Body Building

There's an old saying that dates back decades which applies to everything in life; "those who fail to plan, plan to fail. And so it is with body building. As in everything, if you don't have a 'blueprint', a guide, a structured plan to achieve success in body building, you are setting yourself up for failure.

I'm 59 years of age, and still get compliments on my physique as if I looked 40. That's because I still train at home on occassion. But when I use to train in gyms, it would amaze me seeing the same people, over and over again, slaving away and never getting any results. A few would quit body building only to come back a few months later, and quit all over again until you never saw them again.

That's the way it is for the majority of people who go to gyms, and that's how gyms make their money. Not so much on the one time yearly membership that a guy or girl fully enjoys, but on the volume of members that come body building and go. It's not that these people lack will power or motivation, it's just that they never took the time to gain the proper knowledge about body building.

Body building is not just about pushing heavy objects around, it's much more structured than that. I use to panic and still do when I see young kids in the local gym provided by our town, weighing in between 95 - 110 lbs., afraid they're going to break something. Actually, I remember popping the cartillage of my left elbow when lifting too heavy, and went 3 months into physiotherapy in agonizing pain.

The first thing on your list of priorities of body building has nothing to do with pushing weights in a gym. It is are you eating enough of the proper foods before even you begin body building? Imagine you're hardly eating 1500 calories a day, and you begin body building (burning calories you can't afford to burn), and you want to build muscle...No, no, no...It just won't work!

A basic law of body physiology is, in order to get big you must consume more calories than you burn. Logical isn't it? Just think of people who are obese. They consume more calories than they burn, and all the wrong ones at that. Following which, the workout is the key that sparks the muscle growth. But, this is not where the growth takes place, it is just the 'spark' as in the spark required to ignite an engine, you're igniting the process.

It is after the workout that the muscle growth happens in body building, whlie you are resting and eating. The body takes the nutrients from the foods and starts repairing the damaged muscles, damaged by pushing weights. When you are pushing weights, you're actually tearing and stretching muscle in minute increments (not enough to harm you unless you overdo it as in my elbow). When you rest and eat, it repairs itself but in the torn and stretched state, hence a bigger muscle. If you don't provide your body with enough nutrients, this simply does not take place.

So the first week, prior to body building training, is to get use to eating more calories before you hit the gym. The rule of thumb in body building is that you should consume 15 - 20 times your body weight in calories per day. Imagine training on 1200 calories a day, an impossible feat to build muscle. if you weigh 150 lbs, multiplied by 15, you should be consuming 2250 calories. If you times it by 20, it's 3000 calories.

In your plan to body building success, you should get use to a new calorie intake by eating every 2 - 3 hours throughout the day which ia about 6 meals a day, with the focus being on building body mass not fat. You do this by consuming the right kinds of calories such as high quality protein which you find in red meat, poultry, fish, eggs, skim milk, cottage cheese, peanuts, and whey protein.

You'll also want to eat high fiber, low calorie foods such as oatmeal, yams, brown rice, and whole wheat bread.

Finally, while body building you must always be hydrated, which means plenty, plenty of good water.

Jon G. Michel is a successful webmaster and advocate of a healthy lifestyle. Body Building is one of the best forms of staying healthy known to man. Learn the secrets to the best body building methods. For more exciting reviews visit http://www.reliablereviews.net