Saturday 22 September 2012

2 phases of body building


Body building is more than just a sport or hobby. It's actually a science. You need to understand how your body works and how it reacts to weight training and food/nutrition. The biggest misconception is that body building is about eating loads of protein and lifting super heavy weights. Trust me, it's definitely not. Don't believe me, try it and you'll know. I didn't see any results in the first 2 years of my weight training as I didn't understand full the science of body building back then.


Body building involves 2 stages- bulking and cutting.

BULKING

Bulking is a stage where you grow thick and dense muscles. This stage is arguable the most fun (some say easiest) as you eat well (lots of protein including whey protein usually at a ratio of 1.5g of protein to 1lb of body weight and weight gainer), lift low reps of heavy weights (only compound movements, 6 reps of 5-6 sets would suffice) and rest well (sleep at least 8 hours a day and train alternate days to promote/allow recovery). Basically, this stage of body building requires you to eat a lot of protein (to build mass) and carbs (for energy to lift heavy weights). However, this stage makes you look "full and bloated" as you can't bulk and gain muscles without putting on fat (yikes!), thus giving you the "large" appearance.



CUTTING

Once you've reached your size of choice, it's time to cut the fat. Think of this stage like a woodcutter shaping the log into something beautiful, into a work of art. That's what cutting is all about. You focus on stripping and melting away the fat and the body fat percentage to reveal your defined muscles and cuts. During this stage, you'll also lose some muscles as you lose fat but the good part is that you lose the latter faster. You achieve muscles definition by lifting lots of light weights (isolation movements, 15-20 reps of 4 sets each), doing lots of cardio (after your weight training, about 20-30 minutes of low intensity cardio) and reducing your daily calories. This is the time to show off the cuts and curves, baby! :-)


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