Have Trouble Building Muscle? The Reason Might be a Simple Fix
Imagine this: you’re working hard weekly to build some muscle and strength, but you’re not really seeing results. You’ve tried tracking, increasing protein consumption, sleeping more, and training harder, but nothing seems to work. So what’s wrong? The reason might be a simple fix.
This is going to surprise you, and I’m not going to beat around the bush, new research has found a link between muscle and a certain understudied area of the body. Keep reading to find out what was discovered and how it affects you and your gains today.
What Did Research Find?
No worries, we are diving right into the results. This study found a link between a substance produced by the gut microbiota and muscle growth. This chemical, created in a healthy gut, can help support muscles, reduce inflammation, and even help to support the overall wellness and health of the body.
Additionally, the same substance can even help improve endurance, reduce muscle fatigue, and may even slow down muscle loss later on in life. As a rule of thumb, after 30, we tend to lose about 3 to 5% of muscle per decade. That means if you’re not training to maintain or grow your muscles, you’re losing them.
A Simple Fix: Healthy Gut, Healthy Muscles
Let’s take this one step further and explain it a bit more. When you eat polyphenols, natural compounds found in food full of antioxidants, your gut can do incredible things. The microbiome produces urolithin A, which is a chemical that has, in the past, been linked to mitochondrial activity. If we learned anything from biology, the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, right?
What this means is that this natural compound fuels the cells to do bigger and better things in the body. This new study particularly found that higher levels of urolithin A led to more endurance, less inflammation, and greater cellular activity. Ergo, a healthy gut equals healthy muscles.
Importance
Just to drive the point home, as you age, you lose muscle. Natural Cellular function starts to decrease as well. Your mitochondrial activity goes down, which can lead to less stamina and endurance. This is a recipe for injury later on in life. The study found that individuals with this chemical can counteract all of that. This can keep you strong, healthy, and prevent any sort of injury that can be detrimental.
Sources
Let’s talk about some food sources that contain polyphenols. This is a natural compound that is found in stereotypically healthy foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, and some spices. There are different types of polyphenols from flavonoids (found in citrus and leafy greens) to lignans (found in grains like flaxseeds) and phenolic acids (found in berries and coffee). So in theory, if you eat these things, you’ll help your gut produce urolithin A, right? A healthy gut needs a bit more support to be well-balanced and in good condition.
What is the Gut Microbiome and How to Keep it Healthy
The gut microbiota is a community of small, microscopic organisms that live in the gastrointestinal tract. We need to eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, and other nutrients to keep the gut healthy and balanced.
Purpose
A balanced, healthy gut can help in many ways. For example, 90% of serotonin and 50% of dopamine are made in the gut. These are happiness chemicals that affect our mood. That means when our gut is unbalanced, we may start to have mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
Aside from that, the gut microbiome helps with the creation of nutrients, synthesizes vitamins, and helps our digestion run smoothly. We need our gut to be well-balanced to properly create the vitamins and minerals that we need to thrive.
The gut microbiome is even responsible for the immune response. 80% of our immune system cells are housed right in our gut. This is important when we’re trying to fight off disease and infection. A healthy gut is also able to support the intestinal barrier we have, regulating the entry of organisms and molecules. It removes any bad bacteria and other harmful invaders.
Some studies have even found a relationship between an unbalanced gut microbiota and insomnia. This may be because the gut microbiota plays a role in regulating sleep. There is something called the gut-brain axis. This basically means that the gut and brain communicate, working together. A disaster in the gut may lead to an unbalance in the brain, which can ultimately cause insomnia. Insomnia is also one of the reasons why we don’t build muscle. Getting proper sleep is vital for muscle growth and repair.
Specific Foods to Eat
Some specific foods come to mind when we’re talking about a healthy gut. We want to eat prebiotics and probiotics. Probiotics are foods that contain these microscopic organisms. These organisms can colonize our gut, filling it with good bacteria. Probiotics include fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, and Greek yogurt. Other examples can include milk kefir, kombucha, and pickles.
Prebiotics are food for probiotics. They consist of a fiber found in fruits and vegetables that can supply the gut with fuel. You may also want to look into resistant starch, which is a molecule that acts like fiber. Our gut loves to snack on it.
The Takeaway
So there you have it, there’s just one simple fix you have to do in order to boost your gains. Start eating things with polyphenols. That way, your gut can create a compound that supports muscle health and powers the cells.
Remember, health always comes from within. Start by eating nutritious food, moving your body, exercising when you can, and caring for your mental health. These small daily changes and habits that you start to cultivate become the foundation for a life full of wellness. Don’t forget about the health of your microbiome, too! Gut microbiota affects everything in your body, from the skin to muscles to the immune system and mental health. Get all the resources you need about microbiota health for free here!
