Eating after the event
It is a well-known fact that following training your body ability to synthesis protein is enhanced. It is also pretty well known that post training muscle tissue becomes more insulin sensitive and simple carbohydrates are more likely to replenish glycogen than be stored as body fat at this time.
This knowledge is in itself a great thing but it has lead athletes in to the habit of eating after the event and ignoring their nutrient needs at other times. For example, you need carbs well before you train in order to get through the session. You need a high blood pool of aminos DURING training to get the growth process off to the best possible start. These aminos will come from the protein you ate hours before you trained, or in the case of whey at least 90 minutes beforehand.
Ditto for antioxidants. Take your free radical scavenging goodies before you train so they are actually in the blood stream having an effect at the time of greatest oxidative stress (during and immediately after training) instead of having them sit in your stomach digesting while your workout damaged body screams for some help.
This same strategy should be brought to bear all day long. If you are going to be sitting on a chair for the next 3 hours then cut out some carbs and keep the protein high in your meal. If you have a gruelling leg workout coming up then get your complex carbs, a mix of proteins, plenty fluids and antioxidants in before you even set off for the gym. By all means continue to supplement your training with post workout specialist nutrition but do it as part of an overall nutrition strategy based on your upcoming needs.
Self-delusion
Rare is the day when a competitive bodybuilder admits to being well beaten by his competitors. All you ever see on the boards is excuses and bitching about who the judges were, who’s partner organised the show and every other wild conspiracy theory that someone can think of to explain why there under tanned, badly presented and soft as Rowntree’s Jelly physique didn’t win the whole show.
Once again this stems from the subjective way in which bodybuilding is judged, but it could be helped out a lot if judges were forced to take written notes on each physique along with scoring in each round. The competitors could then view these documents after the show and see what was lacking. If every judge at the table writes “Followed the Homer Simpson pre-contest diet” next to your name in the posing round then you know what the problem was, right?
Self-delusion…AGAIN!
Bodybuilders are the best athletes in the world at kidding themselves they are making progress simply because their sport has very little in the way of truly objective criteria for judging performance gains. In order to compensate for this every bodybuilder should have photos taken once or twice a year in the same light, in the same poses. Every bodybuilder should keep track of his / her muscular girths and have his / her body fat tested at least once a year also.
In short if you are gaining lean mass and or losing body fat your muscular girths will increase whilst your waist will remain much the same. If you are not losing fat or gaining muscle then what the heck are you training for? Bodybuilding is a sport of large, lean muscles so if you are not getting bigger and / or leaner you are not succeeding in bodybuilding. Forget all the nonsense about “increasing density” or “quality” or “having enough size”.
Every time I hear this I know immediately that that competitor is at a dead end in his / her training and nutrition and has stopped making gains. How many times have you seen a judging sheet in a bodybuilding contest where a competitor was marked down for carrying too much muscle and being too lean? So what must your objectives be? More muscle? Always. Better condition? Always.
Insanity
Most bodybuilders are actually insane. Albert Einstein defined insanity as “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. This perfectly describes the dogmatic training and eating habits of most bodybuilders. Many times you will see a bodybuilder in the gym who has not changed his / her appearance one bit in several years and yet is perfectly content to continue on with the same training practices, nutrition habits etc.
If you are not making gradual progress in your chosen sport then you need to change something or you will look the same in five years as you do right now. Chances are pretty good that what you need to change is your training, if you’ve been at it long enough to have been stale for years then you had better have a good handle on your nutrition.
And finally… Genetic Predestination
Ever heard someone say they have “crap genetics for bodybuilding” when they don’t even look like they have ever been near a weight? This bothers me greatly. The truth is usually that these guys don’t train sensibly, don’t eat right and don’t pay enough attention to recovery so how can they possibly expect to fulfil whatever potential they may or may not have? These guys them to think that because they are tall / skinny / fat / lanky / whatever NOW that they will always be that way. Not true!
Bodybuilding is a sport in which ones inherent genetic abilities (muscle fibre type and number, hormonal factors etc) play an extremely prominent role but it is important to realise that the immediate appearance of a beginning or intermediate bodybuilder has very little to do with his or her genetic predisposition to the sport. Often the champions are not the “massively built before he even touched a weight” guys. You will never know if you have the genetic potential to be a great bodybuilder if you do not make the best possible use of the means available to you for an extended period of time (5 – 10 years) so get on with it and stop making excuses for the things you can’t change.
Stay strong.
- Mick hart.
Founder of mick hart training systems and
the no bull collection magazine.
- Layman’s Guides to Steroids I and II
http://www.bodybuildingandsteroids.com/laymans-index.htm-
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http://www.bodybuildingandanabolicsteroids.com/
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Good read Mick but most do sit in an office and eat too much and wonder why they get fat, not eating at all is as big a problem too, you have to get this balance right.
Spot on regarding the insanity and the the following is so correct
“If you are going to be sitting on a chair for the next 3 hours then cut out some carbs and keep the protein high in your meal. If you have a gruelling leg workout coming up then get your complex carbs, a mix of proteins, plenty fluids and antioxidants in before you even set off for the gym”.
This is exactly what Lee Haney was all about with his nutritional philosophy, he always said this, he held some good seminars with Fred Hatfield regarding the Zig Zag diet and nutritional timing.
Mick
Another quality article. I am 49 but I am not a body builder never aspired to be one but I have always been passionate about sport. I still train hard As i don’t want to ever become one of those pot bellied guys I see every day in gyms i go to.
I work for multipower who I am sure you have heard of but I know that if guys have a good diet then they would have absolutely no need for our prodcuts, but no one has the time anymore to prepare high protein meals at luch time and in the afternoon, everything has to be quicker look at the microwave .. cookers/ovens did a great job and still do but because we want everthing quicker the micowave came along, and guys are the same they think taking loads of protein and creatine will save them doing all the hard stuff like lifting some iron !! thats why our prodcust sell so well and I have to say long may it continue as it pays my mortgage. I visit hundreds of gyms and all the young lads are always asking me about our products and will it turn me into this and will give me pecs and abs etc etc.
They all want to look like the cutlers and colemans of this world but arn’t prepared to put the hard work in and then they ask me about steroids again to save the hard work, steroids=big muscles is the mindset which is worrying. I always give them your web site to have a look at so they can get some sensible unbiased advice and I do hope they take the trouble to look at it .
Mick, how do you see bodybuilding developing over the next few years ? the reason I ask is I have spoken to a number of gyms owners who are older bbers in their mid 50′s who compete still in a lot of cases and they are of the opinion that the sport needs to get back to ‘the old days’ when you didn’t have to be 250lb plus and have to rely on steroids to compete. The say that back 20 / 30 years ago shape and definition and skin tone and generally looking healthy and worked fucking hard was what won titles and unless the sport gets back to that they see it struggling. I think it is a crime that Body Building is still perceved by the masses as a bit of a freak show where the only reason the guys are big is because they take steroids no other reason, they never consider or realise that the guys have to have a 6 day week training regime which they have had to fit in around work etc. Perhaps there needs to be a cap on how big guys can be and maybe as you say in your atricle definate guidlines for judges…I am going on like I know what I am talking about …what the fuck do I know !!.
I am totally open minded about it but i do think that the vast majority of young guys do crave a good set of abs and pecs and decent shoulders but do not want to go that extra bit to look at competeing and I have to question why is that ? I know a lot of guys who compete and how hard they train and getting ready for a show and cutting must be the hardest thing in the world and to me that just isn’t a natural thing for the body to do but I totally respect the guys dedication to achieve the desired look.
Anyway I have rambled enough !! I only intended to say another quality article !!
Keep up the cracking work
Stay safe
Richard
well i think with all the different products &supplements out thier and training programs the wooorld of compective bodybuilding up to the pro ranks has taken of to a different level of training &compection.–how massive, when &what to take to include steroids.—to be a mr olimpia for the sandow award.——to be the best 7 times-or8or 9or 10-ect ect,,,,,,,,,,,—to do what ever it takes to always climb higher.i don’t think anybody can answer why.
great info i cant recommend micks advice enough,i personally can vouch for this sound advice i started taking steriods 8 weeks before buying laymans guide 3 ,i may as well have done nothing for all the progress i made.micks sound advice on all areas has steered me onto fantastic progress,micks advice is the reason all my training has a positive effect without it i would still be thrashin myself with little effect ,not to mention the financal waste too.thanks mick i already know more than most at the gym with that comes the confidence to train like a pro.
again a good view into the approach of a man who has trained so many so well ,i sometimes think all the supplements really confuse the novice bodybuilder ,they get the beliefs that they have to take all these supplements that are on the market relise they cant afford it and we lose another warrior,bodybuilding is a love hate sport ,you love it and put yourself through the extremes ,or you give up ,as for steriods i think a true champion would be honest about what he takes ,
thanks for your time and trouble .
This is why you get readers. You give great advise, well writen, based on years of experience and you tell it like it is. Anyone from beginner to elite can learn from your insight. Thanks
Hi Mike,
Thanks again for those powerful words!
guy
Mick, I just graduated from UT Austin “hook em horns” in Kinesiology. Iv been training for years a plan on becoming a pysical therapist some day. However im looking for a good online source for some steriods with fast reliable turnarounds at a good price. Steriod-Encyclopedia seems like a good start but it cost 35 Euros or $53 which seems a little high. I was hoping you might have heard something through the grapevine?
Phillip