Good Body Building Foods

Our bodies are complex machines, which demand to be looked after in the best way possible. This means that you have to put the right kind of food, in the right quantities, into it and at the same time show some kind of respect to limits – there is no point hammering away in the gym when you have a pulled muscle because it won’t build as well as it could, and your body will not thank you for the extra pain. Bear in mind that body building exercise has at least three stages – preparation, activity and recovery. For each of those stages you will need to follow the rules in order to benefit.

To begin with you will need good “energy food” which allows you to maintain the workout. This includes – indeed, is dominated by – carbohydrates, or “carbs” as they are often referred to. This food is like the gasoline that makes a car run, and is there in such foods as rice, pasta, bread and potatoes. It is exactly the kind of food that, without an exercise regime, can make you put on weight. This makes it extra important that you are thorough with the exercise element of your body-building plan.

You will also need proteins. Mostly these come in the form of meat (it must be lean meat) and dairy products. This is the muscle-building part of the diet – think of it as the tune-up that gets extra performance out of your car and gives it that extra grunt. Lean beef or pork – not sausages, and if you want a burger it should be 100% beef – as well as eggs and milk are great sources of protein.

What Should You Eat?

If you ever watch strongman competitions on the television, you will often see the contestants in a typical clichéd pose next to a kitchen table with their typical daily diet spread over it. Frequently this will include several chickens, enough pasta to feed a family for a week, lots of energy drinks and plenty of veg. Often it will also include some burgers and similar fast food. This is often taken as a sign that these guys can eat as much as they want, and an invitation to the potential bodybuilder to just keep pigging out. The good news is that these guys do generally eat the stuff they say they do. But wait for the bad news.

The fact is that these guys are generally pulling trucks over distances that the average human being would find it hard to carry a couple of liters of milk. To get to the level where you are doing that, you need to be in such prime physical condition that to maintain it requires a routine of physical training that would make the Navy Seals shudder. And to keep up that level of training requires a whole lot of energy.

For the beginning body builder, the opportunity for burgers, fries and sugar-filled drinks will be limited. Meat must be grilled, and come with the fat cut off, at least to begin with. Essentially, when looking at the kitchen table next to that strongman, you can subtract all of the “fun food” and bear in mind that until you have taken your training up a level, you will need to favor the less "exciting” stuff.

Where to start?

When people take up body building it is usually as a result of seeing the impressive physiques of the professionals – whether those professionals be pro body builders, weight lifters, boxers or any other kind. It is natural to see the power that such a physique gives to an individual and want to have the same thing. It is also, unfortunately, something that is beyond many of us and at the very least will require years of committed training for the rest of us. When you are starting out, the goal that you are chasing is still some time off. There is a lot of groundwork to lay down first.

Put simply, the early stages of a body building regime will be about getting toned rather than really building muscle. In order to get to the point where you can even hope to start lifting the big weights, you need to start with smaller ones. It is about progression. Trying to do too much too soon will have the sole result of causing injury, and once that happens you will be in no position to do any training at all. It is more important to pace yourself and prepare for the hard work to come.

Some of us are naturally built more slender than others. That being the case, there is no need to assume the slender ones cannot build themselves up a few levels. In actual fact, a slender physique can be advantageous in the early days of body building, as it allows one to move more sharply and quickly – something which is important in building up those reps.

Small weights first!

The most important lesson that you can absorb before you take up body building is that there is such a thing as too much, too soon. All of us are keen to do something impressive, whichever field it is in. When taking up body building, especially if you do it at a gym, it is common to see guys whose biceps are thicker than your thighs. The natural response to this is to wish to match them lift for lift. But the natural result of that is that you will end up in hospital with all sorts of muscle problems. Early on, stick to the small weights.

Those guys with the huge biceps have been body building - and sticking to a daily routine - for years, often longer than a decade. It is unsurprising that they are so well built. To them, lifting the weights is like breathing, and their muscles have reached a stage where they can move the weights without any massive effort. Early on, the more basic weights will be more than enough to exert some effort on your muscles, and this is how you get toned.

Try to run before you can walk and you’ll end up on the floor – and if you thought the muscle bound guys were laughing at you before, you wait until they see you knock yourself flat trying to lift your own body weight. A little light mocking will be as nothing compared with that kind of shame, trust us.

Design a Routine For You

It is easy to be distracted by the hulking physiques of people who have been doing the routines for years, and to want to match up with what they are doing. Unless, however, you want to spend more time recovering than exercising, it is important to ignore what anyone else is doing and get on with designing your own routine, one you can stick to and which gives you pronounced results. It may not match up with what the experts are doing, but they’ve got a head start on you. Concentrate on what you have to do and you’ll be in good shape.

The word “building” is quite appropriate. When it comes to getting into the condition you want, it is not something that happens overnight. You need to lay down foundations on which to improve. If your muscles are flabby or non-existent, there is no way that you can just do a bit of work to get them into the shape that the professionals have. You will need to get them into decent shape first before aiming any higher. As long as you pay attention to this, then you will be fine.

To really do it right, it is important to take account of the long-term nature of a body building regime. Starting off with light training to achieve condition, then adding steadily until you are in the shape that you have coveted for some time, it will always be a long game. But it will be better for you, and you will not have to worry about picking up long-term injuries.

Don’t Work Through the Pain

There is a lot of talk devoted to “feeling the burn” when training. This is when you feel a substantial amount of pain and carry on exercising, as in some people’s estimation it won’t work if it doesn’t hurt. While there is some element of truth in this – if something is not physically demanding it is worthless as an exercise – it should not be confused with exercising on through the pain. If you pick up a weight and instantly feel pain, just carrying on is the worst thing you can do. In all likelihood, you have torn a muscle and need to stop.

When you have a demanding training regime the chances are you will pick up small muscle tears quite regularly. Muscles are made of quite flexible material which allows them the room to move without which they would be useless. As a result, major exertion will cause some tearing in the muscle, but there is a difference between types of tearing. Some repair themselves overnight if rested, but a larger one will take time and treatment. Exercising while carrying one of those will only aggravate it and eventually, it will stop you training or doing much at all.

While some people may view exercising on through an injury as a sign of commitment and strength, it will end up being just the opposite. Taking a rest every once in a while is a clear necessity, and taking one when you are too sore to continue is an absolute non-negotiable. Work smart – it is just as important as working hard in the long run.

Warming Up

There is an attitude among some part-time body builders that someone who hits the gym and goes straight for the heaviest weights is a “hero”, a real above and beyonbd the call of duty guy. This is a fairly dumb attitude to take because, without warming up and down, a body building routine will do very little for you. In actual fact, going for the big weights before you are ready to lift them will destroy any of the good work that you do. A little bit of thought is required before you really go for it.

Warming up is a big part of a body building routine. Generally taking the form of some stretches before you get into the meat of the routine, it means the muscles will be in shape to handle the harder work you are about to put them through. Picking up weights puts a strain on the muscles, and through this work they will become stronger. But going straight from resting mode to hard work will only result in damage being caused. The preparation involved in a body building routine is as important as the exercise itself.

As much as some people may smirk at the idea of going about things by the book, you have to think about what you want to achieve through a body building routine. If it is about getting into the best shape possible, there is no way of achieving this without observing the rules. You will simply do more harm than good.

Eating The Right Things

If you are looking to begin body building, it is important to take into account the role that diet plays in the whole process. Your body is a more complicated machine than any car, without question. Now, would you put fuel that was made cheaply and carelessly into your car at any time? It’s likely that you would not. Would you put that same cheap, poorly made fuel into your car if you were about to take it on a long, demanding tour which would involve punishing driving? Of course not.

Your body requires the same consideration when it comes to refuelling. Body building is demanding by its very nature. You are not going to get the toned, sculpted shape that you are after without putting in a lot of work in the gym. Eating badly is not going to make that process any easier, and it will certainly make it less effective. Food is turned into energy by your body, and just as with fuel for a car, different foods will have different energy levels allowing you to go for longer and in more punishing conditions.

So if you are out of shape because you are eating poorly and not exercising enough, just deciding to take up body building without first looking at your diet will be of limited effectiveness. It is as important to change your diet as it is to get down to the gym – perhaps even more so. Getting a good diet and exercise plan locked down will be the absolute minimum effort you require before trying to get that shape you are after.

Learn to Take a Break

Getting into the gym to work out and build one’s muscles up is a highlight of the week for many of us, no matter how many times a week we do it. It can allow us to work through the tension of the rest of the week, give us time to think things through while also expending some energy. It would not be going too far to suggest that there are many of us who view training as an indispensable part of our weekly routine. However, a training regime does need to have breaks built into it if it is ever going to be effective and worthwhile.

The benefits of training regularly are proven. It would be easy to conclude from this that any time spent training makes those benefits all the greater, and within a certain limit this is true. But for training to have the long term effect that we are looking for it will be necessary for you to take regular breaks in order to kick back and relax. Going at a hundred miles per hour all the time will have one result only – burn-out. The ill-effects of that are worse than not training at all.

If you simply live to train, you will miss the opportunity to get things out of life that effect you positively on a mental and physical front. When you are relaxed and happy, the body releases chemicals that you need in order to keep an upbeat mentality. Without that mentality, any setback in your training regime may well be met with resentment and anger, and the result will be poor or non-existent training sessions.

If You’re Injured, Find Something Else

Training to gain the shape that you have always wanted makes for an intensive regime of hard work and effort. You can never be in too good of a shape, so it is important to maintain a quality training regime, and it’s the word “quality” that is important. Quality wins out over quantity, every time. The key here is that if you get injured, you do not dwell on how it is keeping you from training. You have to accept that training must wait for a time when you can do it effectively, and in the mean time find something else to do.

If you are sitting about getting wound up about how you want to get back in the gym, then you will not be effective when you get back in there. All that will happen is you will take the first sign of recovery as a green light to get back in the gym and the training you will do once there will be a great deal less effective than it would be under normal circumstances. Efficiency and quality are the watchwords, remember. As much as you may want to get back in the game, realise that there is little point in training at half of your potential.

Find another way to fill your time – it doesn’t really matter what that is. It could be something slow paced like gardening, or anything else. Something that keeps your mind occupied is the key. If you are left idle, your mind will wander right back to the gym – and you will follow it there, which will not help.

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