Almost everyone who steps foot in the weight room has at least some concern regarding anabolism. If you are dedicating time during your day to lifting weights, it only makes sense that you would want to get the best results you could from your efforts.
Anabolism is the process where simple substances are converted to more complex compounds such as bone and muscle tissue. When you hit the weights, provide an overloading stimulus, then follow this with nutrition and rest, in most cases, anabolism will take place.
Opposing anabolism you have catabolism, which is when the reverse happens and instead of building new tissue, the body is breaking down its current tissues, most often to use for energy. This is much more likely to occur when someone is on a diet, as there is a reduced source of fuel that is used to simply maintain the body.
Maximum Muscle Growth
Sometimes, when someone who is very into weightlifting really wants to maximize their muscle growth, they'll start using chemical enhancement as a means to do so. While this definitely is not a healthy approach, using steroids will increase the anabolic process that goes on in the body, both by increasing the free-testosterone levels in the blood and by increasing the rate at which protein synthesis occurs.
Protein Synthesis
The process by which nitrogen from amino acids is linearly arranged into structural proteins through the involvement of RNA and various enzymes. Protein synthesis is muscle growth. The more efficient you can make this process the more efficiently you can build muscle.
If you combine steroids with a heavy training program and a high-protein diet, muscle will then be built at a much higher rate than before.
The Problem With Steroids
While this is definitely a bonus—anything you can do to increase testosterone and protein synthesis is really going to impact your results, there are so many negative side effects to using steroids—not to mention they are not legal if you ever plan to try and compete in a professional competition.
So then the question becomes what you can do naturally to mimic the effects of steroids without seeing the unwanted consequences. In walk digestive enzymes.
What Are Digestive Enzymes?
An enzyme is essentially a protein that acts as a catalyst for a variety of different reactions in the body, including those associated with the production of energy, the repair of tissues, organs and cells, along with the digestion of the foods we eat.
These enzymes are very specific for their function and form a 'lock and key' type of fit with their specific substrates. This then means that the body requires various different enzymes in order to ensure all reactions are being carried out effectively, as any one enzyme is not applicable to all reactions.
Considering the digestive enzymes in particular, these ones are going to break down the foods you eat, allowing the nutrients to be absorbed into the bloodstream.
It would only make sense then that if there were not enough enzymes present to maximally allow for proper digestion to take place, even though you are theoretically eating enough to promote good muscle gains, you may not experience these gains as the nutrients are not becoming available to the body as they should.
For example, you already likely know that you require between 1 1/2 grams of protein per pound of body mass in order to maintain your nitrogen balance and prevent catabolism from taking place (where the body burns muscle tissue for fuel).
If you hope to build muscle, this is absolutely essential, any way you look at it. You will not get the results you are hoping for unless this condition is met.
But, what if you are eating an appropriate number of grams of protein but the body is not breaking these down into the various amino acids and shuttling them into the muscle cells? In this scenario, it will be just like it would if you were running a deficit in protein intake—a disaster, more or less.
That's why it's absolutely critical you are looking after this factor if you are looking to achieve maximum anabolism, naturally.
Supplementing your current diet with digestive enzymes is the best way to get optimal muscle gains without turning to chemical enhancement. While you can definitely load your system up with protein, spending hundreds of dollars on protein powders and food products, if those enzymes aren't there, is virtually money down the toilet.
It'd be far more effective to back your protein intake down to only what you require, then investing in a good quality digestive enzyme to ensure you are using this protein. That will get you far better progress than doing it the other way around, plus it's going to be a lot simpler and easier on the body.
Not to mention, digestive enzymes are also going to play a role in the breakdown of carbohydrates and fat as well, therefore helping to ensure you are getting the greatest amount of usable energy from the fuel sources you are eating.
Conclusion
So, if you're looking to increase the anabolic processes in the body and want to stay natural (which you should!), then give some serious thought to digestive enzymes. They may just be the most anabolic product you can invest in.