Martin Haworth asked:


Many people have taken up the challenge and decided that they want to maximize their bodies’ potential. So, first up is ascertaining exactly what exactly is the next level?

It is none other than bodybuilding!

People who body build are not only keeping their bodies healthy and fit but have added aesthetics to the mix. Bodybuilders do their best to improve the look of their bodies and, for the competitive, bodybuilding contests are held in many parts of the world to encourage the practice.

The Importance of Bodybuilding

Individuals who body build are not engaging in frivolousness and are not being arrogant when they expose the fruits of their labor. In fact, bodybuilders are a great example and inspiration to others, for the drive to have a healthy and fit body could and should be in everyone.

In a world where obesity and a lack of fitness is growing daily, true fitness bodybuilding is a great way of improving the overall health of the community and the success evident in the bodies of bodybuilders should inspire others to work harder in improving their body.

To make the most of this then, means working harder at maintaining a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and staying away from unhealthy habits and vices.

And doing them all consistently, without boring ourselves to death!

Bodybuilding Tactics

Upon hearing the word bodybuilding, most people associate it with guys having big muscles and showing it off. That’s because what is often in the media is competition bodybuilding with muscle-bound guys flexing their muscles for all to see. To some this can be quite unattractive and put them off.

And building and toning your body is not just for men but also for women as well. In fact, female bodybuilding is becoming more popular as testified by the numerous competitions for female bodybuilders cropping up more and more often.

And anything that happens to improve the quality of our bodies, wherever and whenever in the world it happens, cannot be a bad thing, with the health problems there are. Male or female.

Bodybuilding Success – What To Watch Out For

However, when you bodybuild, it is not only just about getting focused and consistently planned exercise. Bodybuilding nutrition is also involved. Those who body build should have the discipline and the drive to carefully maintain a healthy diet.

There should be adequate and good quality rest too. This means then that as much as you need with the exercise you are undertaking.

If you body build, it’s necessary to avoid those little temptations that can set you back, so stay away from excessive alcohol, any cigarettes, too many fatty foods and other harmful substances you can think of.

A bodybuilder may also find the need to take bodybuilding supplements. If you do, make sure you consulted with a professional and follow the directions given you when you take any such supplements.

It is your body you are dealing with so be extra careful to do nothing to excess.

As for those who are still in the beginners bodybuilding level, do not lose your drive. You may be skinny and flabby in some (or all!) areas right now, but with hard work and dedication, you will get there eventually.

You may find the use of certain bodybuilding equipment helpful. Also, if you feel the need to avail the services of a bodybuilding trainer, then go ahead and do so. Join competitions if you want.

The point is you are improving your body – and that’s what will make the difference!



Anthony

Dane Fletcher asked:


Thanks to the declining value of the dollar, gas prices shooting through the roof, and a bunch of other elements, the cost of food in the United States has increased very considerably in the past couple of years. While there were a lot of people who saw those high prices of food coming from a mile away, many of those people were shocked that the price of supplements had also shot up over the past year. Most providers of whey, including online sellers, have marked the price up nearly fifty percent, and it doesn’t look good for the future. The prices have gone way up for beef, chicken, fresh produce, eggs, and whey, in other words, all of the average bodybuilder’s favorites.

So before you throw in the keys, take a look at the following tips that will help you get through the higher prices, and also a few ways to benefit from these rough times.

Cheaper Gym Memberships

If you are having a hard time adjusting to the struggling economy, just think of what gym owners have to get through. Supplements are also at a higher cost to them, the gym equipment is way more expensive to have delivered, and the number of members has probably gone down. For most people, the cost of a gym membership is high on the list of things to cut back on when currency is tight. Go to your gym, or a gym where you’d want to be, and explain that because of rising costs, it’s not in the budget to be a member. In a lot of cases the owner will pull some strings and allow you a membership at a lower cost. This might be due to their costs being fixed, and they would probably want to get less money out of you rather than lose your business.

Working Out In Your Home

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll be aware that gas prices are absolutely ridiculous these days at nearly five dollars per gallon. While many times it’s difficult to get a full chest, back, or leg workout in your home, you can discover that a couple sets of dumbbells are a great and efficient way to train your biceps, triceps, forearms, and shoulders. Any work on your abs, and most cardio exercises can also be completed in house, which saves you money and time. If you can not spend just ten dollars a week by not driving to the gym on select days and working out at home, by the end of the year you’ll have saved nearly $500. This is a great way to save money without giving up too much of your routine.

Buying In Bulk

Even though food has become more expensive due to the economy and shortage issues, you can still purchase large amounts of food that you need for relatively cheap. A large sack of rice is still pretty cheap, and will take care of your carb needs for weeks. Tuna is continued as an excellent and affordable protein source. It’s also good to check for unmarked deals where you can, like the butcher who will discount a lot of meat if they need to sell it before it’s not considered fresh, you can purchase a big hunk of meat, and freeze it. Small purchasing decisions could end up saving you a lot of money.



Margaret

Troy Pearsall asked:


Most neophytes don’t know how to get started in bodybuilding they spend many years doing the wrong things before they learn what the right things are. In this article I will address one of the mistakes the newbie’s make and give a simple antidote to the problem of developing strength and size as a bodybuilder.

You can find more articles on training and a question and answer section, written by real bodybuilders at http://fire-iron-online.com Check it out and get your bodybuilding problems solved

I think before we go any further its important to understand that strength training for a bodybuilder is not the same as for other athletes. A bodybuilder must develop strength while building muscle size, shape and endurance, and on many occasions these goals are exclusive of each other. So let’s start this discussion with how to choose the correct weight.

What does your trainer mean when he says light weight, moderate or heavy? How do you know by the weight what rep count you should use? I’ll try to simplify this all too confusing problem in just a few lines.

Heavy weight is any amount that is so heavy that on your first set you can only complete 6 to 8 reps. I think it goes to reason that on your second and third set you will not be able to complete as many.

Moderate weight is any amount that is so heavy that on your first set you can only complete 8- 12 reps. Of course less on the following sets. Finally, light weight is any amount that is so heavy that on your first set you can only complete 15-25 reps

Now there is one more thing that I want to address that is strength. Understand this, just because you are getting bigger does not mean you are getting stronger; however, if you are getting stronger you are getting bigger even if you can’t see the size increase! Finally, train to get stronger, but not for strength, if you understand the principles of the Progressive Resistance System this will make more sense

The four days per week workout, the four days per week is called a split routine, because the body is split into four sections Unlike a lot of trainers I think there is a relationship between growth and total amount of sets completed in a week’s time. On the three day routine you had 9 set for chest, back and quads, and six set for shoulders. In this routine the weekly sets will range between 12 and 16 per body part.

In no way do I advocate the High Intensity Training (HIT) methods that you’ll find in all over the internet. I don’t deny how well they work; I just feel much of the injury throughout my career has come as a result of working out with too much intensity. Age and wisdom has taught me to the never to even advocate the negative or forced reps for any reason I personally call them injury reps! But let’s move on to what will work.

Some important things to understand about this routine

1. Workouts are never longer than 1 hour! Never!

2. Dips are done with no weight, except "bench dips" if you have a partner

3. "Max" represents the most you can do correctly (never do forced reps)

4. Unless I specify dumbbells, use only barbell

5. Shoulder press are done to the front of the chest not behind the neck See article my article on shoulder injuries

6. Lat pull downs are done at shoulder width never wider and only to the front of the chest.

7. Seated row are done either on a seated row machine or on seated on a low cable row machine. If doing them on a low cable row machine lean forward only enough to full extend your arms keep lower back arched. Never let the shoulders roll forward for that "extra stretch"

8. Barbell curls are done in smoothly never jerky or fast.

9. Leg press are done with full range of motion your calf should touch your hamstring at the stretched position.

10. Leg curls should be contracted until heel touches you ****.

11. Seated calf raises this exercise is harder than it appears. Calf should get a full stretch at the bottom of the movement, and completely contracted at the top.

12. Warm up and cool down with about 10 t 15 minutes of stationary bike or ski machine (I only do low or no impact aerobics, never run, never stairs,)

13. Stretch only after you have completed the workout and only for the muscles worked that day.

Workout 1 Monday

Dips 4 set of 8-12 reps Bench press 4 set of 8-12 reps Dumbbell Shoulder Press 4 set of 8-12 reps Shoulder Shrugs 4 set of 8-12 reps

Workout 2 Tuesday

Pull Ups 4sets of 6-8 Reps Lat pull downs 4 sets of 8-12 reps Seated Rows 4 sets of 8-12 reps Seated Calf Raises 4 sets of 15-25 reps

Workout 3 Thursday (after one day rest)

Hack Squats 4 sets of 15-25 reps Leg Press 4sets of 15-25 reps Leg Curls 4 sets of 8-12 reps Standing Calf Raises 4 sets of 15-25 reps

Workout 4 Friday

Barbell Curls 3 sets of 8-12 reps Dumbbell Curls 3 sets of 8-12 reps Bench Dips 4 sets of 8-12 Reps Close Grip Bench Press 4 sets of 8-12 reps



Willie

Adrian Alexa asked:


A lot of people eliminate cool down from their bodybuilding or fitness workouts because they consider it unimportant. The truth is that cool down is just as important as warming up and plays a crucial part in staying injury free. Cooling down after a workout is important because it promotes recovery and aids our bodies to get back to a pre-workout level.

During every single workout session the body gets damaged by various elements including damage of muscle fibers, ligaments and tendons together with various waste products that get build up in our body. If you perform a good cool down routine you will notice that our bodies can repair themselves faster.

Few people understand the importance of cooling down after exercise, especially when talking about post exercise muscle soreness. Most people will feel this the next day after a good workout and it can be experienced after a lay-off from exercises or even at the start of a sports season. There are various reasons that cause this post exercise muscle soreness. For starters, we have micro tears. These happen during the workout and they are actually small tears in the muscle fibers. They will cause swelling of the muscle tissue and there is pressure on our nerve endings, thus causing pain. Then we also have blood pooling to talk about.

When we workout our heart will pump a large quantity of blood on the working muscles. This is needed in order to carry nutrients and oxygen to the muscles that are working out. The blood reaches the muscle and the nutrients and oxygen are used up then the force of the muscular contraction will push the blood back to the heart in order to get re-oxygenated. When our workout is complete, or better said, when the exercise stops the force that pushes the blood towards the heart will disappear. The end result stays in waste products that remain in the muscles, some causing pain and swelling. This is “blood pooling” and it does have an impact on our overall performance.

The cool down process helps a lot because it keeps the blood circulating, thus helping to prevent blood pooling and even removing part of the waste products we find in our muscles after a workout. To make it even more important, cooling down will also bring in blood with oxygen and nutrients, which are needed by the muscles, ligaments and tendons to properly recover after a good bodybuilding or fitness routine.

Now that we understand the importance of cool down in bodybuilding and fitness workouts let us take a look at an effective cool down structure. We have 3 key elements that we need to take a look at and they are: re-fueling, stretching and gentle exercise. All these elements are equally important and they should not be neglected. Now the time put into each part of the cool down process depends on the type of athlete you are. If you exercise more or are a bodybuilder that is aiming towards competition or simply a serious athlete you will need more cool down than the person that only does a maintenance routine.

The easy exercise part of bodybuilding cool down stands in doing gentle exercises that resemble the types of exercise that were done during your workout routine. Deep breathing should also be included in order to help your body oxygenate the system. 20 to 30 minutes of stretching are also recommended after a heavy workout although 5 to 15 should be enough for the average bodybuilder. Do not forget to re-fuel your body.

This is done by drinking a lot of water and you should also include a good sports drink in the routine. Exactly after a workout you should eat food that is easy to digest, like fruit. Always do a good cool down routine after your workout and you will see that results will be better.



Phyllis

Mike asked:


One of the biggest myths out there is the myth of women growing big muscles if they lift weights or get into weight training. Old myths are hard to get rid of. I have heard many times from women who haven’t even lifted barbell weight in their life state that they don’t lift weights because they fear getting too big.

First off I’d like to see them try, as any muscle building takes a lot of work even for the smallest amounts of growth and second men and women can only grow so much because of genetics. If lifting weights made everyone huge like you see in magazines you’d see everyone in the gyms looking like that. You rarely see huge bodybuilders around because to get that huge man or women, it takes the help of drugs.

In countless cases women want to lose body fat and the last thing they think of is lifting weights or getting into bodybuilding. That’s because their mind set of bodybuilding is this huge muscular looking figure. Truth is, yes you can create a good figure, but getting “too big” is just about impossible. Here’s the thing. During the rest time when muscles re-energize, (after working them) they eat body fat for dinner. In other words the muscles go after fat to get more energy required. Keeping it simple, the more a muscle is worked (without over training) the more fat it will eat up. I have seen cases were the women focuses on the bodybuilding and learning, rather the standing on the scale every day watching the weight and they have had unbelievable success losing weight. Stay off the scale and use the mirror.

What happens when a women or man focuses on building and shaping muscles rather than fat loss is the fat or weight loss becomes the byproduct of the bodybuilding and toning. By the way there really is no such thing as toning. You either have muscle growth (hypertrophy) or no growth and toning is simply muscle growth. A so called cut muscle or ripped muscle in many cases shows more with a dehydrated body. My point is to make your target to build muscles and the weight loss follows behind on its own. It’s much easier and more interesting to focus on the exercises rather than the weight loss. Building muscles has a greater effect on weight loss than cardio workouts. Because gained muscle burns fat (while you sleep). Go into any gym and you will find most people riding the bikes rather than lifting weights. Because of years of being told cardio workouts are the way to lose weight everyone does it.

Lifting weights will help lose the fat twice as fast and keep it off. Do both is even better. I can’t count how many people I know who lost weight doing cardio workouts like running and bike riding, (cardio workouts, work the heart muscle) only to find that a few weeks later after they slow it down or quit they gain it all back. It takes two weeks to lose cardio shape and it takes months to lose gained muscle.

By Mike Thornton Certified Fitness Trainer UFit Exercise



Audrey

John Howard asked:


This can be explained by a person who is engaged in bodybuilding, the process of building and sculpting muscle is one that requires intense focus and commitment. A dedicated diet and exercise regime is absolutely imperative to achieving bodybuilding goals. And as important as diet is, bodybuilding exercise is even more important.

Exercise helps bodybuilders trim body fat, build muscle, and sculpt and chisel the body in order to achieve ultimate bodybuilding goals – including participation in competition. Bodybuilding exercise – like any kind of fitness routine – should include a combination of cardiovascular exercise, core work, and weight training in order to be most effective. But for bodybuilders, exercise of this kind is taken to the next level with a focus and intensity that helps them achieve their significant physical goals.

In order to embark on effective exercise, it is first necessary to set out a schedule that will help you meet your goals. This is where a reputable gym can come into play. Not only do gyms offer a bevy of equipment necessary to bodybuilding exercise, but they give customers access to personal trainers who can help you set and implement your fitness goals.

For instance, a personal trainer can help you to determine how best to structure your workout week; this may include weight training on one or two particular muscle groups one day and other muscle groups the next; as well as the implementation of cardiovascular work and programs such as Pilates and yoga to improve flexibility and strengthen the body’s core. Exercise helps a lot for a person to remain fit.

But most importantly, personal trainers and the gyms in which they work can provide guidance in performing exercise in the safest way possible. Exercise – especially weight training – will get you nowhere if you have poor technique. In order to maximize your results and avoid injury, bodybuilding exercise must be performed with the proper technique.

Bodybuilding exercise can transform your physical appearance and elevate your competitive performance to the next level. But be sure to approach these exercises with proper education and attention to safety in order to best meet your fitness goals

Here are some useful tips for exercise:

Body Building is usually affiliated with Big Muscles. Body building will change one’s body and mind if approached in a reasonable way.

1: Set Your Sets

Rests between sets should be minimized to around 60-90 seconds for cardiovascular purposes and better muscle voluminizing effect. Sets should be 6-15 cycles for each exercise.

2: How Much Rest?

Sleep is a health necessity that is too often ignored. Our society pushes us to sleep less and accomplish more, but there is a point when all of that hard work and no rest can become counterproductive. Sometimes rest is what is required in order to become better. one part of the whole, the rest will also tend to move towards a more healthy and fit state as well.

3: Work Your Workout

There are two types of muscle building workouts that will either allow you to gain muscle mass or tone your existing muscle. The goal of a low rep, high weight muscle building workout is to increase muscle mass, or plump up the muscle to its greatest volume.



Calvin

Troy Pearsall asked:


Visualization for Bodybuilding and Fitness

It’s been a few years since I step on a bodybuilding stage (15years) but one of the tools I used for success in competition was visualization. Most bodybuilders don’t apply this technique to their training but it really makes a difference in not just your confidence but also you physical performance.

We have all heard how Michael Jordan used to imagine himself making the game winning shoot every night and I think it goes without saying that many teams tried to keep the ball away from Michael Jordan because of it. His visualizing making that shot was only a mental formality that his body had to play out. The shot became very easy because he made it again and again and again in his mind. So there were no problems with him making it again with the ball.

Pre-workout Visualization

There are a number of visualization techniques that can be used in bodybuilding and fitness. The first is what I call pre-workout visualization. In this technique I actually see myself doing my sets each one individually, rep by rep. I know how many reps I would like to compete for each set, then visualize myself doing that number of reps with a slightly heavier than normal weight than I would have before.

When it comes time to actually do that set with the given reps and weight, I have already done it in my mind and amazingly can most of the time complete it in the physical.

Now this is not some mystic mumble jumble it works because you mind is already prepared for the task at hand!

Contest Visualization

When preparing for a contest I use a slightly different method of visualization, I’ve found this to be exceptionally effective in preparing for a contest, especially in respect getting out the pre contest jitters

I visualize my body in comparison with other competitors, me actually receiving the first place trophy, and even my diet and other training events, but I always visualize myself as the greater than I already am.

I visualize my diet for that week I even visualize myself turning down bad food choices from family and friends, and only accepting the healthy muscle building selection.

If you know where the competition is go there and look at the event area and imagine the lights the crowds, all cheering for you. Make the atmosphere as positive for you as possible, then go home and visualize the competition as you would like it to be, and don’t be afraid to embellish a little..

If you can’t get to event because of distance than get pictures of it off the internet and use those picture to form you imagination.

The last thing to do is get to the event center early while they are setting up for the show ask which trophies are for the class you are competing in and visualize yourself receiving the trophy again

I sometime actually talk to the trophy, telling it that its coming home with me, and telling it how honored that I am to be competing for such a great trophy.

This may sound crazy and you will seem some what cocky around others but you will live up to your own expectations and greater than you can ever expect from yourself.

Visualize every day and whenever you feel down or fat of unmotivated or just plain tired visualize your success and you will get it!

The Process of Visualization

Before you visualize you must be quiet! Now this is not the absence of noise but the calming of your mind and spirit. This is very similar to mediation or praying in the presence of God, so don’t be shocked it you find a new desire to re-unite with God. Or if you are already a practicing Christian you may find yourself understanding the wisdom of God at a more personal level.

Take a deep breath and hold it until you can hold it no longer but when you release it do is smoothly and controlled, breath normally. I know many people that are into the breath counting but I find this relaxes me much faster than breath counting, or emptying the mind or any of that Zen Buddha stuff.

I would look at a photo of the event center first this put thing into real perspective. Then I close my eyes and visualize what I want to happened during the contest. The more detailed you visualize the better the chances are you will experience the success you desire

Go through the pre-judging, comparison, evening show, your posing routine and even the crowds standing ovations after your routine. Leave nothing to chance and do visualize often once a day at lease maybe more if you need to.

With the introduction of every imaginable new drug and supplement in the sports of bodybuilding and fitness, I think the use of visualization is an amazing simple process that doesn’t cost a dime and will yield the results like you never thought possible.

God Bless

Troy "Awwsum" Pearsall



Jack

Vince Delmonte asked:


As discussed in part one, teen bodybuilding can start at a very young age allowing young fitness enthusiasts a whole new world to pursue. Teen bodybuilding is an excellent way to promote a healthy lifestyle since it requires regular weight training, cardiovascular training, balanced nutrition and even stimulation of the mind since the topic of teen bodybuilding involves constant education. Teen bodybuilding can also help you erase nicknames like “Skinny Mini,” “Scrawny,” “Tooth Pick,” “Twiggy,” and in my own personal case, “Skinny Vinny!”

Unfortunately teen bodybuilding is not as easy as it looks and can result in injury, bad habits and frustration if stated with out structure and progression. Here are the next five tips to successful teen bodybuilding:

6. Learn Proper Technique First

How well do you think you would golf without supervision? How well do you think you will skate without coaching? How well do you think you will play piano without lessons? How much muscle do you think you will build without proper lifting technique? Not much!

I hope you are humble enough to swallow your pride and accept the fact that your first step should be getting professional coaching from a reputable fitness trainer. I know many of your friends will not even consider this and you will be told, ‘just learn it yourself,’ or ‘watch others.’ Can you imagine a medical surgeon or dentist who took this approach? Yikes!

Think about it. You are going to be lifting weights the rest of your life. Is spending a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars, on a professional fitness trainer, not going to pay you back over and over (for the rest of your life) if you do things correctly right from the start? Definitely! If you start lifting weights incorrectly, get ready to spend the money you saved on a coach for a rehab therapists next vacation! If you don’t get injured now, most likely it will be in the next few years.

7. Stretch Just As Much As You Lift

Stretching is the most under rated physical quality which is unfortunate because shortened muscles perform weaker and slower and have a higher incidence of injury. Stretching is the only physical quality which more is better. Stretching is one of the only habits that can not be over trained.

If you are serious about getting into the world of teen bodybuilding, I encourage you to start this habit early. Most text books teach stretching methods that include 20-30 seconds per stretch. Don’t even waste your time if this is your idea of stretching. From real world, in the trenches, experience, I would suggest stretching at least the same amount of time that you lift. That means, for every 1 hour of weight training you perform, you must balance the effect of weight training with one hour of stretching. Therefore, if you weight train 4 hours in the week, you better be stretching for at least 4 hours in the week. If you are really lazy, start stretching for at least half the amount of time that you lift. After you see the benefits of increased strength, quicker recovery and less injuries I am sure you will have no problem bumping up your stretching sessions to the recommend 1:1 ratio.

Fail to stretch at least the same amount that you lift is almost a sure fire way of shortening a teen bodybuilding career or lifestyle. Remember, weight training shortens and tightens the connective tissue you train. Stretching counters the effect and ensures your muscles have room to grow!

8. Focus On Bodyweight Strength First

It amazes me at how many teen bodybuilders can barely do a set of 40 push ups, 20 chin ups and 30 dips. In my opinion, these are some standard upper body fitness tests that should be accomplished with ease before loading is introduced (it might take your 3 or 4 months to achieve this if you can’t do them right now). I once heard a famous fitness coach say, “You have no freaking business using a load if you can’t stabilize, control, and move efficiently using your own bodyweight.” I would have to fully agree.

What’s the point of a sloppy 150 pound lat pulldown if you can’t do 10 bodyweight pull ups? What’s the point of a 185 pound bench press with microscopic range reps, if you can push up your body a couple dozen times? What’s the point of a 500 pound leg press if you can do a set of one legged squats down to the floor? Believe me, after a few months of conditioning your body to body weight training, you will be blown away by how quickly your weights climb when you introduce loading.

9. Keep Your Workouts Under 1 Hour

Unless you are in a teen bodybuilding competition for the longest workout possible, it bewilders my mind what you could possibly be doing for longer than a hour! Unless you go to the gym for mirror workouts (that’s when you spend more time looking in the mirror than actually lifting)I suggest getting some help with your workout program. If it takes longer than 20-30 minutes of even moderate intensity lifting to fully exhaust a muscle, I have to question your workout intensity. Shorter more intense workouts will always trump longer less intense workouts.

Your goal should be in fact to complete your workout faster and faster. This will force your muscles to condition and adapt to a greater work load. The more work you expose your muscles too, in a shorter amount of time will improve your muscle density. Your bodies ability to tolerate greater workloads.

10. Develop Full Range Of Motion

Initially, teen bodybuilding should involve building strong muscular attachments, tendons, ligaments and bones – text books refer this as anatomical adaptation. Look at building your muscles as the finishing touches on a solid house. You would not want to start framing the house until the foundation has been built. Strengthening your tendons, ligaments and bones would be considered building a strong foundation to build from.

What is the best way to begin a strong foundation for a house to stand on? Build from the bottom up or in our case, from the inside out. This means developing a full range of motion with each weight training exercise to ensure all the muscle fiber gets activated and all the supporting tissues are fully involved.

Think about it. Partial movements will only develop partial muscle. Full movements will develop full muscle. What would get you better results? Squatting 135 pounds with your **** to the floor or squatting 225 pounds for about ¼ of the way? That’s correct, involving the entire range of motion with a lighter weight will involve more musculature, improve your mind-muscle connection quicker and strengthen all the supporting tissues more rapidly. Initially, as a teen bodybuilder, you should never sacrifice range for load.

Conclusion

If you are serious about doing teen bodybuilding safely and effectively than take all of the tips very seriously. Do not pick and choose the ones you wish to follow. They will all result in a long and fruitful bodybuilding lifestyle. To your teen bodybuilding success!



Darrell

Dane Fletcher asked:


Approximately 90% of Americans use a drug on a daily basis. This drug is called caffeine. Most of the people who take any products containing caffeine do so to stay alert and increase their amount of energy. It has been tested for years and years, and unless it is abused by taking more than one gram per day, caffeine is a relatively safe product for the majority of the population. Caffeine does have some side effects that probably would affect bodybuilders before everyone else, both in positive and negative ways.

Limited Muscle Gains

For bodybuilders, this can go either way. Caffeine has been known to deliver a naturally thermogenic effect in the body. There is a problem with this, especially for bodybuilders training and competing at both professional and intermediate levels, which is that the thermogenic effect can also prevent muscle gains. This thermogenic effect keeps the body in a state of increased stimulation and can be very beneficial for making the abs more defined and the veins start to pop out. This also removes the extra calories, which is one of the primary components you need to build new muscle. Caffeine needs to be taken very sparingly if you are in a training period to put on and grow new muscle.

Burning Off the Fat

There is no question that caffeine is a great tool for burning fat. A lot of bodybuilders are using the ECA stack while training, which combines caffeine with ephedrine and aspirin for effective results. But even by itself, caffeine can be used as a powerful tool in order to achieve increased oxidation and a desired thermogenic effect. Using about 200 mg 2 times a day can help out with diet and cardio for burning body fat.

Increased Energy

It has never been debated that caffeine will lead to increased energy. A lot of people use the energy boost of caffeine for simple daily tasks like waking up in the morning or staying alert at their job. Professional bodybuilders on the other hand spend their workday engaging in and out of intense 1-2 hour training sessions, so they use the advantage of this extra energy to increase the results of their workouts.

Increased Mental Clarity

You might not think that bodybuilders would need this to be an advantage, but in fact mental well being is very important for a bodybuilder. The heavy demands placed on the body can borrow resources for recovery, resources normally reserved for mental processes. The training of bodybuilders who know what they’re doing requires a huge amount of counting, measurement, and attention to detail. Caffeine offers huge benefits and advantages in every one of these areas.



Melanie

Adrian Alexa asked:


You might be one of the bodybuilders that are training hard but no results are visible or the rate of development is simply low. In this case we might be dealing with a problem that is not given by your bodybuilding routine but your bad eating habits. They can actually keep weight loss unreachable and even building muscles can become very difficult. Let us take a look at these bad nutritional habits you might be having.

Eating Before Bed – If you want to lose weight it is not a great idea to eat before going to bed. Things get even worse if you are eating bad carbohydrates. Sleep does not come with burning many calories so your body might just turn what you just ate into fat. When eating at night you should rely on vegetables and lean proteins. By eating these at dinner you can eliminate being hungry right before going to bed.

Too Many Processed Carbohydrates – This includes breakfast cereals, fruit juices, candies, breads and different other foods that come with higher than average quantities of sugar. If you do not burn the calories coming from them fast you will see that you end up with fat instead of muscles. Do not misinterpret this piece of information and believe that you need to lose carbohydrates from your diet. The best solution is including carbs in your nutrition at breakfast and directly before the workout.

Not Eating Vegetables – A lot of bodybuilders end up forgetting about vegetables. It does not really matter whether you love them or not because leafy greens, broccoli and asparagus are needed in your diet. Vegetables do come with a lot of vitamins and fiber. They are also harder to digest when compared with protein bars, protein shakes and yogurts. Contrary to popular belief, the food that is harder to digest will eventually make you burn more calories when eating it.

Never Skip Breakfast – This is one huge bodybuilding mistake. If you eat a lot at breakfast you will have all day to burn the calories you took in the morning. If you skip breakfast you will only feel hungrier during the day and you will probably overeat before going to bed. Watch the rule mentioned above and you will see that the combination is not good.

Don’t Get Too Hungry – Do not let your body become to hungry before the next meal. You do need to time the meals so that you eat right before getting too hungry. This will keep you from eating more than you need at every single meal.

Eating Frequency – If you do not eat often enough you will notice that the body will not digest food efficiently. Eating often is crucial to a bodybuilder. You will see that most trainer do recommend that you eat once every three hours and 6 meals per day is better than three. Do not misunderstand this and believe that you should eat more. You should ideally split the three daily meals into 6 and all will fall into place much better.

Bulking Up Does Not Mean Eating Everything – A lot of bodybuilders end up making a crucial mistake during bulk up phase. You do not have to eat as much food as possible in order to build up the muscle you want. High Quality foods must always be your goal and eating too much will generate an excess of fat that will not help you out. You might want to consult a specialist trainer or nutritionist if you think that you can not handle the problems that come with what and how much to eat during bulking up.



Lorraine