Bodybuilding

Bodybuilding

Bodybuilding is an art form. Art is representative of the individual and their viewpoint on life. Muscle on top of muscle is the name of the game these days. Nutrition is very important for competitive bodybuilders. Sculpting the body is hard work and this work requires fuel. Adding pounds and pounds of muscles requires materials for construction. The configuration must be interesting to scrutinize. The comparison of physiques is extremely subjective. Training for physique competitions can be rewarding and heart-breaking at the same time. Training for years just to have someone, who looks as if they have never trained a day in their life, tell you that you are not good enough seems terrifying to me. I prefer strength. You lift the weight or you do not. Opinion does not enter the equation. Appearance based training is at the very basic level of most training programs. Watch an American football game this fall. Someone will do a most muscular pose, or a double biceps pose, after making a respectable play I promise.

In the strength world bodybuilding movements are accessory work. Dissecting a larger movement and strengthening a part of the system is where these movements were created. Let’s say you are rounding the middle back in the middle of your squats. We must develop these muscles with a lighter weight on the squat and/or do a separate movement to bring them up to par. We have options to choose from. We can take a foam roller and do the Cobra which develops the lower traps and mid back extensors with little compressive force applied to the back structures. We can do rounded back good mornings and bear an extra weight while extending the middle back. There are a great number of assistance movements we can choose from. None of them are secret. Managing them can be a formidable task. Variety is over-emphasized in the training world. If another’s opinion is considerable I would not want to take a chance and be judged injudiciously. Train to support the movements in practice. Practice makes the systems perform automatically. If the movement is ugly the physique is ugly. This is a strength athlete’s perspective all the same. Always remember, I am a strength athlete and a strength coach. I base my judgments on performances.

Most Americans believe muscular size equals strength. It that were true bodybuilders would be the strongest people on earth. They are not that strong. They look as strong as a bull. Most middle-weight weightlifters and powerlifters can outperform physique stars in the basic movements anytime anywhere. Muscle size is a matter of accommodation. After a certain amount of work the system adds muscle allowing a refinement of the nervous system to a lesser activation pattern. A motor unit is the motor neuron and all of the muscle fibers (cells) it initiates. If the system involved includes 100 MUs and the labor is not obviously going away the system adds muscle in harmony with the type of work organized. High repetitive work adds all the components of the sarcoplasmic reticulum. This is the component of the muscle cell which manufactures energy. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is mostly fluid. This fluid is called myoglobin. It is viscous and supports metabolism. If the volume of work is lower, per set of repetitions, the muscle system adds contractile proteins. These proteins are actin and myosin. These filaments entwine like a twist tie on a loaf of bread bonded by calcium. Sodium allows calcium into the muscle cell. Calcium binds the contractile proteins until the calcium is no longer available. Potassium releases this bond and the calcium from the muscle cell. This is why people with hypertension avoid sodium. A muscle contracts as long as calcium is present. If potassium is not available the muscle contracts incessantly. A cramp is what happens when potassium and sodium are not in the proper ratio. Anyway, we want a muscle to relax after a contraction. We also want hypertrophy to be myofibrillar rather than sarcoplasmic.  Add useful muscle rather than getting a pump. Weightlifters and powerlifters end a workout when they get a pump. It is incompetence. The pump is a systemic inability to clear waste from the structure.

Sculpting is subjective as well. The artist must have a good eye for aesthetics. If the pecs do not flow “properly” from the delts the appearance looks wrong. This is why bodybuilders need to be artists. Making the systems flow in a beautiful way is subjective and difficult with unannounced changes in opinions and standards. Whew! It makes me disillusioned just writing it. Stay strong physique brethren! The strength world is with you even if the camps clash habitually.

Nutrition is very important for physique competitors. Supply and demand. The physique competitor needs to add muscle perpetually. The sculptor needs to augment with a sharp attention to detail. It may be more difficult if the system allows effortless gains to one structure and another is lagging and onerous to enhance. If someone needs to get their nutrition inline I send them to a bodybuilder when a well-defined diligence is called for. I am type 1 diabetic, 45 years and still running strong, so I know more than most about nutrition. If someone cannot or will not be disciplined with nutrition I send them to a licensed dietician or a bodybuilder; in that order. Nutrition is the only way to manipulate bodyweight safely and effectively. Cardiovascular training is for the heart and lungs. Strength training is for strength. Nutrition supplies the building blocks, fuel, and is the tool used for bodyweight management.

Appearance based training, building muscular size for its own sake, assistance movements, sculpting, nutrition, and muscular balance are what bodybuilding is all about. These things enter the strength athlete’s world to varying degrees. Physique competitions are demanding to say the least. Strength is the foundation of sculpting the form also. If we are strong on basic, foundational, movements we are more capable of manipulating the aesthetics as well. How easy is it to curl a 65lbs dumbbell if deadlifting 315lbs is difficult? Would that same curl be easier if the deadlifts went up to 405lbs? Yes, it will be easier!

Get stronger and look better!                                                                            docsgym@live.com