Facts About Bodybuilding

Bodybuilding is the sport of developing muscle fibers through a combination of weight training, increased caloric intake, and rest. Professional bodybuilders display their physiques to a panel of judges, who assign points.

A requirement of any sport that hopes to prosper is that its standards of excellence must be maintained. We at Athletic Scholarships support and encourage natural or, if you prefer, drug-free bodybuilding.

Initially bodybuilding was a male-only pursuit. In the mid-1980s, women started to compete in separate competitions, but as of 2004, women’s bodybuilding has greatly waned in popularity.

Don’t risk your health by using performance-enhancing drugs. It’s stupid and in the long run probably the worst thing you could do to your body.

Rather than focusing on the maximum strength development, bodybuilders aspire to the development and maintenance of an aesthetically pleasant and balanced physique. In bodybuilding, shape and size are far more important than how much a person can lift.

The sport is not to be confused with strongman competition, or powerlifting, where emphasis is on actual physical strength or with Olympic weightlifting where emphasis is equally split between strength and technique.

Although superficially similar to the casual observer, the fields entail a different regimen of training, diet, and basic motivation.

To Achieve Muscle Growth (Hypertrophy), Bodybuilders Focus in Three Areas

  1. Resistance weight training

  2. Good nutrition incorporating extra protein and supplements where necessary

  3. High-quality rest to facilitate growth

Resistance Weight Training

Resistance weight training causes microtears to the muscles being trained; this is generally known as microtrauma. These microtears in the muscle contribute to the soreness felt after exercise, called delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS. It is the repair to these microtrauma that results in muscle growth (anabolism). Normally, this soreness becomes most apparent a day or two after a workout.

Carbohydrates

Having a large proportion of calories come from carbohydrates is for the body to have enough energy to deal with the rigors of training and recovery. Bodybuilders require complex carbohydrates as they release energy more slowly than simple sugars. This is important as simple sugars cause an insulin response which places the body in a state where it is likely to store additional calories as fat rather than muscle. Furthermore, frequent consumption of simple sugars can lead to type 2 diabetes, and the insulin response can waste energy that should be going toward muscle growth. However, bodybuilders do ingest some simple sugars postworkout to replenish glycogen stores within the muscle.

Allen University Sports Recruiting.

Baton Rouge Community College Sports Recruiting.

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Bodybuilders require a very specialized diet. Generally speaking, bodybuilders require anything between 500-and 1,000 calories above their maintenance level of calories while attempting to increase lean body mass.

Steroid Abuse. American College of Sports Medicine.


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