Activities Sports & Athletics Being Anti-Catabolic: The Final Frontier for New Muscle Growth Share PINTEREST Email Print Sports & Athletics Bodybuilding Health & Safety Basics Training & Routines Baseball Basketball Bicycling Billiards Bowling Boxing Car Racing Cheerleading Cricket Extreme Sports Football Golf Gymnastics Ice Hockey Martial Arts Professional Wrestling Skateboarding Skating Paintball Soccer Swimming & Diving Table Tennis Tennis Track & Field Volleyball Other Activities Learn More By Hugo Rivera Hugo Rivera is a nationally ranked competitive bodybuilder. He has written several books on fitness and bodybuilding, including "The Body Sculpting Bible." our editorial process Hugo Rivera Updated March 08, 2017 Being catabolic is a bodybuilder's worst nightmare. No bodybuilding gains nor weight loss goals can be achieved when in a catabolic state.A catabolic state can be caused by many factors, such as emotional stress, lack of sleep and overtraining, just to name a few. Under a catabolic state, your cortisol levels rise, and cortisol prevents fat loss and promotes muscle loss. Regardless of how much weight training, dieting or bodybuilding supplements you consume, if you do not reduce your cortisol levels, you will not achieve any bodybuiding results. Cortisol and being in a catabolic state are two things that are crucial for every bodybuilder to fully understand in order to be able to achieve any bodybuilding goals.The keys to minimizing these conditions from occurring is to stay in a constant anabolic state which will allow your body to give you the best results possible. This is done by following the right bodybuilding diet and bodybuilding training routines. Also, a key bodybuilding supplement that helps to eliminate the chances of becoming catabolic is L-Glutamine, a supplement that I feel every bodybuilder should use. In addition, do not forget that one of the quickest ways to get into a catabolic state is through lack of sleep.Now that you know why being in a catabolic state is so unfavorable, I will give you a basic definition of the anti-catabolic properties term along with some "must read" links to help you stay as far away from a catabolic state as possible.