Whether you're walking hills for fitness or enjoying a hike in the great outdoors, reaching a downhill stretch of terrain feels like a welcome relief. Although you perceive that walking downhill is easy, it actually places high demands on your muscles, can build muscle if performed on a regular basis and can cause injury if you do too much without building up gradually. Walking utilizes numerous muscles throughout the body, including your hip rotators, calf muscles, abdominal muscles and hip flexors. You use your quadriceps to extend your knees and flex -- or bend -- your hips. You also use your hamstrings to extend your hips. Downhill walking places demands particularly on these knee and hip extensors. Perhaps the most well-known type of muscular contraction is the concentric contraction, in which a muscle shortens. Downhill walking, however, Learn more utilizes the other type of contraction: Read more the eccentric, or lengthening, Prime Boosts Official contraction. As you walk downhill, your body gains momentum. To counteract this momentum, your knee and hip extensors must contract eccentrically to slow down your stride and reduce the impact on your weight-bearing leg. These eccentric contractions build strength throughout these muscles' ranges of motion. The energy demands go to the braking action of the eccentric contractions. Without these eccentric contractions, you would gain too much speed and break out into a run. Even though downhill walking effectively builds strength in the hip and knee extensors, it carries some dangers. Muscle soreness is typically greater with eccentric, as opposed to concentric, contractions. This pain generally arises after you've finished walking, so you might not realize you've overdone it until it's too late. Downhill walking also places significant stress on your ankle, knee and hip joints. If you have problems in these areas, downhill walking may be contraindicated.
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Why Did I Gain Weight After Working Out? There are several research-backed reasons why you might notice a slight weight gain after exercise. These include muscle gain, water retention, post-workout inflammation, supplement use, or even undigested food. In most cases, post-workout weight gain is temporary. Here is what you need to know about gaining weight after working out. Why Did I Gain Weight After Working Out? Gaining weight after working out is likely due to muscle fiber inflammation, muscle glycogen and water weight gain, and over time, muscle mass gain. If weight loss is your goal, seeing an increase on the scale when you've been making an effort to exercise can be frustrating. However, it is often a normal, common occurrence that is likely temporary. Here are some of the reasons why it might be happening to you. You will likely gain muscle when you start working out. How much muscle you gain depends on your diet and the type of workouts you do.
But any increase in physical activity is likely to produce at least some improvements in strength and muscle mass. If you participate in strength training workouts and consume adequate protein, Prime Boosts Official you're likely to see more significant increases in muscle mass. Genetics also play a role in the amount of muscle mass you gain when starting an exercise program. If you tend to gain muscle easily, consider yourself lucky. Muscles help to shape a strong, healthy body. Some people put on muscle more quickly than others. But when you gain muscle, the number on the scale is likely to increase. In fact, even if you're also losing fat, you may see an increase on the scale. Muscle is more dense than fat, but it takes up less space. That means if you gain muscle, your scale weight may go up even as you're losing body fat. If you've been working out regularly, it's possible for you to lose inches even if you're not losing weight.
A higher number on the scale could mean that you are losing fat while gaining muscle-a positive trend that leads to a leaner, stronger body. Water retention is a common cause of temporary weight gain. Pre-menopausal people are especially prone to body-weight fluctuations throughout the month due to hormonal changes. If you have periods, you may notice some degree of bloating immediately before and during your period. Exercise can help reduce pre-menstrual symptoms, so it's helpful to keep up with your workouts, though you may still see an increase on the scale. Studies have shown that fluid retention peaks on the first day of menstrual flow. It is lowest during the mid-follicular period (the middle phase of your cycle) and gradually increases over the 11 days surrounding ovulation. The degree to which you see an increase on the scale varies from person to person, but at least a slight increase in weight-even after exercise-is normal.