OH! Magazine - Australian Version November 2015 | Page 10

MICHELLE
BRIDGES

LET’S TALK

WEIGHT GAIN
Michelle Bridges shares her tips for weight gain.

hile so many of us are in a
seemingly never ending battle to
fit into our jeans, it is easy to forget that
some folks are actually thinner than
they’d prefer.

W

Now this issue isn’t just about how we
look or what dress or pant size we’d like to
be, it can actually be a legitimate health
issue. We need to remember that our lean
muscle mass is very important to our
overall physiological wellbeing.
Once we hit 40 we start to lose muscle at
the rate of around 0.5 to 2 per cent each
year, so protecting our lean muscle by
exercising regularly becomes more
important as we age.
Gerontologists (i.e., people who study the
effects of ageing – I didn’t know either
until I looked it up!) often accept our lean
muscle mass as a key biological indicator
of our potential to live a long and healthy
life.

Our muscles are organs, and their
functionality includes a lot more than
simply moving our skeletons around. They
are involved in insulin and disease
resistance, obesity prevention, and other
critical metabolic functions.
So it makes sense that we should actively
seek to stimulate our muscles through
exercise. Which is why my little ears prick
up whenever someone asks me how to
pack on an extra kilo or two of quality
lean muscle mass.
Often, it’s an ectomorph facing the
dilemma of ‘why can I eat like a horse,
but not put on weight?’ The answer?
Resistance training and conscious eating.
The resistance training however, needs to
follow a formula of heavy weights, low
repetitions
and
basic,
compound
movements. Let me explain this furth