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Why Protein?

Jul 19

Posted by James in Weights | No Comments

proteinIt doesn’t matter if you are watching a Rocky movie, or reading your favorite bodybuilding magazine, there is no escaping the fact that in order to build muscle, a high protein diet is recommended. Have you ever wondered why there seems to be such an emphasis on protein consumption for those interested in muscle building? Wouldn’t it be better to simply eat a regularly balanced diet, with normal amounts of protein eaten along with the other food groups?

While having a healthy diet is a MUST, the extra protein added to a bodybuilder’s diet plays a very important role in the breakdown and rebuilding of lean muscle mass that no other nutrient provides. Without extra protein in your diet, the actual buildup of muscle mass is unlikely to occur, no matter how much you train. Many people, even if interested in bodybuilding, fail to realize the actual process of muscle creation and the role that protein plays in its actualization.

The first misconception that most people have is that you simply “build” muscle by working out. Bodybuilding is actually a process of muscle breakdown and re-growth. Without first breaking down the muscle tissue through the lifting of weights or other stress exercises, such as isometrics, the body would not be stimulated to create new muscle tissue. People do not even create muscle mass by lifting weights. They are in effect tearing the muscle tissue at this stage, and the actual creation of bulk muscle tissue is done while resting. When resting, the body uses protein to repair and build the torn muscle tissue, which is vitally important to any results that may be sought while working out. A person who continually works out will usually see less progress than the one who works out aggressively with periods of rest to compliment their workout schedule, as the body is not given the chance to “recover”, the process that produces the muscle mass we are working out to achieve.

Recovery time could be sleeping at night, taking a nap, taking a few days off from lifting, or simply shifting the muscles that your lifting concentrates on. One of the most productive workout schedules for muscle creation is to work out on a daily basis for 3-5 days in a row, and then to take 2 days off for rest and recovery.

Making sure that the body has enough protein to complete the recovery process is very important to the bodybuilding process because without it, the broken down muscle tissue will not repair and build upon itself, creating the “bulking up’ that is so desired. Eating at least the same number of grams in protein that the weightlifter is in pounds ensures that the body has enough protein to finish this process effectively.

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Beginning At The Gym

Jul 18

Posted by James in Weights | No Comments

gymShowing up to the gym for the first time, no matter how confident you may feel while working out in your home can be an intimidating experience. If you are venturing out into the world of communal fitness for the first time, following a few common sense tips can make a world of difference, and keep you going back time and time again to create the body that you crave.

  • Get the advice and support of someone else – Going it alone can be a scary thing. There is no reason to try to learn or do everything by yourself, especially at the beginning. Getting the advice of another bodybuilder, or even investing in a personal trainer can often make the difference between having the information you need to succeed, and floundering or giving up due to lack of direction or support. It is also a good idea to have another person who is experienced around not only to give you good advice, but also to act as a spotter and to make sure that proper form is used so that injury is not an issue.
  • Make sure to get enough sleep – Making sure that you have enough rest, especially when working out for the first time, usually requires more time resting than normal. Try to get a few extra hours rest the night before, or at least spend you time doing relaxing and stress free activities so that you are not tired or overly anxious during your workout routine.
  • Eat right – Many people feel that working out requires you to eat copious amounts of food. The reality of it is that better food, not more food is the secret to success. Eating proper amounts of food, even increasing the amount you eat is key, but if you are not eating the right kinds of food, no increase will do you any good. Make sure to eat a good, quality, as well as healthy quantity meal the night before you work out, or even better, every meal to get optimum workout results.
  • Setting realistic goals – Making sure to set goals for yourself is the only way to gauge success, but making sure that your goals are realistic can help you from feeling that every work out is a defeat, and often failure through quitting. Know what you want to achieve, and then break that down into smaller goals so that you can easily see progress as it comes in stages.

Bodybuilding is often seen as strictly an individual physical activity, but the help of others and making sure to have a proper mental perspective can often be the distinguishing factor between the joy of success and the agony of defeat.

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The Dieting Secret To Bodybuilding Success

Jul 17

Posted by James in Weights | No Comments

Almost all of the typical eating patterns and habits of the western world are bad for your health, make it impossible to manage weight, and decrease not only our drive to, but the effectiveness of any exercise we may decide to undertake.

Normally a person will start off with breakfast, at best being the smallest meal of the day. It is even more common than ever in society to skip breakfast completely. By the time lunch comes around, we are totally starved, or even worse, with automatic food machines all around, we replace our healthy diet with processed food snacks or sodas to tide us over. While lunch is consumed more than breakfast regularly, it is still second in the quantity and frequency amongst all traditional meals. In the afternoon our bodies are usually put through the chores of our lives, and need extra energy in order to perform. While lunch usually has more nutrients in it than our instant breakfast, or fasting and snacking period, this is usually the meal of the day where our following activity quickly burns the calories away, tempting us to once again snack from the machines at the office before going home for the day. Once at home, toward the end of the day, we usually consume the largest amount of calories of the day, when we least need them.

Not only does the amount of food we consume during each part of the day make no sense, the number of times a day we eat contribute to the need to snack throughout the day in order to keep our energy levels up, leading us to constantly eat the wrong types of foods. If were to instead eat 5 or 6 smaller, healthier meals throughout the day, we would be able to not only better regulate our food intake, but reduce the amount of processed food we eat, as well as allowing us to keep our energy levels up during high impact activities by eating more without guilt. If the body is better trained to utilize its energy intake by paying more attention to a consistent and healthy diet, then the body will be less likely to resort to feast and famine behaviors such as unneeded fate storage for fear of starvation throughout the day due to wide gaps between meals.

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Massive Thighs Without Injury

Jul 16

Posted by James in Weights | No Comments

thighs There are many crazy things that people will do in their search for larger muscles, especially the thighs. Some people will even risk hurting themselves time and time again with strange techniques or unhealthy lifting practices thinking that the risk is worth it to get them ahead. This is unfortunate for two reasons. One, the risks involved can put a lifter out of commission permanently and the risk for injury in general is much higher, and two, after trying every method in the book to grow at a fast rate, once progress seems to be halted, a return to the tried and true methodology of a correct diet and standard pyramid lifting practices usually proves the only true way to advance any further, and could have brought them to where they are without injury to begin with, making the risk a total waste.

Some bodybuilders will take a few warm up reps before an afternoon of power lifting. On the surface this might seem like a good idea, but the fact of the matter is, that being flexible before working out using low weight reps in set amounts LARGER than your power rep cycles instead of the reverse can not only help you avoid injury, but take you further up the weight pyramid in the long run due to healthier elasticity of the muscles due to extensive warming up. It is true that you might have to exert more of your energy during warming up than you wish, but the benefits of doing so far outweigh any growth benefit you might get from risking injury by not doing so.

Start off with high rep, low weight sets, and increase the amount by only a few pounds each set to make sure that you do not exceed the limits of the muscles ability to stretch. The higher the weight, the fewer the reps. Do not rush too fast to high weight, low rep sets, but build gradually.

The other part of a successful power lifting equation is to eat the correct amount of carbohydrates for your goals. If you are not wishing to gain weight mass, and simply maintain competition form, then eating to many carbohydrates can make you have to work harder to maintain without gain. If on the other hand, you are looking to increase bulk, then having too few carbohydrates in your system can starve the muscles, and in order for them to sustain your workout activities, might burn other body resources and result in weight loss instead of muscle addition.

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Why Protein Is Not a Bodybuilders Best Friend

Jul 12

Posted by mreed in Exercise, Food, Nutrition, Supplements, Toning, Weights | No Comments

protein bodybuildingProtein is a wonderful thing for your body, it helps you build lean muscle and helps build muscle strength, but protein isn’t a one man show, it needs help, by itself it won’t do your body much good. In order for your body to fully utilize the protein, you need to take in a balanced number of carbohydrates. Only with the carbohydrates can your body use the protein to it’s full extent.

There are many protein drinks, protein bars, protein cereals and a score of other protein things on the market and you will buy them and continue to buy them with no effect until you get frustrated and quit, unless you also take in your fair share of carbohydrates. Without the help of the carbohydrates, you can eat all the protein you want and you will still feel weak and listless because that wonderful and expensive protein is going right through your body without doing you any good at all.

The key to good nutrition is to eat in moderation. Eat your protein, but make sure you eat an equal amount of carbohydrates so you can effectively use the protein you ate. Carbohydrates will also give you the energy you would otherwise lack. If you do utilize the protein drinks and bars on the market, realize that they are likely to be filled with all sorts of things such as artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners can trick your body into thinking it has taken in sugar and it will act accordingly, use these in a pinch, but don’t substitute good, real nutrition for manufactured food substitute. Your best bet will always be to eat natural proteins such as is found in lean meat, nuts, beans, and other natural foods. Again, measure your protein intake by your carbohydrate intake; don’t have more of one than the other.

Body building is much more about good nutrition rather limiting yourself to an excess of one type of food. Supplements that artificially purge your body or build your body will eventually also be your undoing. There are plenty of unnatural ways available to build your body and for a while you will look healthy and strong, but time will tell the difference. You can build a house of cards that looks substantial from the outside, but if it has no inner support, it will be only a matter of time before it falls.

Your eating habits also very important. Eating small amounts at two to three hour intervals are much better than eating large meals four or more hours apart. Eat often and exercise just as often eat smart and eat healthy, that is how you build a lean, muscled, healthy body.

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Simple Bodybuilding Tips Revealed

May 28

Posted by James in Weights | No Comments

weightbodybuilding1

When it comes to bodybuilding, nothing can help you more than a combination of an effective bodybuilding strategy and eating healthy foods on a regular basis. What you eat definitely plays a critical role when it comes to growing your muscles through bodybuilding. Not only that, but it also affects your overall health. Here are a few simple tips that can help you maximize the success that you have with bodybuilding.

· TThe amount of energy that we have not only affects the way that we go through each day, it also affects us when we want to develop our muscles through bodybuilding. After all, bodybuilding is an energy-consuming action. The best way to have a good level of energy is to take protein supplements on a regular basis. You can even do this in between your meals in order to assure that you’re giving yourself a healthy level of energy.

· When it comes to bodybuilding routines that are used for growing your muscles, you have to participate in a warm-session of at least 20 minutes. This is one of the most important parts of an effective bodybuilding strategy. When you’re reserving time to hit the gym, make sure that you are keeping an adequate amount of time for a warm-up session in mind.

· What you eat plays a very critical role in our bodies as well as bodybuilding. We have to maintain a healthy body in order to have effective bodybuilding results. With that said, it’s highly recommended that you consume at least 3 eggs every day as well as fruits and vegetables. When you have a healthy diet, you will experience a better feeling and an easier bodybuilding experience.

· When it comes to creating a sleek body tone, weight training is one of the best bodybuilding activities. With weight training, you are able to sculpt your muscles to the tone that you want them. Weight training exercises can include, but is not limited to the dumbbell bench press, bench press, and the lateral pull-down.

· Before we get into this tip, we want to let you know that if you plan on taking up an intense bodybuilding routine, you may want to consult your doctor before you actually begin doing it. It’s better safe than sorry and your body isn’t something that’s worth gambling. Now that we got that out of the way, you should come up with a strategic bodybuilding plan. You can start out by running, jogging or walking and then move onto exercises such as pushups. Save the weight training for the end. This will allow you to have a great bodybuilding session every time.

Bodybuilding doesn’t have to be hard. People just make it that way sometimes. With these simple bodybuilding tips, you can rest assured that you will be on the path to bodybuilding success. Keep an eye out for more bodybuilding related information Health In Life, your ultimate guide to healthy living.

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