How to build muscle: Frank Suárez on anabolism, the nervous system and the 2x1 way of eating

Some people train with real discipline — they lift, they push, they show up — and still feel the muscle isn't growing the way they expected. They watch others gain more easily, and a logical question appears: what am I doing wrong?

Frank Suárez's answer was never simply "do more exercise." For him, the body doesn't run on brute force. The body runs on metabolism: on energy, on balance and on adaptation. If you want to build muscle, training harder isn't enough on its own — it helps to understand how muscle is built, what role your nervous system plays and why the right way of eating makes the difference.

Frank said he learned much of this from a mentor of his, Dr. Schenker, a biophysicist who studied the inner workings of cells, the nervous system and metabolism. Out of that came a simple but powerful idea: to create muscle, the body has to be in building mode, not in wear-and-tear mode.

Muscle grows when the body gets the message to rebuild

When you work a muscle in the gym, that muscle takes small internal tears — micro-lacerations. It isn't a major injury: just tiny bits of wear that the effort produces in the tissue.

That soreness many people feel the day after training is the signal that muscle work happened. And the important part, as Frank explained, is what that wear communicates to the body: repair, replace, reinforce. That's where the building begins.

The body is alive — it learns and adapts. That's one of the ways it survives. If a muscle is used more intensely, the body responds by reinforcing it so it can handle that effort better next time. That's why the muscle becomes firmer and bigger.

In other words: exercise creates the need, but the body needs the right conditions to answer it. And that's where knowledge comes in.

Anabolism: the function of building new tissue

Frank taught a key concept for understanding all of this: anabolism. Anabolism simply means building — the creation of new tissue. When someone wants to increase their muscle, what they're really after is putting the body into an anabolic function.

There's also the opposite function: catabolism, which is wear. If anabolism builds, catabolism breaks down. And here's one of the keys of this teaching: not everyone finds it equally easy to build muscle, because not every body runs with the same metabolic tendency or the same dominant nervous-system type.

Passive nervous system and excited nervous system

Frank renamed the medical jargon so nobody would get lost. Instead of "sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system," he spoke of an excited nervous system (the accelerator) and a passive one (the brake). According to his explanation, this tendency is inherited and shapes how your body responds.

A person with a predominantly passive nervous system leans naturally toward building — toward anabolism. For that body, developing muscle tends to be simpler: training plus a well-balanced way of eating is often enough.

A person with an excited nervous system, by contrast, has a more catabolic tendency — more toward wear. They may be training hard and, if the body is too revved up, that same body can be wearing tissue down at the same time it's trying to build it.

The lesson is clear: it isn't only about training more. It's about helping the body be in the right state to build.

The 2x1 way of eating to support muscle building

For slimming down, the NaturalSlim® System uses the well-known 3x1 Diet®. But when the goal is to develop muscle, the teaching Frank shared from Dr. Schenker pointed to a different proportion: the 2x1 approach.

The 2x1 means building your plate with two parts of Type A Foods and one part of Type E Foods:

• Type A Foods (the ones that help you slim): meats, cheese, egg, vegetables and salads.
• Type E Foods (the ones that tend to add weight): a portion of starchy foods such as potato or sweet potato — and, for those who tolerate it well, rice.

Why include a portion of starch? Because building muscle demands plenty of raw material and energy, and that portion of natural carbohydrate helps give the body that push. Frank was clear that this doesn't mean overdoing refined carbs: too much bread, flour, rice, sweets — with too little exercise — ends up creating fat instead of muscle. Among carbohydrates, the least recommended was always sugar.

Protein is a lead player too. This is where a good protein intake fits into the plan: Metabolic Protein® C-Plus by NaturalSlim provides quality protein, which contributes to the growth and maintenance of muscle mass and to the maintenance of normal bones. It's a convenient way to reinforce the protein side of your eating while you're working on your muscle.

Fat as fuel for building

One point Frank stressed was the importance of fat. As he explained it, forming half a kilo of muscle demands an enormous amount of energy — on the order of 40,000 calories — versus the roughly 3,000 usually estimated for half a kilo of fat. The takeaway is simple: building muscle costs a lot of energy.

So, to give the body more available energy during that process, it helps to include a good portion of fat and protein alongside vegetables and salads, plus the portion of starch that supports the plan. The vegetables don't get cut: they supply the vitamins and minerals the body needs as building materials for tissue. It isn't about eating only meat or only carbohydrates — it's about giving the body the materials and the signals it needs.

What to do based on your nervous-system type

If your nervous system is excited, it's worth paying attention to your body's overall state, not just to training and food. A body that's too revved up becomes more catabolic, and in that state muscle progress can be slower even while you're training.

Here Frank turned to two minerals: magnesium and potassium. Both are essential nutrients with officially recognised functions in the body:

• Magnesium (MagicMag®) contributes to the normal functioning of the nervous system, to normal muscle function, to normal protein synthesis and to a reduction of tiredness and fatigue.
• Potassium (Kadsorb™) contributes to the normal functioning of the nervous system and to normal muscle function.

If your nervous system is passive, the situation is simpler: your body already has a natural ease for anabolism. Your main focus will be to train and balance your eating in its three parts — protein and fat, vegetables and salads, and a portion of starch. With that combination, muscle building tends to happen with less resistance.

Building muscle is not just training more

Frank's big lesson on this topic is that muscle doesn't depend only on doing more exercise. The exercise is necessary because it creates the stimulus — but afterward the body needs to be in a position to rebuild: food, energy, protein, fat, minerals and vitamins at the right level.

And above all, you need to understand your own body. If your nervous system is passive, you have a natural ease for building. If it's excited, it's worth making sure your body isn't too revved up and supporting it with essential nutrients like magnesium and potassium.

It isn't your fault if you hadn't been seeing results: you were simply missing information. When you understand how your metabolism works, you stop fighting your body and start working with it.

If you want to apply all of this within an organised plan for your metabolism, NaturalSlim Europe has a team of Certified Metabolism Consultants ready to help. You can start by getting to know the NaturalSlim personal program and take the first step with guidance.

And as Frank used to say: "The Truth… always wins!"