Never give up!

 

You got what it takes, but it will take everything you’ve got!

Changing your body is not something that everybody can do. A lot of people “kinda want it”. “It would be nice if I can achieve it without the effort required.” If it were easy, everybody would do it.

 

In bodybuilding, its all about how bad you want it. There will be pain, its normal. There will be weights that you cannot lift this week, but if you are disciplined and know how to listen to you body, you know your limits and you also know how far out you can push them. There is also a fine line between giving your everything and exhaustion. The body always has to know that future workouts are coming so he overcompensates in advance for the future effort he is expecting.

The secret is consistency, planning, discipline. Without those, you can not go “all in” one day or one month and get results. It’s true that in the beginning period you will be able to notice the most dramatic changes, since the body is also eager to change and imporove.

Afterwards, after a period of a few months of intense work, thats when it becomes difficult, thats when fatigue and soreness comes into play, and you start questioning whether you can keep on doing things or not. Spoiler alert: YOU CAN!

“When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.”

― Eric Thomas, The Secret to Success

Mindset is key to achieving your goals. If you are mentally strong enough to do something, for sure you are physically strong enough to do it.

The importance of a good partner

Starting your journey through bodybuilding is not a process of a day, neither a week, neither a year. Once you’ve started, there is a very long road to just learning the basics. There are certain things that no matter how much anyone who has passed through them tells you about, you will never learn until you experience them yourself.

In the picture we can see Arnold Schwarzenegger and Franco Colombo at their peak training together.

There are days and days in the life of a bodybuilder. There are days in which you feel unmotivated, there are days in which you feel sore, there are days in which other aspects of your life could take the priority. But we all have the same 24h, and its just a matter of what you do with them. A gym partner is crucial in keeping your standards up all the time, forcing you to improve and always give you feedback through other eyes than yours. Constructive criticism will always get you to a better version of yourself day-by-day.

Achieving something together with someone else builds the friendship between the two people and allows you to develop a friend for a lifetime. It is true that its not easy to find a gym partner that you workout with, but never stop looking. You attract what you are!

 

 

 

Bulking and cutting

In the picture we have Jay Cutler, classic old school bodybuilder. Bodybuilders have to go through different phases in order to gain so much body mass. It is impossible to gain just muscles without gaining any fat (if someone does suspect him of steroid use).

That’s why bodybuilders have a period they call “bulking”. Usually bulking is done in autumn and winter, because obviously you wanna cut for the summer body. While bulking your aim is to gain as much muscles as possible, but you acknowledge that you will put on a layer of fat as well. The weights that are lifted in this period are usually greater than in the cutting phase, and the repetitions are less. What makes bulking easier than cutting is the diet you have to respect with each. While bulking, it is not so important to calculate every calorie you take in, but rather to give your body enough energy to grow, maybe even more sometimes.

In the cutting period what bodybuilders try to achieve is burning down the un-wanted fat that came along with the mass you’ve gained in the bulking period. The cutting period is characterised by dropping down the weights and doing more repetitions, trying to get the muscle to get more ripped and also get rid of more fat than normal. A certain kind of cardio is made while lifting weights in a fast manner, but muscle mass in not lost.

 

In conclusion, both bulking and cutting are necessary for a great physique, and they should be gone through and respected. If done properly, it is impossible that you do not gain mass and afterwards lose the fat. Lately, more and more people recommend that you start with a cutting session, so you start off with less fat overall. Afterwards go get the mass of the bulk,and then cut down the fat again, to get the desired body.

Bodybuilding vs Powerlifting

I can’t stress it enough how people don’t understand the difference between bodybuilding and powerlifting. Long story short, body building is about contracting the muscle while powerlifting is about moving the weight.

Notice that in bodybuilding, you always try to isolate the muscle and make him do as much work as possible on its own. On the other hand, in powerlifting usually more groups of muscles are used in order to move a way bigger weight.

Even though they are different sports, they can be practiced by the same person.

A bodybuilder will always have to train his muscle to failure in order to achieve the sculpting of the body that is the final objective. On the other hand, powerlifters are not so concerned about their looks, but training their muscles for as much strength as possible in way less reps than a bodybuilder. Form is not so important for a powerlifter, but for a bodybuilder is everything because a correct form of exercise dictates the future shape of the muscle you’re pumping

You would say that a muscle that is bigger in shape should be stronger in abilities. This is not always true and it can be vice-versa, depending on each person individually. It always depends for what you have been training your muscle before. So you might a see a bodybuilder that is “huge” and he might not have a very big mass-to-strength conversion, and you might see a powerlifter that does not look impressive from a social point of view but will probably lift a bigger weight than the bodybuilder.

Different types of bodies

Each man is born with a different type of body. Stocky men (endomorphs) are usually better at lifting weights. Athletic guys (mesomorphs) are the ones with skinny waist but still broad shoulders. Skinny guys (ectomorphs) make the best runners, since they are slim and their muscles are “long”. It is important to know what you are predisposed to, by acknowledging  the advantages and disadvantages of each of the three types of bodies.

 

Endomorphs are the type of people that look at food and already gain weight. They are very strong generally, but also carry a lot of extra body weight due to the slow metabolism. They are blocky, have wide tights and waist, thick rib cage and usually shorter limbs.

 

Mesomorphs are characterised by wide clavicles, narrow waist, thinner joints and long and round muscles. They are the type of people best suited for bodybuilding, at least from the aestethic point of view. They are able to gain muscular mass quickly, but still need to be careful with their calorie intake.

 

Ectomorphs are the marathon runners. At least they would do it with less preparation than and endomorph. They are usually skinny guys that don’t gain any fat whatever they eat, but they also have a hard time gaining mass. Shoulders are as broad as the waist, smaller arms, and the chest is also smaller than an mesomorph.

 

Importance of lifting weights

 

 

A lot of people chose to work their body without lifting weights. Ive heard reasons such as “I don’t want to become bulky” or “I don’t want to be a bodybuilder”. But lifting certain weights is crucial for your muscles in order for them to develop how they would want to.

 

Lifting weights makes men get a bigger look, with wide shoulders and slimmer waist. Its also nice to see muscles on your arms and even legs.

 

Now let’s look at things from the perspective of someone with extra weight and he wants to lose it. If he choses to do it without lifting weights, he will have a lot of loose skin and his body will maybe not even look better. Lifting weight will make your muscles more defined, so even your skin looks better. `You feel better overall and it helps you in other day by day activities. This brings us to the strength part, which I believe is essential to develop for anyone. Not lifting weights takes away the opportunity from your body to develop and grow stronger. Now it doesn’t matter if you curl dumbbells in the gym or throw pieces of wood around in forest, but the muscle has to contract and stretch and push the limits every time you workout.

Exercise changes lives

Unbeatably changing your body for the better can change your life in a lot of different ways for the better. Ironically enough, moving our bodies gives us more energy. So if you are being always “tired” maybe you should hit the gym and change the situation.

 

Bodybuilding can give you a boost of confidence, makes you feel better about your overall image and that’s for a reason: because changing requires discipline, which can later be applied for a lot of things after mastered through exercise. Fitness also strengthens your bones, because they become stronger in response to having to support certain wrights

 

Health wise, exercise fastens your metabolism and improves the immune system. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps is knows to eat a lot, way more calories than a normal human being would eat daily, and still he is not fat, he is an Olympic champion. It all depends on how you spend the energy you get in. While working out, you clean bacteria from out of the lungs, decreasing your changes of getting sick or catching other diseases.

 

Exercise is a reflection of character and personal values. You always have to chose between what you want now and what you want the most. It takes strength both mentally and physically to maintain your workout and diet routine through all the temptations. If you are able to push through, you will be left with a mindset that will be stuck to you for life and will be useful in a lot of other things.

 

Why protein is important

Protein is made up of amino acids which are the building blocks of muscle. Having enough protein intake is essential for optimum muscle growth, even though some people should eat way more protein. When you workout, the muscle tears apart because its been worked. Afterwards, it starts the process of recovering and preparing for future workouts. Then it needs protein in order to do so.

 

Combining protein with vegetables, milk products and sees is essential for reaching the body that you want.

 

A person should eat 2g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day in order to obtain muscle growth.

 

Drinking water is also very important. It will help the digestion to function properly, so that enzymes don’t remain on the stomach tissue.

 

Without protein, we would not be able to develop our muscles in any kind of way. That’s how important protein is to a good looking body and a healthy lifestyle

 

Everything depends on your objective

 

While starting to work on your body there are certain approaches that you can take,. Those were the ‘objectives’ I kept on talking about before. The main ones would be powerlifting, bodybuilding or crossfit. Those are three different types of bodies you can chose to work for.

Each require a different type of training in matter of time, intensity, and habits. Each requires a certain type of diet to respect. What they all have in common is that they require motivation and consistency.

 

Powerlifting is the sport in which athletes attempt to lift as much weight as possible. The bodies of powerlifters are bulky and massive, usually with very wide core and tights, also strong legs. The diet of a powerlifter is mainly based on protein but also there is a huge carbohydrates intake as they need more power to push more weight. This leads to also more body fat percentage.

Bodybuilding is the sport in which you need to contract the muscle while moving the weight. The objective for bodybuilders is to isolate the muscle in order to make blood go through it. The muscle has to be stretched on the bottom of the movement and flexed on the top on the movement. A bodybuilder’s diet is very structured and planned, calories are counted to the last one.

Crossfit is another approach to build your body that is more athletic and slim in composition. Crossfit relies on original movements of bodybuilding done in a very intense way and against the clock. It brings a lot of cardio as you move the weight in such a fast rhythm