Everyone believes that in order to get muscular or lose weight you need to kill your body at the gym. These assumptions are completely inaccurate. In order to reach your physical goals you need to focus time on following a strict diet as well as a good workout. Working out is only 10 percent of the equation while diet is 90 percent of the equation in order to reach your goals.
With my background of working in a supplement shop (naturally fit) I have the luxury of being able to study what your body needs the most to reach its full potential. Whenever a client comes in for help to get a new supplement, we ask what are their goals and from there we create diet, then a workout. We explain to each person whose trying to lose weight that they could run for hours a day, but if you don't have proper nutrients going into your body your not going to get anywhere. Or if your trying to get big you need to eat clean food, and have a large intake of clean foods then hitting the iron is required.
Studies have shown that the key to bulk is all about your nutrition. Each body type is completely different but there are proper times to eat, and to eat different things. Carbs, proteins, and fats all have different functions for our bodies and muscles. Carbohydrates are there to provide your body with energy, and there are two different kinds of carbohydrates. These two kinds of carbs are, fast digesting and complex carbs. Complex carbs are meant to be eaten throughout the day, but ideally 30-45 minutes prior to training, examples are oatmeal, pasta or rice. Fast digesting carbs are meant to be eaten right after training and are meant to give your body energy quickly, things like apples and oranges (natural sugars) are examples of these or a supplement called "waxy maize" is a fast digesting carb. Fats come in different forms but your body requires fat when bulking because they are slow digesting calories that do not allow your body to burn more calories then digested while training. Proteins are meant to repair torn muscles and to promote muscle growth. Inside of protein is things called Amino Acids (BCAA's) which are branch chain proteins that are meant to increase recovery rate. Many supplements are out on the market filled with BCAA's which are very beneficial to gaining size.
When you finally get into a proper diet for whatever your physical goals are you, you are able to successfully manipulate your metabolism. After manipulating your metabolism you are able to make your body gain weight or lose weight. The ability to lose weight through metabolism manipulation is eating smaller meals 5-6 times a day, high protein and low carbs/starches, but with a lot of veggies. The protein makes your body feel full and not want to eat anymore. To gain weight by manipulating your metabolism you still eat 5-6 small meals a day with high protein, and high carbs. The carbs are meant to be stored and help you gain weight because carbs are high in calories. Doing this will make you feel as if your gaining fat, but this will happen and will be able to be cur right after.
Training is such a large topic of discussion and talking about nutrition is also massive. This is just a broad overview of nutrition and more will come. The above information has been gathered over years of training, and talking with my boss (Joel Cloutier, Body builder and owner of Naturally Fit South Calgary), also lots of information found at Cutandjacked website, and articles.
This is a very educational and informational post, you really know your stuff. Most people at the gym have no idea what they are doing and exhaust all their energy for no reason and end up with no results.
ReplyDeleteAnother hint to those looking for an additional workout program or additional challenges, try switching your rest ratios.
To overcome plateau(getting no more results) one does not necessarily have to change or add additional exercises, but instead change the amount of rest to training ratio you have for your workouts. That means either increase or decrease your rest time between sets and exercises. Increasing the rest time allows you to push harder and at the same time tear more muscle fibers when you are performing your exercise. Decreasing rest time causes an increase in cardiovascular activity and results in more blood flow, ultimately resulting in more calories being burnt.
Try changing up your routine by playing around with your rest to exercise tempo ratio's. Depending on the type of exercise, fitness, goal of the individual, different variations can be used, and your results will be be maximized.
You lead into my next blog there Colin, was hoping to have a good one about working out in hopes of toning and bulking. After Thursday I'll start that one. Although your correct to overcome to plateau's with the information you posted, you can over come plateau's by changing your diet. Simply taking a week of eliminating 200 calories, or even better yet increase your carbohydrate increase by 50 grams (yes alot but that's a bowl of pasta). Then proceed to go back to your original diet. Save one day for a cheat day eat week or have one cheat meal a week (depending how serious your are obviously). Your body gets really use to routine and changing your diet helps a lot to over come this routine.
DeleteI actually read a new article today about it and everyone believes for a cutting stage you need to eliminate a ton of calories and eat a lot less. That is incorrect, once something's eliminated to such an extent your body needs to store the nutrients it's missing. Just cut 200-400 calories a day (a protein shake and a fruit or some meal around that) and your body will shred fat and get you toned while maintain your muscle.
I live for the gym and live for the nutrition part of it. Anyone need help or some advice you know where to find me!