Bodybuilding 101 by ‘Mike123’

1. Training/working out.

There is generally two types of workouts, cardio and lifting. Sure there's a grayscale to it but for the simplicity lets consider them as seperate. But I am getting ahead of myself, first some background.

Your body has muscles and adipose tissue(fat for you geniuses), now why on earth would you ever need anything like that? Simple, on planet earth and most known universe there is a force called gravity. Mass attracts mass etc, no need to get into the physics of it. In order to move and operate in our 3dimensional space we will have to deal with the gravity of earth(and moon to a miniscule extent). That is why we have muscles. Muscles generate the force we need to move about on planet earth. Muscles is in other words our body's adaption to mother gravity. That means when we experience 0 gravity for extended periods of time our muscles atrophy(astronauts anyone?), in reverse if we live on jupiter which has X times earth gravity we'd be much beefier. Luckily for us we've figured out a way to simulate resistance on our muscles without having to go live on another planet. This brings us to our first rule.

Rule#1 Your body will try to adapt to whatever you put it through. You will become best at what physical activity you do. In example a powerlifter can outrun a 100yard dash sprinter for the first 3 seconds, since through his squats his thighs have developed an ability to generate a huge amount of force surpassing that of a sprinter for 3 seconds. Same goes for the sprinter, even if he is bigger pound for pound than the powerlifter he probably wont have the ability to outsquat the powerlifter. Poundage, size and apperance of the physique matters little when it comes to physical performance. This is important for athletes involved in teamsports or other popular sports, the gym workouts need to be specified and simulate exact types of movements the athlete will do in his sport, otherwise its a "waste of workout".

Muscles consist of protein, which is basically a number of aminoacids bunched together in some fashion. Protein however is also used by your body in most connective tissue, cellconstruction, immunesystem, fingernails/hair etc. Protein is in fact vitally important for your body, thing is if you dont exercise you probably get sufficient protein through your diet. More on that in the dietsection. Musclefiber has a range between two types of musclefiber, fasttwitching and slowtwitching. The difference is heard in their name, fasttwitching generate force quickly by not relying on oxygen. It burns stored energy thats readily available but also quickly expendable. Thus you will need to rest before you can reuse the musclefibers to their full capacity. This type of fiber is associated with powerlifters and weightlifters. It's also the type of fiber that will yield you the greatest size. Slowtwitching fiber relies heavily on oxygen and is most prominent among endurance athletes. Ofcourse its not as simple as this more likely than not most people have both types of fibers in their muscle.

So what about fat? Well fat is your faminereserve of energy. Humans in our world werent always this wellfed and their foodsupply could be seasonal. Meaning in the summer there'd be an abundance of food, but in the winter there'd be a lack of food. Basically any calorie you dont burn off will be transformed into fat and stored as adiposetissue. Fat can grow indefinitively, there is no restriction as to how fat you can become(if you dont count dying as a result of your fat as the limit). Fat also packs twice the amount of energy as carbohydrates and proteins, more on that in the nutrition section. Fat is important and vital to your health aswell, your brain consists of a large deal of fat, an array of hormones are made out of fat etcetera. Fat is also the biggest enemy against having a sixpack ab, most people have that sixpack, its just hidden underneath the fat.

Allright, so what am I supposed to do in the gym? What am I supposed to workout? Anything you find pleasurable. If theres a trackpool and you like swimming do that, if theres a heavybag and jumprope then do that. If you like the stairmaster or free weights then do that. The important thing is that YOU ARE WORKING OUT and YOU ARE ENJOYING YOURSELF.

## Those of you who wish to become big beefy bulked read this section otherwise skip. To become big and beefy you need to focus on heavy freeweight lifting. No machines, no 12 repetitions, no prancing around with 5lbs dumbells. Repetitions should range from 3-6 and with the occasional maximum-1-repetition thrown in for good fun. That means you should go as heavy that you will fail at 3 to 6 repetitions. You should also focus on freeweights as you will have to balance the weight against gravity, remember I mentioned gravity above? Choose exercises that involves more than one musclegroup at once(in other words shun away from isolation/musclespecific-exercises).

The reason for multiple-muscle-exercises and freeweights is because the more muscles that are involved in the exercise the more intense the message will be to your body to adapt. Thus your body will attempt much more to adapt by releasing/producing a higher number of anabolic(musclebuilding) hormones. GrowthHormone secretion has been found to be highest after squats than any other resistance exercise. Squats with no doubt involves most musclegroups.

"But isnt squats a leg exercise? I dont want big legs I want big guns and pecs!". True, squats are for the legs, but dont forget it stresses the back and legs and most of your body. Also remember that your legs and back constitute for 2/3rds of your body's total musclemass. More muscle damaged more muscle to repair more hormones to secret more anabolic state. You get the picture dont you? Nothing wrong in doing isolationexercises IN COJUNCTION with for example squats. If you want huge guns then do triceps kickbacks and curls and immediately followup with some heavy squats.

A common mistake is to go too heavy too soon, if you've never stepped into the gym before there is a minimum 2month adjustion period where you can by all means do squats and other freeweight multiplemuscle exercises but focus on your form and LIGHT weight. This is not because youre not strong enough, its for your tendons. Your knees and elbows will thank you later if you take it easy in the beginning. Afterall whats the point of working out if its detrimenal to your health? You should work the entire body, dont skip some muscles because theyre too big already. Your body WILL sculpt itself proportionately if you work the entire body in time. Have the patience.

Get beefy workoutchecklist;
1. Only freeweights!
2. Exercises that involves more than one musclegroup!
3. Always have a squatter!
4. Safety first!
5. Work ALL musclegroups no matter how unsymmetrical you are.

## Those of you who wish to become slim shredded vascular read this section otherwise skip. To become slim, shredded, vascular you need to lose fattissue located right beneath your skin. Most of us have large welldeveloped beautiful abs, unfortunately theyre covered in fat and not visible. Whats the right way to workout to lose fat? Well some might say cardio, some might say morningwalks. Frankly anything is fine. However if you want to lose fat and minimize muscleloss you have to be abit more picky about your workouts. When your body is not getting enough energy through food it will lose muscle, however when the energyloss becomes too great in comparison to foodintake the body will start to shed muscle. Why? Well if the energydeficiency is minimal the body can support it with its fatreserves, if the energydeficiency is too much the body will get rid of the components of your body that are demanding energy, in other words your muscles. On top of that any endurance heavy type of exercise will make your body adapt by switching to slowtwitching smallsized musclefibers and your sizeloss will be even greater. Luckily for you they've found that heavy resistance training(AKA lifting) has been shown to increase your metabolism(and fatburning) to a higher total extent over the course of 24-36 hours following the workout. Thus its not ALL bad to lift heavy, in fact its recommended over cardio. If you still want cardio there's a middleground to be had. HIIT, High Intensity Interval Training. Sprint 30 seconds jog 30 seconds and so on for 5-15 minutes is a basic outlay for HIIT. You do cardio but vary intensity in intervals. 15 minutes is usually enough but dont beat yourself if you cant last the first time you try.

2. Diet.

Diet is SUPER SUPER SUPER SUPER important! I can't stress diet enough, its MORE important than working out. Without your diet incheck and personalized to your goals you will get NOWHERE! Alot of people say "80% of bodybuilding is diet", nothing could be closer to the truth. In fact I will say that 80% of CHANGING YOUR BODY's COMPOSITION(either way) is through diet. Afterall every 7 years or so your body has completely changed all its cells, you are literally a "new person"

Basics;
-Protein and fat is basically found in any dead animal or derivative of animal(eggs, milk etc).
-Carbohydrates are found in plants and anything that taste sweet(not nutrasweet though).
-Most animals contain fat thats bad for you in large numbers, most fat from plants contain fats that are good for you even in
-large numbers. Cholesterol is bad in large numbers but is NECESSARY for your wellbeing and testosteroneproduction.
-Testosterone is important for your muscles to grow.
-Fruits contain carbs and some vitamins/fiber.
-Vegetables contain fiber and vitamins/minerals and some carbs.

## Those of you who wish to bulk up read this. Diet is important in bulking up too. You need to eat more energy than you expend. You need to eat more protein than the average person. Those are the hard truths of bulking up. As a result you can expect a few unwanted pounds of fat that are inevitable for anyone bulking up. However they dont have to be alot of pounds. A good rule of thumb is to eat 500 more calories a day than you burn off. As for protein you should consume 1gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. You should ALSO continually check your bodyweight every week and adjust your calorieintake and proteinintake as you go. NUMBER ONE REASON GUYS HIT PLATEUS IN THEIR WORKOUT IS UNDEREATING. Think about it, as you get stronger in the gym you increase the weightload in your exercises right? well do you increase the amount of food you eat too? You should! More bodymass equals higher maintenance costs. Usually in the bulking up phase you dont need any supplements such as proteinsupplements. You can eat enough meat, fish, chicken, eggs, milk all you want and get enough protein and calories. I also recommend you do so. Trick here is to eat ALOT , large, go out of your comfortzone and eat meals that make your stomach hurt, do so continually throughout the day. Dont worry your stomach will adapt so you will manage to down larger and larger meals. Ever wonder why farmers feed their cattle/poultry with antibiotics? It replaces their immunesystem, so the protein that goes to maintaining an immunesystem goes into other things, such as anabolism(musclebuilding). Thus they grow more beefy, faster. Needless to say anyone who tries this to gain some in the gym is a dumbass and should be infected with Multiple Drug Resistant Bacteria.

## Those of you who wish to get slim, shredded read this. Diet is KEY to fatloss, in fact you could lose fat through diet alone. Rule here is eat less calories, but in moderation. Too much and your muscles will go before the fat. I recommend -500 calories a day. Pay close attention to your workouts and the amount of calories youre expending through those aswell. Protein should be kept high at 1-2g/lbs to ensure minimal muscleloss. You should divide your meals into more frequent smaller meals, 7-8 meals a day is good. This is to keep the metabolism up and trick the body into believing there is an abundance of food available so it doesnt slip into starve-mode and tries to hang on to every ounce of bodyfat it has. Avoid carbrich meals late since your metabolism slows down before you go to bed and during your sleep.


Reply from 'ijjjji':

Great post. Thanks! Spot on about nutrition!

Your knowledge on fat is slightly inaccurate:
-Saturated fat (animal, coconut etc) is healthy.
-Hardened vegetable fat (margarine, hydrogenated) must be avoided.
-Omega 6 (soy, sunflower etc) should be used in moderation.
-Omega 3 (fish, flax etc) is super healthy if good quality.

Omega 3 and 6 oxidizes easily if heated (going from healthy to unhealthy) so:
-Only buy cold pressed oils and never heat them.
-Fry only with lard/butter or saturated plant oils like coconut/peanut.

You only need a few grams of omega 3 a day. Make sure its top quality!

I would add a bit on hormones and avoiding catabolic state. Catabolic state is when your body draws energy from digesting its own muscle mass and tries to store fat. The body start doing this if:
-Lack of sleep
-Stress (reduced sleep quality)
-Hunger (eating few meals or eating too little)
-Over training*
-Dehydration

*Over training is most often caused by under eating. Newbies rarely realize how much food the body needs to repair all the micro-damage from lifting heavy. That or they eat so much protein that that digestion slows way down and fail to draw enough nutrients from what they eat.

Great post man! Keep up the great work!!!