Some of us simply underestimate the importance of weight lifting. Especially women underestimate the benefits of weight lifting. Here just several benefits:
-Weight lifting decreases your blood pressure thus making the risk of heart diseases lower.
-Weight lifting develop toned muscles in women.
-Weight lifting gives you more energy.
-Weight lifting raises your metabolism.
-Weight lifting reducing the risk of developing colon cancer.
-Weight lifting improves posture.
-Weight lifting elevates mood.
-Weight lifting improves coordination.
These are few benefits of weight lifting. All the benefits of weight lifting simply could not be mentioned on one page. But believe me weight lifting is the key to a healthier life and weight loss. Weight lifting and exercises can be considered the basics of a man's health life. Most of people who doing exercises and lifting http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifweights are slim and have no excess body fat.
When people just hear the words "Weight Lifting" they are scared with the fact they should lift 20 kilos weights. But this is not so scary. Weights should be chose according to your gender, body mass and age. Women of all ages may lift 2-3 kilos weights. Young men can lift 5-8 kilos weights. Aged men should be careful and choose 2-5 kilos weights. This will be enough for you to start being a healthy person.
Good Luck!
Artem S. is a webmaster of Weight Loss Pills, a site dedicated to weight loss information.
Please visit my new site http://thehardgainerworkout.com
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Sunday, 14 February 2010
Build Lean Mass Muscle - An Important Factor You Must Know
Building lean mass muscle is easy if you know what you are doing, but first let us agree on the definition of easy. It is easy to build that body that looks good at the pool, there are definite steps you need to follow. It does however require tenacity. You must be able to stick with it.
Remember, Rome was not built in a day and neither will your new body. Do not fall for claims that you can achieve massive results in a week. Perseverance is the key to your success when beginning to build muscle. Think of your body as a building and exercise is the architect.
When you first start working out your body goes through what can best be described as an adaptive period. It is learning how to control the weight you are lifting. It is for this reason that you must really concentrate on correct form and posture, do not be too concerned about how much you are lifting but rather how you are lifting. The adaptive period can last anywhere between 2 - 4 weeks. This is why many work out programs change your routine less often than more advanced ones.
The more you train the quicker you will leap over the hurdle of adapting. Many programs follow a 3 week on and one week off approach to give your body time to adapt and time to heal.
The good news is that once you are through the adaptive period your body will experience explosive growth. These are the results that will keep your morale high. Once your body feels like it is getting all of the movements down it will be time to change and you will experience another adaptive period. Of course the good news is that after that adaptive period you will experience that muscle growth!
Keep this in mind when it seems as if you are struggling with a workout, it is not only natural but a good thing. You are laying a good foundation to build that lean muscle mass. Everyone who has experienced muscle growth went through the same thing so you are in good company!
Douglas Young is an experienced online researcher on the subject of how to gain weight and build muscle naturally. Please visit the website for free tips and advice on achieving your fitness goals.
Please visit my new site http://thehardgainerworkout.com
Remember, Rome was not built in a day and neither will your new body. Do not fall for claims that you can achieve massive results in a week. Perseverance is the key to your success when beginning to build muscle. Think of your body as a building and exercise is the architect.
When you first start working out your body goes through what can best be described as an adaptive period. It is learning how to control the weight you are lifting. It is for this reason that you must really concentrate on correct form and posture, do not be too concerned about how much you are lifting but rather how you are lifting. The adaptive period can last anywhere between 2 - 4 weeks. This is why many work out programs change your routine less often than more advanced ones.
The more you train the quicker you will leap over the hurdle of adapting. Many programs follow a 3 week on and one week off approach to give your body time to adapt and time to heal.
The good news is that once you are through the adaptive period your body will experience explosive growth. These are the results that will keep your morale high. Once your body feels like it is getting all of the movements down it will be time to change and you will experience another adaptive period. Of course the good news is that after that adaptive period you will experience that muscle growth!
Keep this in mind when it seems as if you are struggling with a workout, it is not only natural but a good thing. You are laying a good foundation to build that lean muscle mass. Everyone who has experienced muscle growth went through the same thing so you are in good company!
Douglas Young is an experienced online researcher on the subject of how to gain weight and build muscle naturally. Please visit the website for free tips and advice on achieving your fitness goals.
Please visit my new site http://thehardgainerworkout.com
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Can Bodybuilding Supplements Offer the Easy Road to Muscle Building Results?
Often when the term "natural bodybuilding" is thought of, those who participate in such a hobby contemplate intense weight training workout sessions and structured bodybuilding diet plans, but one additional element, supplementation, is deemed a requirement for any individual to succeed in building muscle mass to his or her natural bodybuilding genetic potential. Since using steroids is avoided due to their serious health risks, bodybuilding supplements become the "safe" and legal drug alternative that bodybuilders feel compelled to pursue.
Because so few who experiment with bodybuilding supplements have performed their weight lifting routines without using such products, they are unable to analyze the true effectiveness of the bodybuilding supplements they are constantly consuming, and therefore, mistakenly attribute any fat loss or muscle building to these products, even when making changes to a weight lifting or diet plan that, in fact, is the foundation for any successful fat loss or muscle building pursuit. Instead of conducting legitimate testing to note muscle gain or fat loss with specific bodybuilding supplements using an identical weight lifting and diet routine, many tend to become frustrated with their muscle building or fat loss progress, and once they return from a break with renewed weight training enthusiasm, they not only search for a new weight training workout plan and diet, but also purchase several bodybuilding supplements to use simultaneously, and if they build muscle or burn fat, they rarely credit the weight training workout or diet, nor do they factor in the ease of muscle building following a layoff with nearly any marginally potent routine, but rather feel that the bodybuilding supplements are responsible for any positive change, even when this progress is only temporary.
This biased hypothesis leads weight lifters of all ages to believe that bodybuilding supplements are a prerequisite for impressive progress, and popular bodybuilding magazines, most of whom generate the vast majority of their advertising profits from bodybuilding supplement manufacturers, also convince the readers that they must, without question, rely on bodybuilding supplements as the weapon of choice to maximizing muscle gains, especially when champion professional bodybuilders are pictured holding the latest bottled craze (of course, he fails to mention that his results are due to steroid abuse as opposed to supplement use!). Nevertheless, the overwhelming message sent by the bodybuilding industry that these products are the natural key to dramatic muscle gains fuels most to accept this as truth, and the bodybuilding supplement industry benefits as a result.
But what's the truth behind the bodybuilding supplement craze? I have been involved in weight training for well over a decade, and through my own experimentation, along with emails sent to me by those who are frustrated with their own results, despite the use of bodybuilding supplements, and have therefore devised a standard of thinking that I hope all reading this article will decide is logical enough to consider adopting for their own muscle gain or fat loss pursuits. Most bodybuilding supplements do not offer advertised muscle gain or fat loss results, and you will spend thousands (or may already have) proving this to be factual, but even if you were to stumble upon a bodybuilding supplement that allowed you to gain muscle or lose fat quicker than is possible through a properly designed weight lifting workout and bodybuilding diet, you will then potentially harm long term health. The only method of knowing for certain whether an artificially induced product will harm long term health is with an extended (several decade) controlled study as to its impact, and because no such long term controlled analysis will ever exist on any bodybuilding supplement, you cannot be certain of their safety since, as we realize with smoking, legality does not ensure safety, and, in the long term, there are serious concerns that bodybuilding supplements can lead to cancer, organ failure (due to unnatural stress on the kidneys, liver, etc), endocrine damage, and premature death.
For the many bodybuilders who wish to produce maximum muscle building and fat loss, yet value the term "natural" due to its connection with preservation of health and clear rejection of all potentially harmful external aids towards such progress, bodybuilding supplements that promise quicker muscle gain or fat loss than is possible through weight lifting and diet alone are a contradiction to such a philosophy. You can either heed my warning, or waste large amounts of money as do so many each year searching for the ultimate steroid substitute that offers complete health preservation, when this, in fact, is an oxymoronic fantasy that has no chance of becoming reality.
Francesco Castano authors MuscleNOW.com, a diet and weight training program teaching the exact techniques for muscle gain without supplements or drugs. He also owns FatVanish.com, teaching exactly how to lose weight without supplements
Please visit my new site http://thehardgainerworkout.com
Because so few who experiment with bodybuilding supplements have performed their weight lifting routines without using such products, they are unable to analyze the true effectiveness of the bodybuilding supplements they are constantly consuming, and therefore, mistakenly attribute any fat loss or muscle building to these products, even when making changes to a weight lifting or diet plan that, in fact, is the foundation for any successful fat loss or muscle building pursuit. Instead of conducting legitimate testing to note muscle gain or fat loss with specific bodybuilding supplements using an identical weight lifting and diet routine, many tend to become frustrated with their muscle building or fat loss progress, and once they return from a break with renewed weight training enthusiasm, they not only search for a new weight training workout plan and diet, but also purchase several bodybuilding supplements to use simultaneously, and if they build muscle or burn fat, they rarely credit the weight training workout or diet, nor do they factor in the ease of muscle building following a layoff with nearly any marginally potent routine, but rather feel that the bodybuilding supplements are responsible for any positive change, even when this progress is only temporary.
This biased hypothesis leads weight lifters of all ages to believe that bodybuilding supplements are a prerequisite for impressive progress, and popular bodybuilding magazines, most of whom generate the vast majority of their advertising profits from bodybuilding supplement manufacturers, also convince the readers that they must, without question, rely on bodybuilding supplements as the weapon of choice to maximizing muscle gains, especially when champion professional bodybuilders are pictured holding the latest bottled craze (of course, he fails to mention that his results are due to steroid abuse as opposed to supplement use!). Nevertheless, the overwhelming message sent by the bodybuilding industry that these products are the natural key to dramatic muscle gains fuels most to accept this as truth, and the bodybuilding supplement industry benefits as a result.
But what's the truth behind the bodybuilding supplement craze? I have been involved in weight training for well over a decade, and through my own experimentation, along with emails sent to me by those who are frustrated with their own results, despite the use of bodybuilding supplements, and have therefore devised a standard of thinking that I hope all reading this article will decide is logical enough to consider adopting for their own muscle gain or fat loss pursuits. Most bodybuilding supplements do not offer advertised muscle gain or fat loss results, and you will spend thousands (or may already have) proving this to be factual, but even if you were to stumble upon a bodybuilding supplement that allowed you to gain muscle or lose fat quicker than is possible through a properly designed weight lifting workout and bodybuilding diet, you will then potentially harm long term health. The only method of knowing for certain whether an artificially induced product will harm long term health is with an extended (several decade) controlled study as to its impact, and because no such long term controlled analysis will ever exist on any bodybuilding supplement, you cannot be certain of their safety since, as we realize with smoking, legality does not ensure safety, and, in the long term, there are serious concerns that bodybuilding supplements can lead to cancer, organ failure (due to unnatural stress on the kidneys, liver, etc), endocrine damage, and premature death.
For the many bodybuilders who wish to produce maximum muscle building and fat loss, yet value the term "natural" due to its connection with preservation of health and clear rejection of all potentially harmful external aids towards such progress, bodybuilding supplements that promise quicker muscle gain or fat loss than is possible through weight lifting and diet alone are a contradiction to such a philosophy. You can either heed my warning, or waste large amounts of money as do so many each year searching for the ultimate steroid substitute that offers complete health preservation, when this, in fact, is an oxymoronic fantasy that has no chance of becoming reality.
Francesco Castano authors MuscleNOW.com, a diet and weight training program teaching the exact techniques for muscle gain without supplements or drugs. He also owns FatVanish.com, teaching exactly how to lose weight without supplements
Please visit my new site http://thehardgainerworkout.com
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Are You a Real Bodybuilder or Just a Wannabee?
Almost every bodybuilder that I have ever met considers themselves “Hard-core” or the most dedicated, knowledgeable, or hardest training athlete in the gym. Over the 20 years I have spent in the sport I have been asked many times what does it really take to be successful in the sport? My answer might surprise you but let me tell you it’s a question everyone has to ask themselves. What’s more is the answer you give yourself reflects whether you’re a Real Bodybuilder or Just another Wannabee!
Most magazines, scientists, and competitor’s are quick to point to genetics as the deciding factor. While on the surface there seems to be some truth to this when a person looks deeper into the sport this is not necessarily the case. In fact in every contest I have ever competed in, or watched I have rarely seen the person with the best genetics win the show.
I asked my friend, legendary bodybuilding coach Scott Abel the same question about what he believes makes a true bodybuilder successful, and Scott’s answer was pretty quick. He summed it up in one word… “Heart”.
Now Scott has trained over 200 titled winners on all levels from amateurs’ right up to Olympia contenders including myself to a National Title as well as a birth into the Mr. Universe contest. He’s also had the opportunity to work with the broadest range of personalities, genetics, and mental aptitudes so his opinion carries a lot of weight.
I tend to agree with Scott. From my own experience coaching thousands of bodybuilders around the world I feel the real successes are always the guys/gals who understand that bodybuilding has more to do what’s going on inside the mind than anything else.
Winning Comes In Many Forms
Winning and success come in many forms and so many people equate a trophy or a title with success. Considering how many of the top professional and amateur bodybuilders in the world have serious health problems and rather chaotic personal lives it’s hard to equate success with their professional status or their drug-swollen bodies. That being said, there are a handful of professionals who embody the ideals of true bodybuilding but they are definitely few and far between.
Of course, you have all kinds of guys/gals in the gym coming up with a host of reasons why they haven’t stuck with their diet, followed through on their training schedule, and simply not made the gains they desire. Although both cases represent opposite ends of the extreme; everyone fits somewhere in between and many are still left asking the question… What makes a “True Bodybuilder?”
While everyone has to determine the answer for himself, my own definition of True Bodybuilding is significantly different than “The Hardcore” Version portrayed in the top Magazines. Although at one time I aspired to be like the “gargantuan” individuals who grace the pages of the magazines, I had a change of heart once I reached the National Championship Level. Here’s why.
Drug LOADED Bodybuilding - The Fast Track to Self Destruction
You see I realized almost the entire competitive bodybuilding scene had almost nothing to do with “Real Bodybuilding”. In fact it was more like body destruction. Many of these athletes I was competing with and against, had become consumed by the desire to build massive muscles and resorted to using massive amount of drugs that damaged their health. While their physiques and muscles are definitely impressive, they had built them at the cost of their health as well as the personal lives.
I personally consider this to be a psychological condition of disease similar to anorexia, or obsessive-compulsive disorder and indeed some psychologists have labeled the condition “Muscle Dysmorphia”. Many “hardcore” bodybuilders have become so obsessed with competitions, muscular size, body fat levels, diets, etc. that every other aspect of their lives has shrunk smaller then their testes on a 10 year cycle.
I know how this dysfunctional psychology can limit one’s life because for 10 years I went down that path. Fortunately, I turned the corner and saw “the light” so to speak, and recognized that there was a lot more to life than a 20-inch arm. I understand how the pressures of athletic excellence lead some athletes to turn to drug usage. I am not condoning the act however I simply recognize how athletes rationalize drug usage and get caught in the “machine” of high performance sports.
Although it seems things are getting worse in the athletic world as opposed to better with the increase in volume of high profile athletes testing positive for drug use; I believe the increased awareness of what’s going on in sports will eventually change the course of athletics, including what I call the return to True Bodybuilding.
Don’t Play Russian Roulette With Your Health
Now what’s even crazier than taking drugs for athletic performance, is the sheer number of individuals, who use bodybuilding drugs thinking it a short cut to an impressive body. Countless scores of young men and women in bodybuilding are resorting to any number of drugs to change their appearance.
These misguided individuals who often purchase these drugs on the underground market from “dubious sources,” are playing Russian roulette with their health. Often these drugs are fake, veterinarian, or “home made” drugs not intended for human consumption.
Many of these men/women delusively believe they will stop taking drugs once they add that extra inch to their arms or lose that next percentage of fat. As soon as they stop the drugs, the muscles are gone, the fat comes back, and they begin looking for the next “fix”. This sets a vicious cycle of enslavement to the drugs, as the individual has unconsciously linked drugs to a better physique and built a reliance on them to improve the cosmetic appearance of their body.
What’s worse is that ever cycle of drugs damages the delicate balance within the body’s biochemistry, making it harder to improve, as well as setting oneself up for problems in the future. One only has too look at the rate of top professional and amateur bodybuilders who are dying prematurely or contracting severe disease to illustrate the true cost of short-sighted thinking.
True bodybuilding is about self-improvement. Building muscles, losing body fat, and shaping or defining the physique, are more about expressing one’s essence than an absolute outcome.
Everybody’s ideal physique is a little bit different and the only judge that matters is the one looking back at you in the mirror. Interestingly, what one sees in the mirror has more to do with the program in one’s head than the true-image reflected in the mirror.
When Sport Becomes Art
I feel that any time a human pursuit reaches its highest form it becomes art. Art transcends boundaries, both personal and cultural, and cannot be defined by the traditional linear models of thinking popularized by mainstream culture. Titles, measurements, accolades, or even social approval do not reflect one’s inner journey or personal experience and expression.
Definitions or belief systems have no intrinsic meaning other than what is ascribed to them by various social groups. Interestingly, each social group will ascribe a very different value on any given subject, and each group tends to believe that its opinion is the correct one.
Art transcends all of these standard descriptions and conveys a feeling or an emotion that is hard to contextualize with words. It is this essence that makes art fascinating. Often times a certain proficiency in the subject matter is essential to fully appreciate the experience. In other words, the more someone becomes familiar with a subject, in this case bodybuilding, the more one can recognize, genius, greatness, or the artistic.
Watching Tom Platz blast out 20 plus reps with 500 pounds goes beyond physical accomplishment. The process becomes art. Another example would be a football receiver diving through the air, to catch a pass with one hand, in between two defenders, while simultaneously dragging both feet before flying out of bounds. These moments or events go way beyond the physical achievements or quantitative description.
These “defining moments” are what millions of viewers watch for daily in sports. The event is really a stage that presents an opportunity for the athlete to transcend the normal definitions of their chosen sport. The thing is, in order for an athlete to get to the “sporting promised-land”, or at least the highlight reel, years of practice, failures, unseen moments, victories, and defeats have all been part and parcel to the “defining moment”.
What is it that pushes someone to “be all they can be”? What is the “X-factor” that drives people to break previous limits of the past? While it’s hard to contextualize the essence of what makes a person a true bodybuilder, one only has to look at the Special Olympics to get a deeper understanding of the difference between real athletes vs. “wannabee” pretenders.
The Special Olympians: The Ultimate Example of Athletic Spirit
The athletes who compete in the Special Olympics do so with a spirit that in many ways demonstrates the highest ideals of athleticism. Although these physically and mentally challenged individuals may not break world records, or appear on the front page of the sports section of the newspaper, they illustrate the power of the human spirit. These remarkable individuals compete with a purity, dedication, and determination that inspire anyone and everyone. It is this intangible spirit that comes from within that propels each person to greatness and is the secret to personal accomplishment.
“Wannabee’s” perform activities for the glory, the prestige, or for narcissistic pride. Sometimes these actions manifest out of a low self-esteem. I can’t tell you how many 250lb bodybuilders I have met who “thought they were small”, or how many stunningly beautiful fitness girls complain that they are “too fat”. To me these athletes represent the worst in the sport, and cast a negative image to the real athletes (bodybuilders) who work day in and day out, to simply improve the physical expression of their Self.
Wannabee’s strut around the gyms like peacocks, they put down the accomplishments of others, make excuses for their own shortcomings and exaggerate their own accomplishments. In other words they say “I am a “bodybuilder” or “I’m Hardcore” etc but their thoughts of self-image is completely defined by what they see in the mirror or what the scale reads. Often the self-image of Wannabee’s are extremely distorted and borders on delusion.
When you let anything define you, whether it’s your job, your sport, or a relationship, you can bet you have a “wannabee” or distorted belief system that will invariably lead to problems at some point in the future. Often times it takes a crash to the bottom of society with somewhat painful consequences for these individuals to experience a “Reality Check”.
Self Improvement is The Essence of Real Bodybuilding
The real bodybuilder recognizes that Bodybuilding is something that they do, not something that they are. There is a big difference between these two images of self because the first definition limits oneself or what one can be, while the second opens up the possibility of a greater Self or broader definition on one’s Self.
The essence of Real Bodybuilding is simply the pursuit of self-improvement through physical activity that enhances the development and function of the physical body. This pursuit can lead to a deeper awareness of the internal or subtle workings of one’s own existence. I think Bill Pearl has summed it up better than anyone else in the title of his best-selling bodybuilding book “Keys to the Inner Universe”.
To further illustrate my point from a more extreme perspective, I will use this example. Some bodybuilders come to me and say I am training my legs as hard as can but I am not puking from sets. Can you show me how to train so hard that I puke?
While this sounds ridiculous, this type of mentality does persist inside bodybuilding. Puking from a set is often times viewed as a badge of honor or welcome achievement in the “Bodybuilding Brotherhood”. This type of mentality is what has kept the awesome power of bodybuilding away from the general public and transformed a positive form of self expression into a “narcissistic, self-absorbed, anti-social, cult-like, behavior relegated to the “lunatic fringe”.
Numerous companies create ads around this whole behavior by glorifying pain, suffering, and illustrating imagery of a 250lb man standing over a bucket or a pool of vomit on the floor. While most individuals in society would be horrified or disgusted by such a picture, many in the bodybuilding world embrace it, identifying greatness, or achievement with the process of vomiting.
As bizarre as it sounds, the above scenario is illustrative of how the act is often mixed up with the intention of the individual. This is a very thin line of consciousness but a very important one to understand it one’s bodybuilding pursuits are to be crowned with success.
Heart is where someone pushes themselves to the limits of their physical being. Any person; who tests themselves regularly, with weight training to improve their body, is a real bodybuilder. Real Bodybuilding takes heart and it has nothing to do with how big someone is, how much they bench, or how many titles they have won.
Real bodybuilding is about the journey of self.
It’s a way to express oneself while improving your health, your awareness, and your self-esteem. Real bodybuilding helps to synchronize the Mind, Body, and Soul connection and enhances every aspect of one’s life. It’s a phenomenal tool for self -improvement and self-discovery. After a lifetime of lifting you can still learn something new about yourself and you can still improve.
That’s Real Bodybuilding!
Wade McNutt is a Natural National Bodybuilding Champion and an IFBB Mr. Universe World Champion. He combined the secrets of Eastern Yoga Masters with, scientific, muscle building to produce a revolutionary new health system, called Freaky Big Naturally, find out more at http://www.freakybignatural.com
Please visit my new site http://thehardgainerworkout.com
Most magazines, scientists, and competitor’s are quick to point to genetics as the deciding factor. While on the surface there seems to be some truth to this when a person looks deeper into the sport this is not necessarily the case. In fact in every contest I have ever competed in, or watched I have rarely seen the person with the best genetics win the show.
I asked my friend, legendary bodybuilding coach Scott Abel the same question about what he believes makes a true bodybuilder successful, and Scott’s answer was pretty quick. He summed it up in one word… “Heart”.
Now Scott has trained over 200 titled winners on all levels from amateurs’ right up to Olympia contenders including myself to a National Title as well as a birth into the Mr. Universe contest. He’s also had the opportunity to work with the broadest range of personalities, genetics, and mental aptitudes so his opinion carries a lot of weight.
I tend to agree with Scott. From my own experience coaching thousands of bodybuilders around the world I feel the real successes are always the guys/gals who understand that bodybuilding has more to do what’s going on inside the mind than anything else.
Winning Comes In Many Forms
Winning and success come in many forms and so many people equate a trophy or a title with success. Considering how many of the top professional and amateur bodybuilders in the world have serious health problems and rather chaotic personal lives it’s hard to equate success with their professional status or their drug-swollen bodies. That being said, there are a handful of professionals who embody the ideals of true bodybuilding but they are definitely few and far between.
Of course, you have all kinds of guys/gals in the gym coming up with a host of reasons why they haven’t stuck with their diet, followed through on their training schedule, and simply not made the gains they desire. Although both cases represent opposite ends of the extreme; everyone fits somewhere in between and many are still left asking the question… What makes a “True Bodybuilder?”
While everyone has to determine the answer for himself, my own definition of True Bodybuilding is significantly different than “The Hardcore” Version portrayed in the top Magazines. Although at one time I aspired to be like the “gargantuan” individuals who grace the pages of the magazines, I had a change of heart once I reached the National Championship Level. Here’s why.
Drug LOADED Bodybuilding - The Fast Track to Self Destruction
You see I realized almost the entire competitive bodybuilding scene had almost nothing to do with “Real Bodybuilding”. In fact it was more like body destruction. Many of these athletes I was competing with and against, had become consumed by the desire to build massive muscles and resorted to using massive amount of drugs that damaged their health. While their physiques and muscles are definitely impressive, they had built them at the cost of their health as well as the personal lives.
I personally consider this to be a psychological condition of disease similar to anorexia, or obsessive-compulsive disorder and indeed some psychologists have labeled the condition “Muscle Dysmorphia”. Many “hardcore” bodybuilders have become so obsessed with competitions, muscular size, body fat levels, diets, etc. that every other aspect of their lives has shrunk smaller then their testes on a 10 year cycle.
I know how this dysfunctional psychology can limit one’s life because for 10 years I went down that path. Fortunately, I turned the corner and saw “the light” so to speak, and recognized that there was a lot more to life than a 20-inch arm. I understand how the pressures of athletic excellence lead some athletes to turn to drug usage. I am not condoning the act however I simply recognize how athletes rationalize drug usage and get caught in the “machine” of high performance sports.
Although it seems things are getting worse in the athletic world as opposed to better with the increase in volume of high profile athletes testing positive for drug use; I believe the increased awareness of what’s going on in sports will eventually change the course of athletics, including what I call the return to True Bodybuilding.
Don’t Play Russian Roulette With Your Health
Now what’s even crazier than taking drugs for athletic performance, is the sheer number of individuals, who use bodybuilding drugs thinking it a short cut to an impressive body. Countless scores of young men and women in bodybuilding are resorting to any number of drugs to change their appearance.
These misguided individuals who often purchase these drugs on the underground market from “dubious sources,” are playing Russian roulette with their health. Often these drugs are fake, veterinarian, or “home made” drugs not intended for human consumption.
Many of these men/women delusively believe they will stop taking drugs once they add that extra inch to their arms or lose that next percentage of fat. As soon as they stop the drugs, the muscles are gone, the fat comes back, and they begin looking for the next “fix”. This sets a vicious cycle of enslavement to the drugs, as the individual has unconsciously linked drugs to a better physique and built a reliance on them to improve the cosmetic appearance of their body.
What’s worse is that ever cycle of drugs damages the delicate balance within the body’s biochemistry, making it harder to improve, as well as setting oneself up for problems in the future. One only has too look at the rate of top professional and amateur bodybuilders who are dying prematurely or contracting severe disease to illustrate the true cost of short-sighted thinking.
True bodybuilding is about self-improvement. Building muscles, losing body fat, and shaping or defining the physique, are more about expressing one’s essence than an absolute outcome.
Everybody’s ideal physique is a little bit different and the only judge that matters is the one looking back at you in the mirror. Interestingly, what one sees in the mirror has more to do with the program in one’s head than the true-image reflected in the mirror.
When Sport Becomes Art
I feel that any time a human pursuit reaches its highest form it becomes art. Art transcends boundaries, both personal and cultural, and cannot be defined by the traditional linear models of thinking popularized by mainstream culture. Titles, measurements, accolades, or even social approval do not reflect one’s inner journey or personal experience and expression.
Definitions or belief systems have no intrinsic meaning other than what is ascribed to them by various social groups. Interestingly, each social group will ascribe a very different value on any given subject, and each group tends to believe that its opinion is the correct one.
Art transcends all of these standard descriptions and conveys a feeling or an emotion that is hard to contextualize with words. It is this essence that makes art fascinating. Often times a certain proficiency in the subject matter is essential to fully appreciate the experience. In other words, the more someone becomes familiar with a subject, in this case bodybuilding, the more one can recognize, genius, greatness, or the artistic.
Watching Tom Platz blast out 20 plus reps with 500 pounds goes beyond physical accomplishment. The process becomes art. Another example would be a football receiver diving through the air, to catch a pass with one hand, in between two defenders, while simultaneously dragging both feet before flying out of bounds. These moments or events go way beyond the physical achievements or quantitative description.
These “defining moments” are what millions of viewers watch for daily in sports. The event is really a stage that presents an opportunity for the athlete to transcend the normal definitions of their chosen sport. The thing is, in order for an athlete to get to the “sporting promised-land”, or at least the highlight reel, years of practice, failures, unseen moments, victories, and defeats have all been part and parcel to the “defining moment”.
What is it that pushes someone to “be all they can be”? What is the “X-factor” that drives people to break previous limits of the past? While it’s hard to contextualize the essence of what makes a person a true bodybuilder, one only has to look at the Special Olympics to get a deeper understanding of the difference between real athletes vs. “wannabee” pretenders.
The Special Olympians: The Ultimate Example of Athletic Spirit
The athletes who compete in the Special Olympics do so with a spirit that in many ways demonstrates the highest ideals of athleticism. Although these physically and mentally challenged individuals may not break world records, or appear on the front page of the sports section of the newspaper, they illustrate the power of the human spirit. These remarkable individuals compete with a purity, dedication, and determination that inspire anyone and everyone. It is this intangible spirit that comes from within that propels each person to greatness and is the secret to personal accomplishment.
“Wannabee’s” perform activities for the glory, the prestige, or for narcissistic pride. Sometimes these actions manifest out of a low self-esteem. I can’t tell you how many 250lb bodybuilders I have met who “thought they were small”, or how many stunningly beautiful fitness girls complain that they are “too fat”. To me these athletes represent the worst in the sport, and cast a negative image to the real athletes (bodybuilders) who work day in and day out, to simply improve the physical expression of their Self.
Wannabee’s strut around the gyms like peacocks, they put down the accomplishments of others, make excuses for their own shortcomings and exaggerate their own accomplishments. In other words they say “I am a “bodybuilder” or “I’m Hardcore” etc but their thoughts of self-image is completely defined by what they see in the mirror or what the scale reads. Often the self-image of Wannabee’s are extremely distorted and borders on delusion.
When you let anything define you, whether it’s your job, your sport, or a relationship, you can bet you have a “wannabee” or distorted belief system that will invariably lead to problems at some point in the future. Often times it takes a crash to the bottom of society with somewhat painful consequences for these individuals to experience a “Reality Check”.
Self Improvement is The Essence of Real Bodybuilding
The real bodybuilder recognizes that Bodybuilding is something that they do, not something that they are. There is a big difference between these two images of self because the first definition limits oneself or what one can be, while the second opens up the possibility of a greater Self or broader definition on one’s Self.
The essence of Real Bodybuilding is simply the pursuit of self-improvement through physical activity that enhances the development and function of the physical body. This pursuit can lead to a deeper awareness of the internal or subtle workings of one’s own existence. I think Bill Pearl has summed it up better than anyone else in the title of his best-selling bodybuilding book “Keys to the Inner Universe”.
To further illustrate my point from a more extreme perspective, I will use this example. Some bodybuilders come to me and say I am training my legs as hard as can but I am not puking from sets. Can you show me how to train so hard that I puke?
While this sounds ridiculous, this type of mentality does persist inside bodybuilding. Puking from a set is often times viewed as a badge of honor or welcome achievement in the “Bodybuilding Brotherhood”. This type of mentality is what has kept the awesome power of bodybuilding away from the general public and transformed a positive form of self expression into a “narcissistic, self-absorbed, anti-social, cult-like, behavior relegated to the “lunatic fringe”.
Numerous companies create ads around this whole behavior by glorifying pain, suffering, and illustrating imagery of a 250lb man standing over a bucket or a pool of vomit on the floor. While most individuals in society would be horrified or disgusted by such a picture, many in the bodybuilding world embrace it, identifying greatness, or achievement with the process of vomiting.
As bizarre as it sounds, the above scenario is illustrative of how the act is often mixed up with the intention of the individual. This is a very thin line of consciousness but a very important one to understand it one’s bodybuilding pursuits are to be crowned with success.
Heart is where someone pushes themselves to the limits of their physical being. Any person; who tests themselves regularly, with weight training to improve their body, is a real bodybuilder. Real Bodybuilding takes heart and it has nothing to do with how big someone is, how much they bench, or how many titles they have won.
Real bodybuilding is about the journey of self.
It’s a way to express oneself while improving your health, your awareness, and your self-esteem. Real bodybuilding helps to synchronize the Mind, Body, and Soul connection and enhances every aspect of one’s life. It’s a phenomenal tool for self -improvement and self-discovery. After a lifetime of lifting you can still learn something new about yourself and you can still improve.
That’s Real Bodybuilding!
Wade McNutt is a Natural National Bodybuilding Champion and an IFBB Mr. Universe World Champion. He combined the secrets of Eastern Yoga Masters with, scientific, muscle building to produce a revolutionary new health system, called Freaky Big Naturally, find out more at http://www.freakybignatural.com
Please visit my new site http://thehardgainerworkout.com
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