Life of a bodybuilder: some interesting facts

Did you know that bodybuilders have to ingest more than 1g of protein per pound of body weight? Or that they need to eat every 2-3 hours? Did you know that they go to the gym a lot, but you will be surprised how long they stay in the gym and what they do there? Thought I’d write a quick article to shed some light on a few things bodybuilders do.

Most people think of bodybuilders or bodybuilding as a brutal sport full of big, dumb, insensitive louts trying to make up for something and carrying a serious inferiority complex with them. Have you seen the recent hit on bodybuilders by Planet Fitness lately? In it they portray anyone with big muscles as dumb fools. Well, maybe some are like that, but you can say the same about many people from all walks of life.

A bodybuilder has an incessant need to work his body, sculpt his body if you will, by using resistance training in a work of art. A hard, chiseled body, perfect in shape and symmetry and based on a healthy diet. In fact, a bodybuilder’s diet is truly amazing. Contains a low fat, high protein, complex carbohydrates and tons of vegetables. All food cooked to perfection with no added salt or fat. It may not be the most exciting diet to live on, but it serves you well in the body department.

Common Bodybuilding Myths:

#one – The bodybuilder goes to the gym all day and almost every day of the week. This is simply not true. Most serious professional bodybuilders and amateurs alike will hit the gym 3-5 days a week and typically for about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes at a time if they are training alone. They learned long ago that if you train past this point, the body releases cortisol and only uses your new hard-earned muscle for fuel instead of carbs or fat as it should. Train for an hour, go home…grow up.

#2 – All giant bodybuilders are in the juice. Is not true. With new advances in supplements and a better overall understanding of the body’s functions with regard to muscle growth and fitness, natural athletes have entered new ground in muscle building.

3# – Bodybuilders go to the gym and train their whole body during their workout. It is usually like this; Go to the gym, work out your chest and maybe a part of your arm (either biceps or triceps), hit it from every possible angle. Do about 30 sets of exercises in total. Go home. Come back the next day or the day after, do legs, go home, etc. This grows a lot on your muscles.

4#- All that muscle will turn to fat if they stop exercising. Again, not true. First of all, muscle cannot be converted to fat. Fat is fat and muscle is muscle. Also, most bodybuilders keep most of their muscles forever. Once it grows, it stays. Sure they can be made smaller. Muscle can shrink, but you’d be surprised how much remains forever. Normally, just overeating with inactivity will make you fat.

Here are some other facts that are interesting. Your muscle grows while you sleep. Working out in the gym with heavy lifting will break down the muscle. The bodybuilder goes home and eats properly and then while resting (especially sleeping) the muscles will grow to compensate for the lifting. Another fact that is interesting is that a typical natural bodybuilder will only gain 8 lbs. of muscle in his body each year. Yes, there are some stories of lifters who went from 20 to 30 pounds. a year, but firstly, that’s not all muscle and secondly, some are enhanced bodybuilders and get a little help with a needle. A natural bodybuilder can gain up to 25 or even 30 pounds of muscle in a lifetime of lifting. And believe it or not, this looks like a ton of muscle. Huge, powerful, hard and dense muscles packed into a frame. Think 175 lbs. skinny guy and now thinks he weighs 205 lbs. or even more if genetics and proper training come into play.

Well, I could go on with this a bit longer, but I thought some of the basic facts would be interesting to someone who hasn’t lifted weights yet. Here’s a tip. Don’t worry about going to the gym getting too big. You’re not going to get as big as Arnold Schwarzenegger just by working out in the gym. If you could, a lot of people would do it and we’d have like 200 million rich (bodybuilding) Mr. Olympias running all over the planet. It just doesn’t work that way. If you want to start lifting weights, get a trainer or read about it and do it. You’ll get hard in all the right places and you won’t look like the giants in the popular muscle-building magazines. Trust me.