Nutritional supplements can be great in helping you stay healthy and ensuring you get all the necessary vitamins and minerals your body requires. However many bodybuilders take and misuse ‘bodybuilding supplements’, with goal of bulking up faster. The bodybuilding supplement which is most often misused by bodybuilders is anabolic steroids. Anabolic steroids will help you get bigger much faster than a natural bodybuilder, but the negative effects of such bodybuilding supplements seriously outweigh the benefits.

Bodybuilders Beware…

As a bodybuilder you must know that steroids are illegal, and most competitive bodybuilders have to take drug test before competing. The damage you will do to yourself by being caught out doing steroids will destroy your reputation within bodybuilding circles and outside them. Plus the damage you might do to your body is potentially very bad.

You’ll Stop Being A “Real” Man

Here’s What Steroids Might Do To You (as a man):

-They will cause men’s testicles to shrink

-Steroids have been shown to lower men’s sperm count

-Cause breasts to develop

-Induce you voice to deepen

-Trigger your hair to fall out

Who’s the man now then?

Women also are effected; by a deepening of the voice, hair loss and also the development of facial hair. Teenagers who take steroids might have their growth stunted. And if all this isn’t enough, it can get much worse.

Anabolic steroids can cause damage to your liver, with the side effect of jaundice. They are also believed to cause tumours in the liver and cancer. However the worst effect is found on the heart, as steroids can cause the heart to enlarge and the arteries to harden, with the result being heart disease and eventually heart failure.

Even More Side Effects

Other bodybuilding supplements have been found to cause spots, acne, shaking, and uncontrollable anger, also known as roid rage that causes the user to be extremely aggressive and violent.

I’m not going to touch in detail on the reasons why steroids help you bulk up, because I don’t believe you should be taking them. All you need it hard work, dedication, good nutrition and a proven training program, and if you stick to it all you’ll have the body of your dreams in no time.



Thanks to Bob Giddy for contributing this article to our Bodybuilding blog:

Body Building Training

 

A video clip is circulating the Internet. One of the top bodybuilders in the world takes you on a trip through his kitchen. And unlike past such tours by other athletes - where they brag about their completely clean eating habits - this bodybuilder spills the beans on what bodybuilder really eat.

Chicken. Fish. Steak. Rice. Beans. Pasta.

Those are the bodybuilding staples that we expect to see in the kitchen of a top athlete, and he has them. However, next he breaks down the other foods he eats every day in order to reach the 5000 to 6000 calories he consumes in order to maintain his high levels of muscle mass.

Raisins. Peanuts. Waffles. Cookies. Ice cream. Even candy.

He eats fast food. He chews on chocolate chip granola bars. He loves potato chips.

While it might be hard to defend such a diet in terms of long-term health effects, this diet certainly does meet the requirements for bodybuilding success. This bodybuilder consumes 50 grams of protein at each of eight daily meals, giving him 400 grams or protein and 1600 calories from protein source, which is plenty. The remainder of his food sources contains the required fats and carbohydrates to round out the 5000 to 6000 calorie daily requirement, in both clean and non-clean sources.

How can he get away with this? First of all, he is a top bodybuilder weighing over 300 pounds. His body carries a lot of muscle, and muscle burns a great deal of calories. Second, he possesses an anabolic advantage. The compounds he uses give his body the ability to burn just about anything he consumes. Even ECA or Clenbuterol provide enough edge so that one can burn fat and gain muscle while eating almost anything. Third, the hours of weight training and cardio this athlete endures each week should be taken into account. Finally, his unique metabolic rate cannot be discounted.

Additionally, there is a whole ‘nother school of thought which says that barring basic body requirement, a calorie is a calorie is a calorie. This is still widely disputed and has obvious limitations (we all know that 1000 calories of marshmallows cannot be as effective as 1000 calories of steak, right?) but it’s an interesting point of view.

Consuming 5000 to 6000 calories each day would lead most of us to certain obesity. However, this athlete provides proof that some “junk” food is acceptable and useful in a bodybuilding diet plan, provided other factors are in place.

 

Dane Fletcher is the world’s most prolific bodybuilding and fitness expert and is currently the executive editor for BodybuildingToday.com. If you are looking for more bodybuilding tips or information on weight training, or supplementation, please visit http://www.BodybuildingToday.com, the bodybuilding and fitness authority site with hundreds of articles available FREE to help you meet your goals.



Thanks to Dane Fletcher for contributing this article to our Bodybuilding blog:

Endurance Weight Training

Can you answer tangerine’s question about Bodybuilding?:

There’s a guy on the Internet who claims to be an amateur bodybuilder, but he looks kind of fat in his photos. He says that the bodybuilding magazines present an unrealistic image of bodybuilders, because the guys in the photos and in the competitions often deplete their muscles to a certain point, so that their musculature will be accentuated. Is this at all true, or is it a lie?

Weight Resistance Training

ot a debate or argument for or against performance enhances, it is in the nature of all wanna be champions to seek the extra edge, we are simply suggesting that those who prefer more natural/healthier training methods and diets, should have a far more realistic set of goals. People who belong to the multi various \’all round\’ lifting associations, will have immediate access to standards required for trophies and recognition awards.

Many such sets of standards evolved from original BAWLA lists and the early days of BILL PULLUM. The BAWLA originated back in 1911 and covered over 4O all round lifts/exercises. Recently the A for amateur has been realistically dropped so now it is just BWLA. The \’Strength Set\’ originally consisting of the bodybuilders favorite exercises the squat, curl and bench press soon dropped the curl, which leant itself to too much back bending and cheating, (God knows what the old timers would have thought of today’s ultra arched bench pressers and lifting suits) and substituted the dead lift.

This lot ended up as \’Powerlifting\’, itself now fragmentated into many, many associations and acronyms. Most basic powerlifting record lists compare closely. Such current powerlifts along with Olympic records for all bodyweights can be studied freely at any time by reading the latest Guinness Book of Records at your local library. The well established journal ‘Powerlifting USA’ has covered most top events (including European) and is a mine of information and training advice for those specialists.

While it is always interesting and hopefully inspirational to read of and compare great feats of strength, for example of John Parrella (US pro-footballer) who tosses up unaided 2×225lb dumbbells for sets of 5 reps in dumbbell bench press (source Planet Muscle Vol 4 no 3), of 1000lbs squats and squatters like Clark, Waddington, Hatfields et al, and similar bench presses hitting the 700lbs mark, do not get discouraged and dump your weights for bunji jumping. This brief article is for your \’down to earth\’ average \’tank top\’ who just wishes to know where he is in the muscle power map and what sort of poundages to aim for.

We have tried to include most basic exercises in our estimates based on a lot of practical experience (believe it or not I too trained alone and used to \’rock up\’ unaided 80lb dumbbells for bench presses) and honest analysis. So check out the chart, and wherever you are, just aim to do better. You already know the basic systems of using lower reps and higher sets for building power in most muscle groups. Nor should you, when seeking strength, train too often, twice a week is plenty. Take time to recover, eat well, sleep well and hey presto, power will come.

Thanks to Mick Hart for contributing this article to our Bodybuilding blog:

Bodybuilding Building Glutes

Bodybuilding is getting more and more popular as it is a sport that requires both discipline and physical endurance. People involved in bodybuilding either do it as a way of getting in better mental and physical shape. More serious bodybuilder will aim at participating in bodybuilding competitions and are always striving to get to the top level in their category.

When involved in bodybuilding, a person has to watch her diet to ensure she is getting the proper amount of proteins and nutrients to build her muscle mass. A current misconception is that bodybuilders have to avoid carbohydrates. In fact, they eat them to help release energy in a steady stream rather than in spurts.

Carbohydrates are also known to help the body recuperate from the training regiment. Some bodybuilders choose to eat quick digesting sugars after their workouts. It is believed this process helps recover the glycogen in the muscles.

Diet and nutrition are essential elements in bodybuilding. It is recommended to do extensive research in this area or hire a trainer before getting involved in bodybuilding. Nutrition can play a major role and account for a big part of a successful bodybuilding program.

For people involved in competition bodybuilding, their training will be focused on acquiring an overall balanced, strong and healthy body.

Bodybuilding competitions are now judged by a panel who considers way more than just the size of the candidate’s muscles.

In a competition, the total scores of different factors are combined to determine the overall points. The winner at the end of the competition is the one with the most points. Natural bodybuilding gathers people who trained without any use of external supplements. It is much more intense and difficult that traditional bodybuilding. It requires harder workouts and a stricter diet. There are also stricter qualifying guidelines, but the winners as well as competitors in these competitions know they did all the work themselves without any supplements. Natural bodybuilding is gaining in popularity as there is a trend towards more natural training is all sports.

Teen Bodybuilding

Bodybuilding for men has been a competitive sport since the 1800’s. Women started participating in bodybuilding competitions around the mid 1900’s. In recent years, teenagers have demonstrated a growing interest in bodybuilding.

An added benefit to the physical ones is that teenagers involved in a bodybuilding program learn about discipline and good nutrition. They also acquire a lifestyle that will be beneficial for the rest of their life.



Thanks to Nathalie Fiset for contributing this article to our Bodybuilding blog:

Adjustable Dumbbell