with more proteins and get stronger (that is having raw healthy proteins within 30 minutes of exercising is a critical tip on how to increase muscle mass).

When you engage in trampolining  and rebounding (mini trampoline for home or class use), you exercise every cell of your body. More, you are actually combining simultaneously all gravitational forces on your body:

• When bouncing up, you are accelerating
• Falling back, you are decelerating
• Bouncing higher, you can increase the gravity working on your all body by up to 4,5 times!

Combining all three forces – gravity, acceleration and deceleration – to apply on our cells  is quite extraordinary. When we lift weight (which is also an excellent exercise, provided you have the technique to avoid injuries), we are putting an oppositional force to gravity only on a particular part of the body.

Gravity is a constant which applies equally to all your muscles if you are laying down still. Thus the main purpose of your muscles is to allow you to move in spite of the gravitational force of the earth against you. For an even more vivid picture, think of the Pixar movie “Wall-E” where human beings have lived so long in space than they can barely move their bodies around and looks like big marshmallow balls in electric cars.

Whenever you trampolining, you increase gravity over and over on your overall body, that is every single cell of your body. And that is absolutely AWESOME!!! If you increase the gravity by 10 percent, then you muscles and bones would have to get 10 percent stronger to function properly. That’s science folks. Ok, basic science but still …. When you trampolining, you can increase G force to 2 G, making every single cell of your body stronger while having loads of fun. With 75 trillion cells exercising (and laughing) all together, rather than a few muscle groups, we also burn a lot more calories!

Ok here is a LONG list, but really just taking a look at all the benefits of trampoline, one’s wonder why everybody is not already into trampolining:

• Reduce body fat
• Firm legs arms, butt and stomach
• Provide cardiovascular exercise
• Lower blood pressure
• Lower cholesterol
• Lower pulsing rate
• Strengthen connective tissue holding together our body organs
• Strengthen our bones and muscles every single one of them!
• Improve bladder control
• Increase flexibility and fitness
• Improve arterial elasticity
• Reduce headaches
• Reduce arthritic pains
• Increase oxygen and blood flow to the brain
• Help detoxify the body.

Et voila, trampolining has just replaced at least half of the pharmaceutical drugs so many people are under (as usual ….. this blog is not meant to replace your medications, please seek the advice of a professional – well you know the sentence – I don’t really want any problem that would interfere with my joy of bouncing up and down).

How to increase muscle mass on your face: One of my natural facelift secrets

We have 60 muscles in our faces and more than any other parts of our body, they are unlikely to be exercised and worked out. So just like the rest of muscles, passed 20 years of age, they shrink  by around 1 percent per year. The shrinkage of our face is associated with looking older. There are certainly appropriate workouts that help and the Eva Fraser method is an excellent one, I have been practicing for the five past 5 years; but with trampoline, I bounce up and down and every cell of my body, including my face, has to respond to this gravity exercise.

The ultimate lymphatic drainage

Our lymphatic system carries away toxins and cellular wastes to be excreted in our lymph nodes, located mostly in armpits and groins. The movement of our lymphatic system is entirely dependent on muscular activities and gravitational pressures changes within our body.  Another reason to avoid staying on our sofa eating crisps while watching TV. Not only such “relaxing” activity will add up to our internal crap, and it also favours stagnated fluids, leading to bad skin and excess toxicity. Yuk!!

To get our lymphatic system moving, trampoline is again the best way. As we bounce up, the lymph valves close and as we go back down they open thus making the whole system run smoothly. When our lymph is moving carrying out its cleansing purpose, we are healthy.

A few tips on getting into trampolining and on how to increase muscle mass.

If you have the space or a garden, get a proper trampoline, the bigger, the higher the bounces and the most efficient the work-out. Otherwise you can get yourself a rebounders, which a small sized trampoline. If you are unsure of your balance, you can also use a bar to hang onto to help you with stability, at least at the beginning. If you have not exercised for a while, be gentle to start with. If you are very overweight, make sure you check the trampoline limits and you may want to lose some weight first. In a nutshell trampolining is a very unique and fun way to gain weight (how to increase muscle mass and bone density) while you are targeting “weight loss”. So what are you up today? I am going to my trampoline class in London, just love it 😉