Basics of Body Building and Weight Lifting

There are many different myths, facts and approaches on sculpting your body to the way you want it to look. Whether you want to look like a super bulking weight lifter or a lean, cut body builder, the basics of body building must be put into play in order to achieve your goal. Body building can be divided into three main components:

-Diet
-Exercise
-supplements (although not necessary)

DIET:

There are two routes in dieting while you're trying to sculpt your body and this depends on you're desire to become lean/cut or bulk.

To become lean you must pretty much cut out carbs from your diet. Carbs are what slow down your metabolism and tend to retain massive amounts of water which often makes you bloated. The carbs come mainly from the bottom of the food pyramid which includes pastas, bread, and rice. Nevertheless, carbs should be in any diet, just the amount must be controlled when you are "cutting". Your basic diet should include protein (chicken, eggs, tofu, etc... ), fruits and veggies. "Cutting" gets its name because you're trying to cut into your existing muscle in order to make them more visible and pronounced. Diet is in my opinion about 70% of your physique. "You are what you eat" and it's true.

To "bulk" you want to eat as much protein and nutrients as possible in order to maximize your body cell growth in a short amount of time. This is often easier for those who are able to gain weight easily. When bulking you should eat a healthy amount of carbs, proteins, omega-3 oils, vitamins and pretty much everything else you would eaet when cutting but more. You want to "feed" your muscles. Of course, you cannot get your desired physique by simply eating. You must also incorporated a set amount of exercise per week.

EXERCISE:

when it comes to cutting, you can go two routes: You can lift heavy and try to gain as well as cut which takes a long time. Or, you can go light weight and max out your reps. This method will make you very lean/cut but will not maximize your overall size as much as going with heavy weights. Cardio is another story. Cardio includes, anything that maximizes your heart rate and the rate of calories burned. you MUST be careful when incorporating cardio into your exercises when you are trying to bulk/maintain muscle. When trying to maintain muscle but burn fat, you must be within your "fat burn range" which you can calculate using your body weight and age (usually incorporated into most treadmills). As long as you stay within this range you should burn fat while minimizing the energy consumption of your muscle cells. This is why walking is an excellent method to burn fat-your heart rate is not too high. In order to enhance your muscle growth, you may take supplements which give an extra boost.

SUPPLEMENTS:

For muscle mass, it is common to take post workout supplements such as protein powder and creatine. Nevertheless, you should take these supplements over long periods of time to see and keep results. If you take a certain protein powder for a month and all of a sudden stop taking it, your muscle will go into deprivation and will either shrink or feel weaker. One may also take vitamins to enhance certain parts of the body such as glucosamine and arganine. Multivitamins are also beneficial if you are looking to keep all parts of your body healthy. And finally, preworkout supplements are the next largest part of the supplement category. Pre workout powders work as stimulants and pretty much pump your blood faster than it should giving you an "extra lift". Health specialists have tagged these pre workout powders as potentially dangerous and causes for heart attacks and other heart conditions; nevertheless, there is no doubt that these powders work for the majority of body builders.


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