Natural bodybuilding refers to bodybuilding without muscle enhancing drugs or
anabolic substances. In other words natural athletes who choose to build their
body with all-natural have to stick to a regimen of well structured bodybuilding
diet along with some performance enhancing supplements like whey protein,
creatine & l-glutamine. There are however other natural athletes who go all out
ie they don’t even use over the counter products to help them supplement their
daily diets. Their nutrition consists solely on natural foods!
Natural bodybuilding is a very specific sport. There are national bodybuilding
organisations that organize natural bodybuilding contests for men and women. For
more information or if you are interested in entering a natural bodybuilding
show please get yourself a copy of Natural Bodybuilding & Fitness magazine at
your local newsagent. Some of these shows are drug tested and some are not. The
choice on which one you compete is completely yours.
A natural bodybuilder must learn to build his body in the most precise way
possible. Learning as much as possible about natural bodybuilding dieting,
training, supplementation is essential if one is to successfully build a natural
physique of national caliber.
One of the keys to a great natural body is persistence. I don’t care how well
you eat or how hard you train! If you do not have the necessary persistence to
keep it up for months & years you will just be spinning your wheels with no
results to speak of. Building natural muscle mass takes time – sometimes a lot
of time! Always be patient and expect success through your nutrition, contest
diet and training.
Along with persistence you need to set up some specific, clear cut goals for
yourself. If you do not know what your goals are chances are you will not make
significant progress in the gym. Short term goals set up every week are great
for short term progress in the gym. For example you can set a goal of increasing
your bench by 2 lbs in your next week’s incline bench press session! Take these
small goals and add them up over 6 months and they really make a big difference.
Long term goals need to be set up as well. For example – “12 weeks from now my
goal is to have lost 15 lbs or pure body fat and win my upcoming natural
bodybuilding contest”. You need to sonstantly remind yourself of your big goals
in order to not lose track of the reasons you are training and dieting so hard.
Reading your goals every day helps you stay on track, train harder and not cheat
on your diet. Trust me! When you are carb depleted for 3 days and pizza is
calling your name, a reminder of your goals i!
s what puts you back in track.
Nutrition is probably half the battle to getting muscle to grow OR to burn body
fat. A general guideline is to eat 12-13 calories per lb of body weight if you
are trying to get ripped and 17-19 calories per lb if you are trying to gain
muscle. 30% of your calories should come from protein, 50% from natural
carbohydrates and 20% from healthy fats (olive oil, canola oil, flaxseed oil
etc). Try to avoid sugars & processed foods at all costs. Most of all, make sure
you get 1 gram of protein per lean pound of body weight per day no matter what!
Hardcore weight training breaks down muscle fibers and it is absolutely
necessary for our body to be able to recover from these hard workouts with the
use of protein.
As far as working out is concerned, forget all you read in the most popular
bodybuilding magazines in the market. The routines posted in most magazines by
the “pros” will do absolutely nothing for you if you want to grow muscle
naturally. Fact of the matter is, most people who start bodybuilding DO follow
these routines blindly. They do the same thing week after week, expecting
results but nothing ever happens. Sure they gain some strength in the beginning
but plateaus soon hit them. They then decide to buy the next “magic pill or
powder” in the market that will “jump start” their results. The result is a very
rich supplement company and a very frustrated athlete. There is a large amount
of information out there that is totally unsuitable for the majority of people
who want to grow muscle naturally. My point is to educate yourself on how the
body works before you start training haphazardly just because you read an
article in a magazine. Stick to the basic exercises that have!
worked for years for most people and do NOT overtrain. Each muscle needs to be
fully trained only once per week for muscle growth to occur. Ovetraining is the
biggest single mistake most people do and is the reason why people quite
bodybuilding & weight training.
Bottom line? You are either 100% natural or you aren’t! There are no shortcuts
and there are many obstacles. In the end however, you will be satisfied in
knowing that you achieved results that are comparable to those of drug enhanced
athletes, 100% naturally. Trust me, it’s the best feeling in the world and it IS
achievable. All you have to do is set goals, work hard, be consistent and have
patience.
RESOURCE BOX: Kostas Marangopoulos is a certified personal trainer, natural
bodybuilder and owner of one of the best bodybuilsing websites & forums on the
web, BodybuildingApplied.com. To get Kostas’ free monthy bodybuilding diet &
training secrets newsletter, please visit http://www.BodybuildingApplied.com
