That’s right, the chicken leg will teach you about muscle and I am going to show you how. We have all seen a chicken leg. Parallel that to our own leg – our calf muscle or the bottom half of our leg. They are identical in shape and form.

Picture the chicken leg in your mind. It has fat on the top. We usually pull the fat off and eat only the muscle. The muscle is the healthy part or the meat on the bone. Notice how the fat is on top of the muscle? Well that is a fact. The reason why we cannot see muscle is because there is fat on top of the muscle. This is why you can do crunches all day long and work very hard for that six pack but you cannot see that six pack. The fat is on top of the muscle! This is true for the entire body.

Peel away the fat on that chicken leg and there you will see the muscle. Notice the consistency and how hard or soft it is. The harder the muscle the more that chicken worked. You see everytime you work out your muscle builds more and more and that definition creates bigger and bigger muscle. The more work the muscle gets the more definition it gets. But that muscle cannot be overworked.

When a muscle is worked it breaks down and tears. The harder the muscle is worked the more tears it gets. This is the reason you get sore after a hard workout. But if you do not allow that muscle to rest and repair after a workout it and does not repair properly. This would make for a gristly meat and ugly muscle.

Let’s say you work the same muscle group while it is sore and do not give it time to repair. The muscle has to tear down more and those tears make the muscle messy. But if you rest and let the muscle repair properly, aka let those tears repair, then the muscle will build up into a beautiful, hard, solid muscle that you are wanting to build. This is why rest is so important. This is why I tell my clients not to work a muscle group that is sore.

Muscle that is built up and worked is heavy as well. Muscle weighs more than fat. Did you notice that on your chicken leg? This is why a 200 pound man with 25% body fat will burn more calories around the clock than a 200 pound man with 60% body fat. The more muscle you have the better.

Now, let’s take away all that muscle and get down to the bone. There are some really rubbery parts there aren’t there? Well those are tendons. They connect the muscle to the bone. And the better shape your muscle tissue is the better in shape your tendons are which in turn leads to better bones. Bones are not solid. Bones are breathing, porous parts of our body. They need proper work as well. That is why strength training helps bone density.

Have you ever torn a chicken apart? When you pull the bones apart from one another you are tearing the chicken’s ligaments. Ligaments connect the bones to one another. See why a ligament might be harder to repair than a tendon? But if your muscle is strong around all the bones the tendons and ligaments will be strong too.

In short, it is very important for everyone to add strength training to their fitness program. A simple chicken leg will teach you that. The more meaty the chicken leg the more fit the chicken was. The tougher it was to pull apart the bones the stronger that chicken was! You do not have to workout in a gym to have strength. I have some great advertisers right here on this site that will show you that. Click around and see. My site is full of FREE tips on how to strength train with or without weights. Anyhow, something tells me that chicken leg with all that great meat on it did not hit the weight room three times a week . Happy Training, Kathie